Step into the vibrant life of North and Far North Queensland with the second season of Taste of the Tropics. The series showcases three episodes created by three teams of emerging regional storytellers, capturing the flavour of a region where food is a conduit for connection, identity and belonging. In the new season, take a delicious journey to meet cooks, producers and local stars, travelling to destinations including Cape York, Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and more.
Here's everything you need to know about the new season, including where to watch, what recipes the hosts and guests cook up and more.
Where can I watch Taste of the Tropics?
Who are the hosts of Taste of the Tropics?
What recipes are shared in Taste of the Tropics?
Taste of the Tropics Episode Summary
What is Taste of The Tropics?
This engaging anthology series sees local presenters meet with passionate farmers, innovative chefs and local providores from North and Far North Queensland. The new, three-episode season follows season one, which debuted in 2024 with three episodes – Troppo Kitchen, Iconic FNQ and Family & Friends (all streaming at SBS On Demand).
Where can I watch Taste of the Tropics?
The new season of Taste of the Tropics premieres on Thursday 30 April. The episodes will air weekly on Thursday nights on SBS Food, with all three episodes also streaming at SBS On Demand from 30 April.
Season one is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Who are the hosts of Taste of the Tropics?
In episode 1, Share Plates, Yidinji comedian and actress Steph Tisdell returns to the Far North to explore belonging through food, sharing plates with Indonesian, Kuku Yalanji–Maltese, and Sicilian families. Tisdell also recently took us viewers on several great adventures as one of the hosts of Great Australian Road Trips (see the series at SBS On Demand).
Cairns restaurateur Oliver James hosts episode 2, Foodie Friends. “My love of food began when I was a kid, helping out in my dad's paddock to plate restaurant. But it wasn't until I opened my first cafe that I realised what food could really do. How it could bring people together, spark connection, and build something real beyond the plate. Over the years, the people I cooked for became friends. And those friendships opened doors to stories, cultures, and ingredients I'd never find on my own,” he says. His businesses include Guyala Café and Tattooed Sailor Coffee Roasters.
In episode 3, Tropical innovators, scientist Sharon Cavanagh-Luskin travels across Far North Queensland meeting visionary food innovators. A Kuuku Ya'u, Irukandji and Wonnarua woman, Cavanagh-Luskin has extensive experience as a public health scientist, educator and community organiser.
What recipes are shared in Taste of the Tropics?
The new season features recipes that embrace fresh local ingredients and treasured traditions, from a family ravioli recipe that comes from a Sicilian tradition carried to Far North Queensland by generations of Italian migrants to smoked papaya toasts and green banana flour savoury doughnuts.
Find links to each episode’s recipes in the Episode Summary below.
Taste of the Tropics Episode Summary
Episode 1: Share Plates
In this heartfelt and humorous episode of Taste of the Tropics, Steph Tisdell heads back to her roots in Far North Queensland to explore what belonging really means. From a hidden Indonesian café serving a nasi goreng rich with childhood memory, to a beachside cook-up where pipi aljotta blends Kuku Yalanji and Maltese traditions, and finally to a Sicilian cane-farming family honouring their grandfather through handmade ravioli, Steph discovers how food carries culture across oceans and generations.
Each shared plate becomes a story of migration, resilience, identity and connection, revealing that in the tropics, belonging isn’t something to find, but something already woven into the people and the place.
Episode 2: Foodie Friends
Oliver James sets out to reconnect with the people who helped shape his restaurant journey, leaving the kitchen to step into their world, to walk their land, hear their stories, and cook dishes with his own tropical spin. First, he heads to The Great Barrier Reef with his good friend and world-class freediver Ant Judge. Together they dive the reef, harvest a painted crayfish and cook it barefoot on a remote beach, poached in an aromatic coconut broth with ginger, chilli and kaffir lime.
Next, he heads up to the misty Tablelands to Skybury Farm with his long-time café regular Candy MacLaughlin. Walking through towering papaya and coffee trees, we hear how her family turned a farming challenge into something truly remarkable, inspiring Oliver to great a smoked papaya recipe. Finally, he flies deep into Cape York to reunite with Vince Harrigan and his brothers on Balnggarrawarra Country at Normanby Station, where he learns how removing feral cattle from 30,000 hectares of ancient sandstone escarpments is both healing the land and producing a clean, lean, wild organic beef unlike anything else in Australia.
Episode 3: Tropical Innovators
Tropical Innovators follows Sharon Cavanagh-Luskin as she journeys across Far North Queensland to uncover the region's most groundbreaking food innovators. Embracing the theme of innovation, Sharon's narration is delivered using an AI-cloned recreation of her voice.
In the Atherton Tablelands she meets second-generation banana farmer Rob Watkins, whose patented 'Nutrolock' technology is turning 500 metric tonnes of weekly banana waste into green banana flour sold around the world. At Mission Beach's Elandra Resort, boundary-pushing chef Lincoln Petith transforms Rob's flour into a show-stopping tropical green banana crab donut with Rosella and Davidson plum sauce. Back in Cairns, tech entrepreneur Nicky Jurd – co-founder of home dining platform, ‘Gathar’ – forages cacao from city streets and cooks a stunning Mexican-inspired plantain emolada with mole in Sharon's own kitchen.
Finally, Sharon reunites with her friend Dr Samarra Toby, a Gangulu medical doctor and space medicine scientist, who picks lemon myrtle from Sharon's backyard garden to cook a nutritionally dense Gangulu kangaroo stew with Bobby bread damper - a dish she believes holds the key to feeding astronauts in space.
Together, these stories paint a vivid portrait of a region where ancient knowledge, creative ambition and scientific innovation are quietly reshaping the future of food.
RECIPES COMING SOON
SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
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