"We are Australia’s number one premium food and lifestyle brand at the intersection of cooking, eating out, travel, entertaining and style, design and global trends, reaching over 2 million Australians each month across print, digital, social and now YouTube."
Apologies for being so uninspired of late. Once again I am resorting to one of my writer's block strategies - this one being the old magazines that I am throwing out - in this case the July 2015 edition in the centre above, which was celebrating 150 issues of delicious. magazine. So since it was a celebratory issue I thought I would have a quick look at delicious. itself.
First thing I discovered is that all these years when referring to the magazine I have always been conscious of the lower case font but I had not noticed - how? - the full stop which is also part of its logo. Indeed an abbreviated official logo is just those two features - as shown here. Stylish and it has not changed over the now almost 20 years of its life.
It will reach 20 years in November/December this year, for the first issue - the first one at the top of the page was published in November/December 2001. It was a joint venture of the ABC and News Limited but according to Google in 2015 the ABC sold it's share to NewLife Media who still own it. At some point - I cannot find when - a British edition was begun and this is published by Eye to Eye Media who seem to be related to Waitrose, but not News Limited. It's basically the same magazine though - the logo is the same.
Kerry McCallum - the glamorous looking lady on the left below has been the Editor-in-Chief since 2014. I'm not sure who was the original one. The most notable food editors in the 20 year life span have been the late Valli Little who I think was there at the beginning, and who I have to say was wonderful. I suspect, that although I didn't know it, when she left it went downhill for me. Phoebe Wood - the lady on the right is the current food editor. In her mini CV on the delicious. website they say of her:
"She loves lemon and salt, and will eat noodles any time of the day. You won’t find red capsicum in her recipes"
I think Warren Mendes had a short term as food editor between the two shown here, but I'm not sure about that.
It is certainly true to say that delicious. has been influential. It may have hit its peak in circulation numbers in 2010, but let's face it the world has turned digital since then, and they have moved with it. They now have a YouTube channel, a website and various other social media outlets and apps I think. They sponsor the Australian Produce Awards, have won a slew of awards and have promoted many a celebrity chef.
I see that first edition, featured Jamie, Nigella and Jacques Reymond - all three of whom are still up there in the celebrity chef pantheon. Both Jamie and Nigella have been long-time although occasional contributors to the magazine. Jamie is still there for the 150th issue, but he is now joined by Matt Preston who is still on the staff of delicious. as well as his many other careers, and also joined by Colin Fassnidge - another stayer. Within that edition there are also contributions from Sylivia Colloca, Ducan Welgemoed of Africola and Matt Wilkinson. It is probably true to say that delicious. has made quite a few careers along the way.
So I was interested in one feature in the 150th issue - a focus on the Next gen of chefs. I think I only recognised one of the names - Ben Devlin - but I'm not very good on Australian whiz chefs, so I decided to check and see if they were still chefs, only to have my general ignorance of such things confirmed. We just don't eat out enough!
David Moyle - he is still around, still 'acclaimed' from Franklin in Hobart and Longsong in Melbourne and I also saw a reference to something in Byron Bay.
Jake Kellie - again, how ignorant am I? He now is head chef at Burnt Ends a modern Australian barbecue restaurant in Singapore's Chinatown currently ranked 53 on the San Pellegrion World's 50 Best Restaurants list and no. 5 on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list. I think I have heard of it from time to time. He also won this year's World Young Chef Award for South East Asia and was second in the world in 2018. Top, top, top!
Mitch Orr - still around - Head chef at Pilu Baretto Nights in Freshwater (Sydney?) A pasta king.
Stewart Wesson - owner of three or four restaurants in Adelaide and chef at Part Time Lover - which is one of them.
Ben Devlin - well he worked at Noma in Copenhagen for several years but returned to Oz and now has his own restaurant Pipit on the NSW North Coast. So yes perhaps I had reason to remember him - it must have been the Noma thing.
Seth James - He's still at the same restaurant - his own - Will's Domain in WA.
So it does seem that delicious. can pick the up and coming.
Speaking of which their very first issue had as it's cover a quintessential Australian dish - Buttermilk pancakes with chocolate sauce from Bill Granger. Interestingly the link is to the only version of this particular recipe that I could find. It's signed William Granger and is on an ABC site with no picture, but it is indeed the same recipe. Bill Granger himself was already well-known and so his pancakes/hotcakes, which I have talked about before were also not new, but what else could you choose to promote a new Australian food magazine? Well maybe the same man's smashed avocado, but I won't argue.
To celebrate their 150 issues they included an updated recipe for Ricotta hotcakes - updated because of the ricotta which was not in the original, but also because this is a savoury version. Then in 2019 they updated them again to what they claimed were Bill Granger's best - Ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter and in the latest issue we have Helena Moursallis's The ultimate banana pancakes. The love affair obviously continues, even if this time it's not Bill Granger's actual recipe.
I subscribed to delicious. for many years because I loved their recipes. They had just the right combination of easy and different. And it was such a beautifully produced magazine as well. Increasingly though, it seemed to me the recipes began to take a smaller place with more emphasis on what was hot in the world of food - restaurants, events, chefs ... There was more on equipment and kitchen trimmings and more on travel and somehow or other the actual design subtly altered. I actually think it's a sign of me getting old - and I really ought to buy one to see what it's like today. I confess I have not actually bought the current issue, although for some reason the other day I was going to buy one, but just couldn't find it. I think it is still considered to be the best foodie magazine. Well there is Gourmet Traveller too, but the food in that is often less approachable for the ordinary cook like me.
So here I am gradually throwing out my old magazines. There is a pile of them up high in my kitchen - for a kind of decoration. They are almost completely out of reach. But there is also a pile in one of our spare rooms which are the ones I am tackling now.
i put little stickers on the recipes I fancied for each edition and laboriously transcribed them to a database on my computer. I see I stickered those hotcakes from this edition, but I have never made them. There are also a Prune and armagnac parfait, Marinated red cabbage slaw, Zucchini slice 2015, Warm salad of carrots, coriander and chilli salt (and avocado smash), Pumpkin B'stilla with beetroot and yoghurt sauce, Coffee and amaretto panna cotta and Orange and polenta cake - and you know I could fancy just about all of them today.
But we're only having fishcakes for dinner.
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