A Timeline of Australian Food: from mutton to MasterChef chronicles 150 years of Australian food, beginning with the first Australian cookbook in the 1860s and ending in 2010 with the game-changing cooking show, MasterChef. This lavishly illustrated book is presented as a timeline; decade by decade it looks at what we’ve eaten, how we’ve shopped and how we’ve produced our food.

Over the years, as the very nature of Australia changed, the way we ate changed too. The book traces the history of our farmers, our manufacturers, our cooks and of everyday Australians as they lived through boom times, depressions and two World Wars.

Even within the lifetime of today’s baby-boomers, there have been revolutionary changes in how we eat. While the standard Anglo-Irish staples of meat and potatoes haven’t disappeared, they’ve been joined by pizza and pho, kimchi and kebabs.

Based on my website, australianfoodtimeline.com.au, this is history in digestible chunks with big helpings of tasty trivia and a generous dash of nostalgia. How did Tim Tams get their name?  Why was Australia’s first commercial olive oil produced in a prison? Did an Australian firm really market Dugong paté?  The book answers these questions and many, many more.

A Timeline of Australian Food is in bookstores now. Or you can order online from the Australia Remember When shop or from Booktopia.