‘Food is one of those things that connects us all as people,’ says Dr Lauren Samuelsson, a cultural historian who researches the history of food and drink — and particularly the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine — from the University of Wollongong. ‘I always loved history, and I always wondered why we eat and drink the things that we do, why we identify with certain foods, and why we dislike others.’
‘It’s something that we all have experience of, and the history of food and drink is really an entry into the history of everything — so, there’s something for everyone.’
Samuelsson believes Australia doesn’t have a ‘cuisine’ but a ‘food culture’ that was shaped, and continues to be shaped, by colonial history, our multicultural population and increasingly by First Nations’ cultures. In the post-war years, one influence stands above all others in forming national food culture: the Australian Women’s Weekly Magazine.
A quiet but innovative Australian magazine
The Australian Women’s Weekly was ‘ubiquitous’ in shaping Australian food culture. In the mid-20th century, it was the go-to publication for Australian women. As a magazine, it covered pop culture news and celebrity interviews, local stories, and provided domestic tips and tricks.
In the 1930s, the magazine established a ‘test kitchen’ where they developed and published recipes in the weekly magazine. Recipes catered to food accessibility — a key concern during the Depression and Second World War. ‘Teenage chef Debbie’ was a reoccurring character featured in the magazine developed to appeal to young women, and covered topics from ‘searing a steak’ to finding a husband.
From the very start, Samuelsson says the magazine’s test kitchen set itself up as a ‘really trusted source’ of recipes.
‘The test kitchen triple-tested every recipe, which they advertised heavily. This was one thing that really drew people to the magazine — they knew that if they followed the steps correctly, their recipe would turn out. The images were also huge draw cards. The Weekly introduced coloured images of food earlier than other publications, and even before there were food stylists, these images were really attractive and showed people what the food should look like. This was hugely innovative.’
The recipes were regularly printed in the Weekly, but it wasn’t until 1976 that the Test Kitchen’s first ‘Best Ever’ recipes were published in a cookbook. It was an instant bestseller with several reprints issued.
Improvisation is a hallmark of Australian food culture
Samuelsson continues, ‘Australians were interested in foreign foods, but they didn’t necessarily have access to the ingredients they needed, so they improvised and got creative. They turned dishes into their own.
Take Spaghetti Bolognese for example.
‘It’s a recipe that first appeared in the Weekly in 1952 and quickly became a weeknight staple for many Australians. Is it Italian? Absolutely not! We took the idea of pasta with ragu (which recent Italian migrants introduced) and made it really meat-heavy (because we had access to cheap meat, and ate a lot of it!), and it became a quick and easy dinner. It’s this improvisation that is really a hallmark of Australian food culture.’
‘One of the main things that we see in the Weekly is the idea of “having a go” — when you don’t have the ingredients? Just put something else in!’
As for recipes she’s drawn to, Samuelsson says she’s still finding gems as she continues her research.
‘There’s a cheesecake recipe I found that is just perfect! Of course there are more “interesting recipes” in the Weekly, such as a few recipes for “mock foods”. “Mock chicken pie” is one which uses tripe instead of chicken.’
‘In terms of outlandish recipes, I don’t think you can look past some of the “diet” foods from the 1970s – there is a recipe for “Chicken a l’orange” that is, quite frankly, unhinged!
Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book
For many, the Australian Women Weekly Cookbooks go hand-in-hand with what some call ‘the greatest book ever written in this country’ — the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book. A staple of childhood for decades, it’s recently found popularity overseas thanks to the controversial ‘duck’ cake appearing in an episode of Bluey.
‘The Birthday Cake book has been an icon since the day it was published in 1980,’ says Samuelsson. ‘Its longevity is because of a special combination of both nostalgia and the cakes themselves. We create really powerful memories when there’s food and emotion, so we have this rose-tinted idea of the cakes, and we want to share that with others. I also think that there’s something about the quirkiness, the tackiness, that makes them even more enticing.’
‘Kids don’t really care if a cake is tacky — they just love brightly-coloured, sweet treats that were made for them. In many ways, it’s really about the parents wanting to do something nice for their child.
The Weekly’s book had step-by-step instructions, and it gave them the tick of approval to take shortcuts (like using cake mix).’
In 2023 the Bendigo Art Gallery curated a temporary exhibition about the cultural impact of the Australian Women’s Weekly. They received over 3,000 community-submitted images of cakes produced from the book.
Reading between the lines
For Lauren Samuelsson, the National Library of Australia’s Trove database was an essential research tool when combing through issues and issues of Australian Women’s Weekly magazines.
‘People throw them away. That proves a problem for research, as you might not have access to all of the magazines, but just a few that escaped the tip. Luckily, the Weekly magazines published between 1933 and 1982 have been digitised and made available.’
‘Research about women has, historically, been disregarded. The Australian Women’s Weekly, and other women’s magazines, they cover topics that were important to women — celebrity gossip, popular literature, fashion, relationship advice, domestic tips and tricks — and which were perhaps seen as too frivolous or too ordinary.’
‘But research like this provides essential insights into the ways women lived, especially during the post-war years, the expectations for women in the home and for teenage girls coming-of-age — as well as “less tangible” things like the pressures of homemaking and the shift to both parents working outside of the home.’
‘Women weren’t seen as serious subjects for study until relatively recently. I hope that my research can show that the history of our domestic life, the history of everyday women, was consequential in shaping our national narrative.’
Lauren Samuelsson is a recipient of a 2024 Publication Subsidy Scheme, which will support the publication of A Matter of Taste: The Australian Women’s Weekly and Its Influence on Australian Food Culture from Monash University Publishing, out November 2024.
