Eating Between the Lines is the most import contemporary book written about food and eating habits in Australia. Huntley is a researcher and while the book is utterly erudite, it is written with some detachment. Detachment is not to insult the intent of this book, but simply to make obvious that other books that have been very important like Michael Symons’s One Continuous Picnic and Cherry Ripe’s Culinary Cringe were written with undeniable personal preference and a certain food elitism. This is not to say that Huntley does not have a personal interest in food and eating; she does. Her Italian heritage, good food and eating well have clearly been formative in her life, but what Huntley manages to do that no one writing about Australian food, dining habits, history or the future has previously managed to do is write about the facts without embellishing them with their own opinions.
A fascinating read, there is some reason for optimism that perhaps our eating habits are not quite on the decline that our sensation-seeking press might like to imply. It is also disturbing to note that researchers fail to get press for ‘good news’ food stories. Huntley tackles the entire spectrum of dining in Australia, from working mothers in deprived areas and indigenous health issues because of poor diet, to the ever increasing singles in our society and why an identical shopping list costs more in one suburb than another. (On this count, be prepared to be very surprised.) She clearly states the differences in shopping habits and options between rich and poor, ethnic and indigenous. Huntley even compares organic to non-organic shopping with an exercise so simple but so obvious as to why complete organic is still not within the reach of middle-class Australia.
Since time immemorial, women have gone without to feed their children and grandchildren and she notes that even in low socioeconomic circumstances women continue to try and feed their children well and will, if they can possibly afford it, buy some organic foods for them. We can attest to the truth of this because when researching food shopping habits in 2000, we discovered to our astonishment that 40 per cent of British mothers tried to buy some organic food for their babies up to the age of 12 months. It is stating the obvious to say that many of these mothers must have had to compromise the rest of the family budget to do this.
While many of us will object to Donna Hay being referred to as a ‘chef’, Huntley succinctly explains what the celebrity chef has done for Australian food culture and she notably talks about the changes of the role of men in the kitchen. Rightly she notes, in the main men have still not taken on the drudge of the daily family meal, but she does sight some hope for the future.
Most disturbing are the latter chapters tackling the movement of market gardens from their traditional near city locations. Pushed out by urban sprawl, lack of family members wanting to continue the business, age and the amount of money being offered for their lands, she leaves the reader with a great deal of fear for the future.
This brilliant book looks unemotionally at the depth and breadth of eating habits in Australia today and makes an intelligent estimation as to just what the future of food and eating in Australia might be. Every food snob should read this book to gain a better and more respectful understanding of where food and feeding a family both now and in the future is for most Australians. The sad fact is not many Australians know how to cook from scratch (or want to), our homeless don’t know about $2 bags at our local markets on Tuesdays (and have nowhere to cook anyway) and most Australians don’t know how to eat well for a small amount of money. Perhaps Huntley’s next book might tackle the diets of elderly Australians trying to survive on a government pension and shame the government and the nation into treating them better. A compelling read! Black Inc., RRP $24.95
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter