Forkful Issue 2: Melbourne Food Stories
‘to always be like this — a kitchen wrecked with love, a table overflowing with baked goods warming the already warm air.’
– From ‘Baked Goods’ by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
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Now that I have children of my own, I find myself doing something I never imagined. Like my mum and my grandma before me, I’ve started to show my love through the kitchen. Homemade scones piled high with fresh cream for a Sunday morning brunch with friends, fairy bread for my daughter’s sixth birthday shenanigans, big pots of soup to cure winter colds.
Although I love a night out with fine food and even finer wine, it’s the messy tables, the imperfect dishes, the laughter, spilt drinks and shared desserts—spoonful by spoonful—that become a part of the stories that we’ll tell again and again.
The meals we share are the ones that we remember.
And so, for our second issue of Forkful, we’ve dug a little deeper into the ways that food shape our interactions with the world and with each other. A city of literature renowned for its dining, Melbourne is overflowing with food stories. All we had to do was scoop them up.
The words that you’ll find between these pages fall into that space where food is folded into the fabric of our lives. The tastes of home in the wood- lined confines of the Swiss Club high above the bustle below, sweetness baked into memories of a grandmother’s love of cooking for her family, the echoes of history in the social ritual of a Japanese tea ceremony, the nostalgia of a child’s love of lollies, the camaraderie of a tequila hangover. We’ve spent time with the stallholders at Queen Victoria Market whose business acumen is second to their love of spinning a good yarn, sharing a slice of aged cheddar.
We’ve walked the gardens of Lentil As Anything in the Abbotsford Convent, at once restaurant and community. We’ve chatted gnocchi and a love of kitchens with the head chef of The Grand Richmond. We’ve drunk coffee and talked growing (and eating) with farmers at markets all across the city.
Here’s to Melbourne and her endless well of shared food pleasures.
Contributors
Laura Fels is an aspiring writer, editor, ex-amateur burlesque performer and future crazy cat-lady based in Adelaide. When she isn’t writing or playing old PlayStation games, she can be found knitting odd presents for her family.
Anthea Gannon has worked in the banking, manufacturing and telecommunications industries for over twenty years. She is now pursuing her love of writing, studying at RMIT. She loves to cook and eat, specialising in desserts.
Sarah Gory is a Melbourne writer and editor. She drinks her coffee black, her whisky neat and will try almost anything at least once. Sarah writes about art and food and poetry.
Steven JW is a Melbourne-based writer. He is into good coffee, great words, delicious nosh, fantastic parties and finely aged whiskies. Previously editor of Exquisite Media and Foodies Media, andcurrently digital editor of umamimemo.
Alice King grew up in Ballarat and is currently studying creative writing at RMIT. She enjoys writing in a wide range of forms and spends her spare time eating sushi.
Jessica McLennan is a hopeless romantic and a die-hard Hawthorn supporter. She is a burgeoning editor based in Melbourne, and is on a mission to try every spaghetti marinara in Australia.
Victoria Trembath is an emerging writer from Melbourne. When she’s not off inspecting restaurant kitchens, she’s completing her childhood dream of catching ‘em all on Pokemon Go.