Cookbook’s Sydney Preview in September

The FMCA's first cookbook will be launched officially at Tasting Australia in Adelaide on October 10, and a "soft" launch will be held in Sydney on September 25. Here, Averill Chase recounts the book's development from conception to fruition.

Reinforcing the theme of our 20th birthday celebrations - 'Yesterday, today and tomorrow' - FMCA President, Lyndey Milan, suggested to the Executive Committee that we publish a cookbook and invite prominent members of the Food Media Club, past and present, to contribute. It would provide a showcase for the excellent work of our members. It would also celebrate the contribution the Australian food media has made to the development of food tastes and trends over the past 20 years or more as well as offering a vision of the future.

The cookbook would be a way of recognising and harnessing the talents of those who have paved the way, as well as acknowledging new and vibrant ideas that will carry the Club, and Australian cuisine, forward in the new millennium. The Executive Committee immediately embraced Lyndey's suggestion and so our very own cookbook, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow: the Best of Australian Food, was conceived.

The book would be organised thematically to complement our anniversary themes -  Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - and each contributor would be asked to nominate within which theme their recipe should be placed. Contributors would also be given the opportunity to donate their recipe to the Club. The Executive Committee agreed that the Club should underwrite the cost of the photography. Royalties from sales of the book would be ploughed back into the Club to provide professional development for all our members.

Invitations were sent to all key members of the Club who are actively involved in writing about or presenting food in the media - in magazines, newspapers, on radio and television, and even on the internet. The criteria for contributors were simple: each person should be or have been active in the print or electronic food media; and should be past or current members of the Food Media Club. We also extended the invitation to our past Presidents, who have made such a valuable contribution to the Club.

While it would have been wonderful to include more of Australia's highly respected chefs, who undoubtedly make their own contribution to the quality of food in Australia, space would not allow us to do so. Instead, only chefs who have either had work published, contribute regularly to the print  media or have been actively involved in the electronic media were invited to contribute.

As well as approaching members, we felt it was important to include those within the food media who should be members of the Club if we are to be truly national and representative of the food media at large. These people were invited to join the Club if they wished to contribute to the book. The response was overwhelming, as we knew it would be. Everyone was more than willing to be involved in the project. Recipes flowed in thick in fast. While none was written 'with a thumbnail dipped in tar', we did indeed receive recipes in myriad styles - some typed, some handwritten, with one or two even dictated over the telephone!

Then came the behind-the-scenes task of pulling all the recipes into shape and presenting them in a common format for the editor. This onerous and time-consuming task was generously undertaken by Kay Francis and Barbara Lowry. Their help was invaluable in the 'sorting' phase. In keeping with the idea of showcasing the work of as many of the food media as possible, we felt it was important also to include the work of as many photographers as practicable.

While continuity is very important in cookbooks, which usually means only one photographer is involved, our themes provided us with a way of commissioning three separate photographic teams. Expressions  of interest were invited from photographers, home economists and stylists, from which three teams were put together: Alan Benson, Mary Harris and Michelle Thrift for Yesterday, Mil Truscott, Penny Hurley and Chris Sheppard for Today, and Brett Stevens, Sally Parker and Tracey Meharg for Tomorrow. To make certain that there was cohesion within the book and each team was on the same wavelength, we held a combined photographic briefing.

The enthusiasm of team members was enervating. All of this groundwork has surely paid off and we are very proud of the results. Yesterday Today and Tomorrow is a book for us all to treasure as we pore over the mouth-watering photography and delicious recipes contributed by people well known and loved by us all, and those who will become so. It will be launched officially by international food celebrity Rick Stein (who, incidentally, wrote the Foreword) in Adelaide on October 10 2003.The launch will take place during the International Food and Wine Writers Festival, part of Tasting Australia. In addition, we are planning a Sydney preview and launch on September 25 during 'Good Food Month'. We expect a number of the contributors to be present at both events.

We are very proud of our Club and we are very proud of our cookbook. Our thanks to everyone who has been involved in making both a reality.