The Australian Women\'s Weekly - June 2018

JUNE 2018| The Australian Women’s Weekly 119

PHOTOGRAPHY

bySAGDASDHSDHFDSFH

Annabel is on hand to oversee a

family of ive’s journey from past to

present as they live in a different

decade each week. From the dismissal

of the Whitlam government and the

moon landing, to the arrival of rotary

phones and dial-up internet and

beyond, they will experience

Australian history irsthand.

“You can read history and you

can learn history and you can know

in your brain that when the ’50s

started butter was rationed and

people ate dripping, but to watch

people living like that is a different

thing,” Annabel says.

“It’s like being transported there,

watching how people lived their

lives – the frustrations and also the

liberations associated with not having

this mad profusion of stuff we have

in the modern age.”

As the show’s title suggests, food is

central to the experiment. Waves of

Asian vegetables and Italian dishes

marked immigration patterns, and

developments like dishwashers and

microwave dinners signposted social

evolution, as working women had less

time to perform their traditional roles

of cook and cleaner.

“It is hard work and very different

from our life now,” says Carol

Ferrone, the mother in the experiment,

of her life in the 1950s.

We cross into the small, kitsch

kitchen that has been retro-itted into

the existing house, and marvel at the

beautiful mint-green fridge and how

cramped the space is. The cabinetry

is periwinkle blue and red trimmed

in yellow. “It felt like a bit of a jail

sentence,” Carol says. It is a very

pretty prison.

The family is mid-way through

1950s week and Carol has been

spending every waking moment

hand-washing the family’s laundry

in boiling water, and cooking every

morsel of food from scratch, all while

wearing heels, pearls and a full face

of make-up.

Her daughters, Olivia, 10, and Sienna,

14, help a little but the men, husband

Peter and son, Julian, 18, are under

strict instructions to observe the gender

roles of the day and not lift a inger.

“For me, the ’50s were deinitely

very isolating,” Carol says. “We live

in an open-plan home and we share

everything, whether it’s cooking or

cleaning up. In the ’50s, we didn’t

even have dinner together, which

I found very hard.”

The culinary offerings in 1950 are

remarkably bland. “There wasn’t even

any salt,” says Peter. “No snacks.”

Inside the fridge is a slab of butter

wrapped in waxed paper and tied

with string. The olive oil – a rarity –

was purchased at the pharmacy.

The attention to detail is exquisite.

Each food item looks like a work

of art. But it wasn’t all pretty.

“We had to eat tripe!” says a

scandalised Olivia.

Dripping was another unpopular

food option. Julian didn’t mind it,

but the verdict on the tripe is unanimous,

and summed up succinctly by

Olivia: “Bleagh.”

Despite what the family might

think, the offal wasn’t chosen to

torture them. “There’s a historical

reason for tripe being a big dish of→

Entertainment

Back in Time

for Dinner

host Annabel

Crabb.

Opposite:

The Ferrone

family in their

’50s garb.

STYLING BY REBECCA RAC. ANNABEL WEARS SYLVESTER DRESS.