| Summary |
Presenting the history of Australia gastronomically, this work challenges myths such as that Australia is 'too young' for a national cuisine, and that immigration caused the restaurant boom. It shows us that Australia is unique because its citizens have not developed a true contact with the land, have not had a peasant society.
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| Full contents |
- Machine derived contents note: Part i HISTORY WITHOUT PEASANTS. 11
- The sailing-ship era (from the 1780s to the 1860s)
- 1 The English heritage 13
- The rations of an ocean-going empire-salt meat, flour, sugar
- and tea-influenced our assumptions about food. Meals had
- to be convenient and transportable, and were rarely fresh
- The taste for homrne 24
- 2 Meat three tirnes a day 8s
- Wit.h the success of grazing, bush workers ate meat, damper
- and billy tea at every meal. The small 'Dungaree'settlers on the
- Machine derived contents note: Part i HISTORY WITHOUT PEASANTS. 11
- The sailing-ship era (from the 1780s to the 1860s)
- 1 The English heritage 13
- The rations of an ocean-going empire-salt meat, flour, sugar
- and tea-influenced our assumptions about food. Meals had
- to be convenient and transportable, and were rarely fresh
- The taste for homrne 24
- 2 Meat three tirnes a day 8s
- Wit.h the success of grazing, bush workers ate meat, damper
- and billy tea at every meal. The small 'Dungaree'settlers on the
- lHawkesbury, attempting the peasant alternative, were harassed
- and ridiculed, .
- Eating and drinking in 1839 42
- 3 The Aristologist 46
- Australia's first cookery book, published in 1864, showed
- the wonderful variety offoods possible, but emphasised the
- isolation of the gourmet.
- The next cookery books 57
- Part u FEEDING THE CITY 61
- The ag of the railways (from the i85os to the 1930s)
- How we entertained a prinfce 63
- 4 Mietropolitan paradise 67
- After toasting the gold rush in champagne, our expanding
- cities adopted ine ntions Such as stoves and ice- chests, and
- revelleCi n the worid's cheapest llving.
- The city markets 78
- 5 The Chinese exception 83
- The gold-rush Chinese stayed on as markniet gardeners, an early
- immigrant group destined to grow and serve the fresh fruit and
- vegetables th at i. actos could not ofer
- The te and scones of Quong Tart 93
- 6 The tyranny of transport 97
- Some Australian arms miight have been the havens of childdren's
- storybooks, but most were producers of durable foods to be
- rushed by train to the cities and the world.
- Granny Snmih o110
- 7 The first food factories 113
- The packaging and adve tisingofprocessedfoods- epitomised
- by the refined white flour of giant roller -mils- created
- household names such as Arnott 's, Rosellay and Foster n.
- Mr MacRobert son 22
- 8 Bohemian restaurants 127
- Rapid innovation in fo od processing in the late nineteenth
- century also brought interesting times for the gourmet. Some
- restaurants woold stand up well against todav's best.
- Let's o to Faso i's 138
- 9 Family goodness 142
- The austerities of the Great War killed off restaurant society,
- leaving the workers of tomorrow to be sustained byftdsfor
- orange juice, milk, cornflakes and processed cheese.
- Vegemite 151
- to Dainty cooks and sudden drinkers 155
- Between the world wars, men took rations to work and drank
- quickly till six o'clock closing, while women were encouraged to
- crivilise society with sweet fantasies.
- The pavlova 169
- Part iiii FRESH FROM THE FREEZER 177
- The automobile ascendancy (from the 1940s to the 1970s)
- Sliced white 179
- 11 The first munition 187
- With the Second World War, American agricultural and
- processing experts arrived to show us how to mass produce more
- varied but still portable rations.
- Coca-colonisation 200
- 12 Car park shopping 205
- Obsessed with cheapness, and discovering a new love of
- cars and refrigerators, Australians embraced the nationally
- distributed and standardised foods ofthe supermarket.
- Golden Circle pineapple 217
- 13 The industrial kitchen 225
- Identifying gaps on the supermarket shelves, large food
- corporations shaped, coloured, flavoured and marketed
- food tof it.
- Frozen food 240
- Part iv THE COMING OF THE QUICHE 249
- How far we thought we'd come (from the 1970s to the 1980s)
- The great wine dinner 251
- 14 Oh, for a French wife! 25s
- Explanations fir ue gourmet boom that began in the 15960s
- have included immigration, increased overseas travel and
- bulging household budgets-but the most credible explanation
- is thefood industiy's shake- up of cooking.
- Chefs to the court of Whitlam 272
- 15 Hard tomatoes for hard times 283
- The sacrifice offamily farms to agribusiness left us with
- hard tomatoes, pale eggs and stale apples cosmetically coated
- with wax.
- A fresh start 294
- 16 The art of eating in Australia 298
- Not left to establish agrarian roots Australians have suffered
- the world's worst cuisine. The hope is a consumer revolt
- towards fresh, local produce.
- Part v THE WIDENING GAP in 309
- Another quarter-century of industrial picnic
- (from the 1980s to the 20oo00)
- Return ofthejersey cows 311
- 17 Free the market! 315
- Eatinggot much better over the quarter-century, and much
- worse. Markets were assailed by 'marketing.
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