Inspiring cookbooks have played a big part in the rise of Australian cuisine. Nina Karnikowski asks some of our best-known foodies to nominate the 10 most influential.
Our Judges:
1. Anna Gare, Junior MasterChef Australia host;
2. Marion Grasby, MasterChef Finalist;
3. Julie Gibbs, Publishing director of Lantern cookbooks;
4. Jill Dupleix, Author, cook and recipe tester;
5. Karen Martini, Sunday Life food editor; and
6. Christine Manfield, Chef and author.
1. The Margaret Fulton Cookbook
Anna Gare, Junior MasterChef Australia host
If I had to pick a queen of Australian cuisine, Margaret would be it. She was one of the architects of the revolution in Australian eating and cooking, and changed the way Australians thought about food. She was exploring food all around the world and bringing it to the Australian table, so we were learning about things like eggplant and asparagus, which were completely foreign at the time.
My mother was a meat-and-three-veg cook but, like many women in the '70s, if she were going to do anything special it would be out of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. It was probably the only cookbook we had and I just loved it.
I remember looking through the glossy, coloured pictures of exotic dishes and going, "Oh my gosh, what's that?" to weird things like steak tartare.
Margaret's cookbook is absolutely still relevant and I think everyone should have it in their kitchen today. It's a fantastic introduction to lots of amazing food from different countries done so beautifully and with a nice, simple approach that people can relate to. For that reason, I think it's also a book people should buy for kids who are just starting to cook.
2. The Cook's Companion, Stephanie Alexander
Marion Grasby, MasterChef finalist
Stephanie Alexander is like Margaret Fulton in the sense that she's a woman we've all grown up with and trust to advise us on what to do in the kitchen. When you're in that position where you're not really sure what to do, The Cook's Companion is so helpful because you know you can trust Stephanie's recipes.
I love the encyclopedia format of this book - you can look up any ingredient and it will tell you a bit of a story about that ingredient and tell what you can do with it. So it really is like a companion. I think a lot of really trendy, modern cookbooks often assume a bit of knowledge on the part of the cook, saying things like "prepare your zucchini" when you don't actually know how to prepare a zucchini! So if you're not sure about an instruction or an ingredient in one of those types of books, you can go to The Cook's Companion for help. Stephanie explains everything in a way that isn't condescending - she just says, "This is what a leek is, and this is how you cook it."
There's a great sponge cake recipe in here that I use for all sorts of other things, like trifles or fried ice-creams. And that's the other amazing thing about Stephanie's book; it includes great basic recipes that you can combine with any other recipes you've got at home.
The full list and comments at Sydney Morning Herald.
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