This month marks the very special 30th anniversary of what has become Australia’s ‘Kitchen Bible’: Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion. And with that feat there comes a stunning new edition. This will be the third incarnation of The Cook’s Companion, this one updated with the addition of 90 new recipes and the revising of others to reflect the Australian cooking landscape as it is now.
With over 500,000 copies sold, and the first of its kind, The Cook’s Companion is iconic in Australian publishing, not just for the tome that it is – 1,000+ pages of recipes, stories, food facts, techniques and Stephanie’s wisdom – but, more importantly, because it has become a part of our everyday cooking lives. Its comprehensiveness has not daunted us, quite the opposite, Stephanie has encouraged many the beginner chef and food novice to thrive. As a bookseller, The Cook’s Companion is the go-to recommendation for that perfect gift, whether it be a milestone birthday, wedding, engagement or simply as an essential reference every household must have.
My colleagues here reflect on their own connections with The Cook’s Companion and their favourite recipes – of course, we all have more than one. If I did have to choose one though, it would be the basic muffin recipe on page 40 (second edition). I know the page number by heart, it doesn’t need a tab. I recently visited my parents’ home and noticed my first ‘family’ copy sitting on the kitchen bench: the original striking orange clothbound edition, most of the fabric gone after a too-close encounter with a gas flame, now held together with blue duct tape. I counted the tabbed post it notes – 37.
I also recall a few years back being woken up by an ‘urgent’ text message from my friend and colleague Sarah, who was overseas at the time, requesting me to text a photo of Stephanie’s ‘Baked Fish in a North African Ginger Marinade’, a fail-safe impressive recipe to cook as a thank-you dinner for her hosts. I obliged and then cooked ‘Sarah’s fish’ the following weekend – delicious.
What Stephanie has achieved is absolute cause for celebration, for her recipes have become ours. Like me, you might go on to try ‘Scott’s fish’ (or Sarah’s), ‘Morgana’s shortbread’ or, if you dare, ‘Rosalind’s rabbit pie’!
Congratulations Stephanie, and thank you.
Danielle Mirabella is a senior book buyer
Growing up, The Cook’s Companion was a fixture in our house. I remember clearly the fat, orange spine of that first edition nestled up against a timber pillar that rose from the island bench in our kitchen. Its cover was worn and splattered with oil stains. This was a no-nonsense book for people who wanted to cook, well, anything. With over 1,000 recipes, you could find a foolproof recipe for anything, from myriad preparations of artichokes to all things zucchini and everything in between. My go-to recipe has always been the ‘Lemon Delicious Pudding’.
Back when the first edition was published, if you were an Australian who liked to cook and you had to have just one book, this was it. The same could be said today!
Joe Rubbo is the managing director
My copy of The Cook’s Companion is older than my children, as you can see in the photo in the April Readings Monthly.
I went to the book’s launch all those years ago at Stephanie Alexander’s eponymous restaurant. Drinks and nibbles were passed around by industry legend Dure Dara and Queen Stephanie herself. I remember dressing up for the occasion, popping on a very pink lipstick to match bold, beaded earrings that were all the rage back then.
There are pages in my copy that are earmarked, pages that are stuck together with oil, or cake batter, or red wine. And while I have never made baked bananas with meatloaf, I have used ‘Steph’s’ recipe for meatloaf often, because it is delicious and VERY simple to make. (We call her ‘Steph’ in our house – ‘What would Steph say?’, we ask one another, but never, ever would we call her ‘Steph’ to her face!)
Recently, I made ‘Mieze’s Plum Cake’ with fallen fruit from a friend’s farm. Those around my table went wild for it, but I knew, as Steph knows, this cake took me approximately 10 minutes to pull together, yet tasted like I had been slaving away for hours on a hot summer’s day. The recipe is on page 552, and by the by, the ‘Baked Bananas with Meatloaf’ combination fall under the B section on page 76, not the M section.
Stephanie Alexander has travelled with me through my years of parenting and mishandled dinner parties. I’ll forever be grateful to her.
