Celebrating 60 years of Gourmet Traveller: our editor looks back through the decades

No, your eyes DO not deceive you. That cover line in the top left corner of the January-February 1969 issue of The Australian Gourmet Magazine – as we were called then – refers to an article about eating people. Human people. Let me take this opportunity to reassure our younger readers that in the 1960s, people generally did not eat other people. Elsewhere in the issue was a story by wine merchant Dan Murphy – yes, the man himself. Meanwhile, one thing that’s becoming clear, in trawling the archives, is the prevalence of mayonnaise in the first few decades of the magazine. In this edition, the subject was tackled with Musings of a Mayonnaise Snob by Mary Burchett. Having read the story, I’ve no doubt Ms Burchett and I would get along famously.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from delving into the Gourmet Traveller back catalogue over the past year, it’s not to look too closely at the words – particularly in some of the early issues. The language used to describe certain elements doesn’t always meet today’s accepted standards, as in an April-May 1968 story on what to serve at a house-warming party. “The liquid refreshment side is best left to the man of the house and his personal knowledge of the drinking habits and capabilities of his friends,” the article advises, before helpfully suggesting that “the hostess can prepare these appetising titbits…” Apparently, first-home buyers in 1968, who presumably had just moved into a house, had enough money left over for such luxuries as lobster and crab, as well as sufficient leisure time to make their own pâté.

Although not highlighted on the cover, this issue also contains several stories extolling the virtues of Australian cheese. One goes so far as to quote French cheese expert André Simon, who declares that Australian cheese is not only very good, “it is better than imported cheese”. Incroyable!

The last boardroom lunch I attended consisted of a tray of sandwiches and a fruit platter. If the June-July 1977 issue of Australian Gourmet is anything to go by, boardroom lunches in the ’70s were a more elevated affair. For this edition, ad man and food writer Leo Schofield teamed up with chef Patric Juillet to create a meal fit for a working lunch at the advertising agency of Schofield Sherbon Baker. On the menu was quail and asparagus tart, fresh lime sorbet in Champagne and a terrine de coquilles St Jacques au Madere. Schofield’s take on upcoming food trends was: “We will all be thinking thin!” No, not fat shaming; it was just his way of suggesting that thick, heavy sauces were out, and simply cooked fish and fowl were in.

The other big thing was smoking your own food. Cyrille Van Heyst created a menu for readers complete with advice on methods of DIY smoking. “An old refrigerator is easily converted to a smoke-house by cutting a ventilation hole in the top and using an electric hotplate as the source of heat. Get a bag of hardwood sawdust … and you are ready to go.” Our advice today: don’t try this at home.

Gourmet Traveller in the 1980s had a regular feature each month teaching readers how to cook with their new-fangled microwave ovens, it introduced them to wonderful “new” herbs like basil, and strange dishes such as sushi. Meanwhile, based on the advertising, it seems we were a nation of chain-smokers and whisky drinkers. Good times.

The May 1986 edition declared “The cocktail party is back!”. I’m old enough to remember the mid-1980s and I don’t recall cocktail parties ever falling out of favour. The canapés themselves included chèvre and green onion tartlets, steak tartare balls, Liptauer-stuffed squash and ratatouille triangles. Arranged in meticulous geometric formations, each appears perfectly spaced, as though a ruler might have been used in the plating process.

The issue also revived memories of something I miss from Australia’s dining scene: Marigold Restaurant on Sussex Street in Sydney. Two decades ago, when I worked nearby, I visited the celebrated Chinese restaurant at least once a week. One restaurant I never managed to visit was Chez Oz. It was among Sydney’s most fashionable dining rooms and, as a young journalist, well beyond my budget. Securing a table was notoriously difficult, which makes it amusing to read Gourmet’s review and discover that main courses were priced between $16 and $17. Equally revealing is the magazine’s description of a 1973 Beaune Cent Vignes Château de Meursault at $57.50 a bottle as “stratospheric”. By today’s standards, that price is positively affordable.

Two things jumped out at me while flipping through the May 1999 issue of Gourmet Traveller. The first was a feature on sausages declaring that they’d finally shaken off their “peasant food” reputation and were now officially chic. Personally, I’ve always considered sausages the height of sophistication even if they don’t appear on my plate or restaurant menus very often these days. The other discovery, also firmly in the chic-and-delicious category, was a story about a new Sydney restaurant called Salt. Helmed by Luke Mangan, it had just opened on the ground floor of the Kirketon Hotel in Darlinghurst, also featured in the issue. Salt and its adjoining bar, Fix, became two of the buzziest spots in town. I miss them both. But at least we still have sausages.

Some people believe the true measure of a restaurant’s sophistication is how much has been spent on the bathrooms. I’d argue a better benchmark is the seating – in terms of both comfort and what it says about a room’s personality. In 1999, rather than photographing the rooms or dishes that took wins in our Restaurant Awards, the editorial team showcased ingredients perched on, tucked beneath and sandwiched between the designer chairs from 10 of the featured restaurants.

It was, perhaps, a sign of the buoyant late-1990s economy that restaurants invested so heavily in iconic furniture. Gracing the cover is Arne Jacobsen’s Swan chair from Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House. Today, a Swan might cost you close to $15,000, but good design proves its worth over time: 27 years later, those same chairs remain centrestage at Bennelong, albeit reupholstered. Not everything has aged so gracefully. The 1999 Restaurant Guide carries a note alerting readers to the recent change in smoking laws, recommending diners check the policies with individual restaurants when making a booking. A small reminder of just how much dining out has changed in a quarter of a century, and how much has stayed the same.