Aunty Rayleen said she had recently become involved in a Northern Territory Tourism package where she showcased First Nations foods to people completing the 223km-long Larapinta Trail - an increasingly popular trek through Central Australia.
"I meet guests and just talk to them about what’s out there in the bush and that they’re surrounded by edible foods that they wouldn’t think because they’re in the desert," she said.
"There’s a big resurgence of interest in how and why this food is and was so good for us so it’s an interesting way to introduce visitors to us and our location.
Food is a great way of introducing country to people.Aunty Rayleen
She said people were really keen to try the food.
"I don’t actually serve up witchetty grubs and honey ants but I have in the past - (these days) it’s mainly an infusion of flavours into a tasting platter and people have so many questions so we really enjoy delivering that to our visitors to town."
Harvesting the prized karkara 'bush tomato'
Aunty Rayleen said she enjoyed joining women on country for the annual harvest of wattle seeds and a little bush tomato called 'karkara'.
"It’s a little favourite of the industry because lots of people want to buy it and make chutneys and relishes so it ends up in factories all over Australia but I keep a bit here to make chutneys and jams and also let people just try them as they are just off the bush," she said.
It’s so good to be a part of the wild harvest which has a low impact on the environment, creating activities on country, enriching culture and doing a lot of things that are really positive for our people.Aunty Rayleen
Catering business begins after 300-meal event
Aunty Rayleen said her catering business had started after she had been asked to cook 300 meals from a small kitchen for an event.
"We hardly saw the light of day because we were living in that kitchen. After that, we thought if we can do that, we can get out there and start a business and it really started as a catering service of us travelling to Indigenous groups that were having meetings or festivals," she said.
"It wasn’t until a few years after that that we set up a commercial kitchen in Alice Springs, and from there, our business grew and we were cooking for lots of government events and functions and opened up a café while training a lot of our young people, giving them an opportunity to learn about hospitality, (and) going into schools during NAIDOC Week."
We were running a business but at the same time giving back to our local community as well so we certainly proved that we could cook, that’s for sure.Aunty Rayleen
Guest judge on 2022 MasterChef
Aunty Rayleen said she had been delighted to have been a guest judge on a 2022 episode of 'MasterChef'.
"We set up a big kitchen in one of our dry river beds here and it was on national television and it was a great way to showcase Alice Springs. It was a hard day for the contestants, having to run in the sand, but it was fun," she said.
She said she closed her catering business during the pandemic and had decided not to re-open it because she said: “I’m getting older now and I have 10 grandchildren so I thought tourism would be a great avenue to get involved in to share these beautiful flavours from our region.”
