There are incredible restaurants in Australia for sure, but there isn’t really a national cuisine identity overall, distinct from the Anglosphere in general. Of course there are some distinctly Australian foods, but the largest category is basically “European dish with some native/local ingredient” - which can be extremely delicious but isn’t really that different from e.g. NZ, or even North America, and basically all comes from French and English restaurant culture. Aboriginal food culture isn’t really celebrated at all (beyond what I mentioned above) and even the immigrant food cultures which are more beloved (e.g. Greek and Italian) haven’t really fused into the mainstream, but are still largely relegated to the “cheap takeaways” category. So idk. On the one hand, you’re totally right that you can get awesome food, but I think the criticism stems from a valid place even if the people who parrot it don’t really know what they’re talking about.
There are incredible restaurants in Australia for sure, but there isn’t really a national cuisine identity overall, distinct from the Anglosphere in general. Of course there are some distinctly Australian foods, but the largest category is basically “European dish with some native/local ingredient” - which can be extremely delicious but isn’t really that different from e.g. NZ, or even North America, and basically all comes from French and English restaurant culture. Aboriginal food culture isn’t really celebrated at all (beyond what I mentioned above) and even the immigrant food cultures which are more beloved (e.g. Greek and Italian) haven’t really fused into the mainstream, but are still largely relegated to the “cheap takeaways” category. So idk. On the one hand, you’re totally right that you can get awesome food, but I think the criticism stems from a valid place even if the people who parrot it don’t really know what they’re talking about.