Forget Vegemite: This is Australia’s one gift to the world of food

2 hours ago 1

Ben Groundwater

September 17, 2025 — 5:00am

People overseas are always shocked when they find out AC/DC are Australian. The Back in Black guys? From Sydney?

This happens whenever I’m travelling and talking to foreigners about music, or about Australian culture, and our touchstones that are famous around the world. There aren’t many bands or artists who have made it worldwide: INXS maybe, Kylie Minogue in some countries, Midnight Oil, Tame Impala, Nick Cave.

And sure, AC/DC was formed by two Scottish migrants and eventually fronted by a Geordie, but they were and even still are Australian to the core. And people around the world, from Brazil to Burkina Faso, Russia to Rwanda, have heard of them and love them. They just have no idea they’re Australian.

A similar conversation takes place when the subject turns to food. People always ask: what are the Australian foods we would have heard of? What do we eat here that’s Australian?

There’s almost nothing that we have come up with that the rest of the world enjoys. Lamingtons? No. Meat pies? Not even our invention. Vegemite? Everyone else hates it.

But then there’s the AC/DC moment: smashed avo and a flat white. That’s Australian, people ask? Are you sure?

Australia’s gift to the culinary world - smashed avo on toast.

Because so many people around the world have now heard of smashed avocado and a flat white. I’m convinced this is our key culinary contribution to the world, this is the combination you can find existing organically in other countries, being served in establishments that don’t even have an antipodean theme.

You can eat this in San Sebastian, in the north of Spain. That was a huge shock to me when I moved to the city six or seven years ago.

I went there expecting to find a gastronomic monoculture, to experience cuisine untouched by any other, and for the most part I did. The Basques are incredibly proud of their food and their identity. If you go to Basque Country, you eat Basque cuisine.

And yet there just by the river in San Sebastian was Sakona, an independent coffee roaster and cafe. You could stop by Sakona for a very good flat white, and if you wanted, you could pair it with smashed avo on toast, topped (or not) with a poached egg.

I was stunned. I chatted to the owners – what’s the deal here? What’s the connection to my homeland? They told me, we learned to make coffee in Dublin.

OK.

From a couple of Australian guys.

Ah-ha!

Of course, Australians didn’t come up with the idea of slicing avocado and placing it on bread. That combination has been around for centuries, particularly in avocado-loving Mexico and Central America. It’s a dish that was served in American cafes in the ’70s.

The late Bill Granger is credited with popularising smash avo.

But still, it’s fair to say that it was popularised in its current form by Bill Granger, the late Sydney chef who sold the world the idea of healthy, surfy Aussie brunches.

Granger was the first to put the “smash” into the avo, at Bills all the way back in 1993. His style and his ideas spread around the world, most notably to the UK and the US, where brunch culture kicked off in earnest, and avocado, mashed up with a little lime juice and spread on thick sourdough toast, maybe topped with sea salt and olive oil, or dukka or a poached egg, was on every menu. And still is.

I get a silly pang of national pride every time I see smashed avo pop up at a cafe or restaurant in some far-flung corner of the globe. People don’t even know it’s Australian, and that’s OK. We have a contribution to the world of food. We’ve done a thing.

It takes a great chef, after all, to influence the world. Everyone is cooking with fire now because of Victor Arguinzoniz from Asador Etxebarri. Top chefs are using molecular science and extra-sensory trickery because of Heston Blumenthal. And everyone is smashing avo into toast (still) because of Bill Granger.

I’ve seen smashed avo served in Thailand, in Argentina, in South Africa, in Ireland, in Italy and in Spain. Places where the dish makes no sense, where there’s already a great, established local food culture.

And flat whites! Flat whites are taking over the world. You can order one at Starbucks in the US, or in any other country. You can find flat whites at local, independent cafes in Japan, in Vietnam, in Romania, in Colombia, to name a random few.

This probably seems a weird thing to get excited about if you’re, say, Italian, or Mexican, or Japanese. Those cultures have given the culinary world so much. It’s really no shock to walk around a foreign country and find pizza or tacos or sushi.

For an Australian, however, it’s different. We haven’t contributed much on a global scale. But we gave the world Back in Black, we gave the world the flat white, and we even came up with that trendy brunch they’ve started serving at the cafe on your street.

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Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.