Chris Gordon is the community engagement and programming manager
Ah, The Cook’s Companion, the memories it brings back. My mother, always a quality gift giver, gave it to my first love as a housewarming present when we moved in together. It was in the heady days of our very early 20s and he loved food; no, we loved food. Cooking, eating, discovering. I loved that book; it was our bible and formed the basis of many of our shared recipes. So, it only felt right that I got the tome in our inevitable break up (judge me as you will).
I still have the book on my kitchen shelf and pick it up for inspiration or a foundation recipe. It is the holder of one of my more popular (and controversial) Easter lunch dishes, rabbit pie, which I serve up every few years with glee (again, I am here to be judged) and to many an emotion from around the table, but at the end of lunch every plate is clean and the pie is demolished.
Rosalind McClintock is the head of marketing
I was working as the book buyer at Readings South Yarra when the original orange cloth edition of The Cook’s Companion was published. Booksellers were treated to a very swish dinner at Stephanie’s Restaurant. A $75 cookbook was unheard of in 1996. It was the most wonderful cookbook I’d ever seen, phenomenal and truly definitive. I remember ordering 70 copies for our tiny shop. The Cook’s Companion publication was an exhilarating moment in publishing and bookselling.
Louise Ryan is the manager of Readings Carlton
So essential is The Cook’s Companion as a household reference and marker of adulthood that I have (accidentally) given it to my brother as a gift not once, but twice. First, when he moved out of home, and then, many years later, when he moved in with his partner. In my defence, I had a newborn baby and a toddler and was hosting Christmas in a pandemic, so on some level I must have been craving comprehensive order and guidance, and somehow fixed on the idea that it was also what this lovely couple needed as a Christmas/housewarming gift in the form of the Australian culinary bible. To my mortification, my brother didn’t even need to unwrap it – he weighed the present in his hands and the knowing grin as he did so said it all.
Needless to say, I will never live it down, but had the gift been for anyone to whom I hadn’t previously given the book, it would have been an ideal choice! My own copy is so frequently used by all in our household (the recipe for crêpes in particular) that the front cover recently fell off – fortunately, I had a festively adorned spare copy to hand!
Elke Power is the editor of Readings Monthly
For a healthy weeknight meal, it’s hard to go past Stephanie Alexander’s ‘Simple Coconut-Milk Fish Curry’. The whole thing can be done in half an hour. Poaching fish in coconut milk (infused with southeast Asian flavours) is incredibly easy – there’s no frying and no oils to mess with. The fish choice is yours. Salmon is an obvious pick, but I like a firm, white-flesh fish, like rockling. Stephanie uses lemongrass stalks in this recipe, but you can substitute by zesting a lemon or lime.
I have it with rice and a side of Asian greens. When doing the rice, I pop a star anise into the pot to give it a lift. That’s the thing with simple recipes – there’s a lot of room to go freestyle.
Scott Newton is from Readings Doncaster
‘Scot’s Shortbread with Ground Rice’ is by far the ultimate shortbread recipe out there – and I’ve tried quite a few! The most perfectly balanced blend of crispness from the rice flour, just enough sweetness from the sugar, and super short from the butter. Follow the recipe exactly, including the resting time, and you can’t go wrong. My daughter now makes this recipe and even as an emerging baker it has never failed yet. This is our go-to recipe for gifting at Christmas and the perfect accompaniment to a hot beverage. Delightful!
Morgana Keating is from Readings Hawthorn
The Cook’s Companion was one of the go-to resources my parents shared when I was first learning to cook, and I think everyone needs such a clear and comprehensive guide to food! Not only were the recipes delicious, but it also has so many techniques that I still use today.
Despite the vastness of The Cook’s Companion, picking my favourite recipe is shockingly easy. The first time I cooked with leeks was Stephanie Alexander’s recipe for ‘Buttery Leeks’; I have no memory of what was served with them, but I vividly recall the savoury creaminess of the leeks, lightly spiced with nutmeg. It’s a flavour combination I still wheel out every winter – to me, it’s a definitive comfort food.
Bella Mackey is the digital content lead
