27 September,2026 10:00 AM IST | Mumbai | Nasrin Modak Siddiqi
Banana and macadamia tebirkes
The Indian pantry has always been more cosmopolitan than we give it credit for. Nuts are a good example of this. Almonds, cashews, and pistachios found their way into royal kitchens, festive foods and then everyday cooking.
Macadamia, a premium variety, known for its rich flavour and creamy texture, is still very much the newcomer: imported, relatively expensive and more likely to appear as an occasional indulgence than an everyday pantry staple. This could change if it is found in flavoured, snacking options and if chefs can find innovative ways to incorporate it into menus.
In its fourth edition, the Australian Macadamia Festival has returned to Mumbai with some interesting additions. Till October 6, participating venues will explore Australian Macadamias in everything from appetisers and sandwiches to cakes, pies, ice creams and beverages. At Hakkasan, they feature in dim sum and seafood, while TwentySeven BakeHouse uses them in cookies and pies. La Panthera brings them into Mediterranean-inspired dishes, while Mag St. Bread Co. explores tarts, cakes and viennoiserie. At SAZ American Brasserie, they move across croquettes, mains and desserts, from savoury to sweet. Indu Ice Cream serves Brown Butter Australian Macadamia with fudgy brownie bits, while Igloo Craft Beers creates a special Australian Macadamia beer. At Torii by Gauri Khan, the Five Expressions of Macadamia Nuts menu spans scallop tiradito, vegetable dumplings, a robata grill platter, ginger and lotus seabass and macadamia mille-feuille.
"There is a very diverse and sophisticated food culture in India," says Ben Baldwin, CEO of the Australian Macadamia Society. "What makes Mumbai such a compelling food city is its openness to new ingredients and ideas, combined with a deep appreciation for quality and creativity. We work with chefs, food producers and researchers to understand what people actually want to do with the nut, to co-design applications. That has led to unexpected combinations. and enormous possibilities. We are looking at everything from global dishes and baking to traditional Indian recipes. Butter chicken with macadamia, for instance, is a fascinating example. It is not just about replacing one nut with another. Taste, texture and mouthfeel all come into play to give a dish that feels entirely its own," he adds.
The bigger question is whether a nut still perceived as premium can move beyond restaurants and speciality retail and become part of everyday consumption. That is where the Indian market becomes a more demanding testing ground. Provenance may help.
Macadamias are native to Australia, where they evolved in subtropical rainforest environments. Today, the industry spans more than 15 million trees and 47,659 hectares, and the 2026 crop forecast has been revised to 56,888 tonnes in-shell at 3.5 per cent moisture. "Provenance is becoming increasingly important. We are seeing younger generations actively looking for native ingredients and wanting to understand where their food comes from," says Baldwin.
India's gifting industry could offer another boost. With an already strong culture of gifting nuts during the festive season, a shift away from the familiar boxes of almonds and cashews to a premium nut such as macadamia is an opportunity to tell a more interesting story. The industry is also betting on quality as a differentiator. "Some varieties have been bred primarily around supply-chain requirements, such as durability and the ability to travel globally. Our breeding programmes take a different approach. We look closely at the consumer experience: flavour, texture and the overall eating quality," he adds.
Around 70 to 80 per cent of Australian macadamias are exported globally. "We don't send one quality overseas and keep another for Australia. The product available in India is the same quality that consumers would experience in Australia," explains Baldwin.
On September 28, the Australian Macadamia Society will bring chefs, R&D professionals and FMCG purchasing heads together to discuss the nut's commercial potential in India. It's a given that macadamia will need to carve out its own space and the Festival is a test of whether it can. The culinary possibilities are already evident. The harder task is making an Australian native nut relevant to an Indian market that already has plenty of reasons to reach for another one.
Long before macadamia became a premium nut on menus around the world, it was a bush food of eastern Australia. The indigenous communities in Queensland and northern New South Wales gathered and ate the nuts for generation. It was also called bauple nut after Mount Bauple, one of its native habitats. In 1857, the tree was named Macadamia after Scotish-Australian scientist, John Macadam. There are four native species in Australia and is now grown along the country's subtropical eastern coast but the nut has travelled far beyond its rainforest home to Kenya and Hawai, where it is commercially grown.
. âWalnut: The Indian walnut, juglans regia, is native to the Himalayan region (Kashmir and adjoining areas).
. âAlmond: Although Kashmir has cultivated it for centuries; it is not indigenous to India but came in through trade routes from Central and Southwest Asia where it is a native nut.
. âPistachio: Not indigenous to India, this nut travelled from Central and Western Asia through trade routes.
. âCashew: Not indigenous to India; the Portuguese brought it to India in the 16th century to the coasts and has since remained integral to the local cuisine here
as well.
. âHazelnuts: Fruit of the hazel tree, it comes mostly from Turkey which handles 70 per cent of the world's demand and Italy.
