bunyip's Profile

From: Melbourne, VIC Australia

Joined: December 27th, 2009

About me: I've been cooking for over thirty years, and I can remember the days before EVO, couscous and (ghasp!) microwaves. My cookbook collection reflects this personal and national gastronomic history. My own cooking has actually got simpler over the years, and I can do much of my repertoire without looking at a recipe. But I still love collecting cookbooks, although these days I'm a bit over food porn with great big colour photos - I really prefer food writing to recipes.

Favorite cookbook: The Cook's Companion

Salmon with macaroni from A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries III

Simple but delicious. Poaching the fish in 600 ml of cream (that's two bottles), which is then poured over the fish and pasta, sounds richer than it is. This is partly due to the dill in the crumb topping. I... read more >

recipe reviews (225)
book reviews (106)
useful review votes (103)

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Cookbook Reviews

RECIPES MY MOTHER GAVE ME: Stephanie Alexander presents 'Through my Kitchen Door', the first published cookbook of her mother, Mary Burchett

By Stephanie Allexander
Viking - 1997

One of the greatest disappointments of my life was the realisation that my dear Mum, some time in the early stages of the dementia that eventually finished her off, had destroyed the black exercise book full of recipes that was kept in the kitchen drawer with the clean tea towels. Well, it didn't work any more, did it?

I make do with this. As a cook Mary Burchett was quite adventurous for her time, more adventurous than my Mum, but the evocation of Australian family life in the middle of the twentieth century that comes from reading her recipes and Stephanie's comments is heartwarming.