Australian Gourmet Traveller - (12)December 2019 (1)

In Memoriam

O

n numbers alone, Margaret

Fulton had a brilliant career.

Her 25 cookbooks sold

more than four-million

copies, including 1.5 million of The

Margaret Fulton Cookbook alone. She had

decades-long stints as a food columnist,

at Woman’s Day and then New Idea, where

her columns reached a million readers

every week. She was a constant on

television and garnered a Medal of the

Order of Australia, a postage stamp with

herfaceonit,anda musicalbasedonher

life.Fultonwasa culinarysuperstar–

Australia’sfirst– butherinfluenceon

thecountry’seatingculturewasmore

profoundthanmerecelebrity.

Fultonwasa trailblazer.Shewas

a singlemotherpursuinga careerin

the1950s.Inherfirstfood-related

job– cookeryteacherat theAustralian

GasLightCompany– sheinstigated

Australia’sfirstcookingclassesforthe

visuallyimpaired.Fora timeshelivedon

theHawkesburyRiverwithhersisterand

brother-in-law,where,shortofcash,they

grewtheirownvegetables,bredducks,

pulled prawns and oysters from the river

and foraged for produce such as wild

asparagus. She was a staunch advocate

for fresh and local ingredients throughout

her career and decades before “seasonal

and regional” became a mantra.

She hitchhiked to Sydney for her job

at the homewares department at David

Jones, a job she then parlayed into her

first writing gig, a cookery column for

Woman magazine, while

also completing a

professionalcookery

course.Shewas

headhuntedbyan

advertisingcompany

andbecameoneof

Australia’sfirstfemale

adexecutivesworkingin

thefreshlymintedmediumoftelevision.

In1960,Fultonwasmadefoodeditor

ofWoman’sDay, a jobthatinvolvedher

jettingacrosstheworldtogatherrecipes

andideas,andreimaginingthemfor

Australianhomecooks.Whenaskedfor

a featureon 365 waystocookmincemeat,

sheincludedthespicesandflavoursof

Lebanon and Mexico. She introduced

her readers to spaghetti, olive oil,

chicken chow mein, paella and sukiyaki.

She explained how to use chopsticks.

Her explanation and exploration of

different cultures through food at a time

when Australia was becoming a truly

multicultural nation was an undeniably

helpful part of the experiment.

Fulton’s superpower was being able

to instil confidence in even the most

nervous novice cook and she did this

by ensuring that every single one of the

thousands of recipes she wrote over the

years worked – every time. Her recipes

never skipped steps or presumed prior

knowledge. People trusted her and they

liked her. Fulton’s cookery writing was

the first in Australia to add elements

of memoir and autobiography to recipes.

She’d write about her mother’s influence,

family life, searching for ingredients, even

cooking mishaps. “I’m just like you,” was

her message. “If I can do it, so can you.”

The popularity of her approach

was perhaps best vindicated with the

publication of The Margaret Fulton

Cookbook in 1968. A first print run of

10,000 was discussed, but pre-sales saw

that bumped to 30,000. When that

sold out, the first of many reprints was

commissioned. The influence of the book

on the following decades of food culture

in Australia is immense, particularly

when the people who subsequently

helped shape Australia’s food culture

• Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer,
  Neil Perry, Kylie Kwong, Donna Hay,
  Gabriel Gaté among them – all cite
  Fulton as an inspiration. And it’s still in
  print, 19 reprints and
  1.5-million copies later.
  Inlaterlife,Fulton
  continuedtoadvocate
  forcausesshewas
  passionateabout
  
  
  • sheworkedwith
    Greenpeaceontheir
    anti-geneticallymodified
    foodcampaign– andtokeepthecooking
    groundedinpracticalityandreality,
    notinfrivolouscelebrity.
    TheblanketcoverageofMargaret
    Fulton’sdeathinJulythisyearis proof
    ofherinfluence.TheAustralianfood
    scenewouldnothavebeenthesame
    withouther.
  
  
  
  

“I’mjustlikeyou,”

washer message.

“If Ican doit,

so canyou.”

MARGARET FULTON OAM, 19242019

82 GOURMET TRAVELLER

WORDS MICHAEL HARDEN. PHOTOGRAPHY WILL HORNER.