Europe astounded Waji. He ate both the best and the worst food he had ever tasted. The best coffee, the best bread, the most delicately spiced vegetables, but also the most terrible Asian dishes. He returned to Australia and chefing and it was not until he was nearly thirty that he returned to his roots in Asia to taste the genuine article.

In Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, and Hong Kong he found new flavours that spoke to him at another level.

Finally, Waji went home to his village in Bangladesh. It was not how he remembered it. His romanticised childhood memory was confronted by a smaller, drier landscape but he discovered also the rustic charm of village life. It would be surprising if this Asian heritage did not strongly influence Waji. Be surprised.

Waji did not train in any traditional cuisine nor did his travels somehow lead to a rediscovery of his roots, and it was not recipes or traditions that inspired him. Waji is Australian, his main lessons he taught himself, and his teaching method was quite unusual.

Very early in his apprenticeship Waji decided to eat everything – every single ingredient pure and alone.

He would go into a delicatessen and, starting at one end, search the shelves for pure ingredients: sturgeon, truffles, an oil or a new vinegar, and he would take them home and eat them, alone, one by one, mouthful by mouthful, pure and raw. He ate every fruit, every vegetable, every spice; he ate mouthfuls of pure cinnamon, he chewed an entire star anise.

Soon, he was making his own curry pastes, chutneys and other accompaniments. It was what his mouth told him to do, together with fortuitous gifts or purchases of raw ingredients.

Tasmanian thinking was a strong influence. The thinking on that small and remote island tends to favour things local, small-scale, pure and organic: no artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives. As his range grew and moved beyond commercial chefs towards home cooks, the bottles became smaller but Waji production remains homemade in style, small in scale, dominated by fresh ingredients, and being ready to use now.

New customers have allowed Waji to develop more sophisticated products.

A Waji product is always the fusion of three or four taste-textures into one, a combination of ingredients, and Waji suggests you use his creations like single ingredients. They may be subtle and complex but they are ready to go.

Waji does the slow and the gentle, the reduction and the concentration; you do the quick and easy, the last addition.Just a dash, a few drops, a teaspoonful, three or four dip-bowls at the barbecue – that kind of thing.

Waji’s products are not authentic copies of exotic specialties. They are unique to Australia but the are everyday products.

They are ‘Austrasian’.