Living the good life: community cookbooks as an expression of Australian lifestyles and values

Abstract

Community cookbooks are a distinctive subgenre of cookery texts, consisting of the compiled recipes of individuals, sold in aid of community causes. Since their origins in the late nineteenth century they have been accruing as primary textual evidence of Australian lifestyles. They depict regional variations in what people ate and how they prepared it, as well as giving some insight into a few truly trans-regional, ‘Australian’ tastes and dishes. They show something of how Australians liked to spend their time; the organisations they chose to support; and their conception of food, cooking and eating as a part of community life and family life. Viewed collectively, community cookbooks offer a broad insight into the civic and culinary activities of ‘ordinary people’ across the nation. This article will give an overview of how this special variety of cookbook has contributed to the building of ‘Australian’ ideals of lifestyle and community: through explicit participation in dialogues of nationhood; through contribution to a wide variety of civic projects which were integral to twentieth-century nation-building; and through their important role in the development of shared social and culinary norms.