Sunshine Coast woman turns bush tucker into new business venture

A Sunshine Coast woman is taking her love of native ingredients on the road to launch a new business highlighting bush tucker.

Tanika Orr has started up new Sunshine Coast catering business Nooks & Cooks, offering a bush tucker inspired menu.

A Sunshine Coast woman is taking her love of native ingredients on the road to launch a new business highlighting bush tucker.

Red kangaroo bush curry and saltbush and mountain pepper prawns are just some of the meals on offer at Nooks & Cooks.

The food truck business is the brainchild of Tanika Orr, an Indigenous chef who is hoping to inspire others to give native ingredients a go.

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Ms Orr started Nooks & Cooks just three months ago but already bookings are filling up.

The 29-year-old cooks with native berries, fruits, herbs and spices from Indigenous women in the Northern Territory and the rest is wild foraged by Ms Orr on the Coast.

"I'm bringing our Indigenous culture out there through food," she said.

"Also (it's) just letting people know of this amazing produce that we have that grows here."

Nooks & Cooks is a new Sunshine Coast catering business offering a bush tucker inspired menu.

Before driving into the food truck business Ms Orr had been working as a chef in the region for six years in Asian cuisine.

"It's (been) absolutely just heart fulfilling," Ms Orr said.

"I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to grow up around my culture and so it's just been a way for me to reconnect with my culture as well.

"And reconnect with my family back in the territory and being able to share that with people is amazing."

Ms Orr said it had been quite a journey to get to this point.

"We've been working on the van for a few years now and to actually get that courage to take it out," she said.

"When we started it was really touch and go and a bit quiet especially at the markets.

"But all of the customers have had really nice things to say about the food and it's just taken off now."

Tanika Orr has started up new Sunshine Coast catering business, Nooks & Cooks offering a bush tukka inspired menu.

While Nooks & Cooks has been focusing on markets around the region, Ms Orr is looking to expand in the future.

"At the moment we're just coming on board with the smaller music events," she said.

"We'd love to get into catering for weddings.

"Even school talks would be really good down the track just to get the knowledge out there to the younger generation."

For more information or to book Nooks & Cooks you can visit Ms Orr's Facebook page here.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast woman turns bush tucker into new business venture