I remember hearing an interview you did on the ABC once in which you mentioned how special and exciting it was, growing up in the Soviet Union, to receive a single mandarin during New Year’s celebrations. Have those early experiences affected the way you think about produce here in Australia?

An orange or mandarin is something we take for granted in Australia, but for me it represents a huge amount of joy and even a sense of achievement when I remember how I managed to get a bag of oranges after staying in a queue for many hours in Russia.

I appreciate and want to be aware of how each ingredient gets to my table. I love stories behind produce, I find that food tastes better if it has an ethical story behind it.

Elena Kats-CherninElena Kats-Chernin. Photo © Bruria Hammer

In your set at the Night Market you’re performing a piece commissioned by Kylie Kwong in 2006, Road to Harvest. How did the commission come about?

Kylie Kwong and I met in 2004 through mutual great friends Meryl Tankard and Regis Lansac. We just connected immediately and then became great friends from then on; we...