Bringing a taste of abroad to Australian readers: Australian Wines & Food Quarterly 1956-1960

The study of Australian food and wine publications is an emerging area of investigation in Food Studies, Magazine/Serial Studies and Creative Writing. Yet, these publications were part of the emergent post-war Australian gastronomic environment in which national tastes in domestic cookery became radically internationalised and cosmopolitan, and multicultural eating habits widely embraced. This article will survey a number of ways in which the idea of ‘abroad’ is expressed in an early Australian culinary publication, Australian Wines & Food Quarterly (1956–1960). Produced in Melbourne—but with at least a nod to a national remit—this publication assisted in introducing readers to a wide range of new information about what were then seen as foreign “gourmet” foods and wines, as well as a range of innovative international ideas regarding cookery and dining that are nowadays accepted as everyday practice in Australia.