An Oral History of Modern Australian Cuisine
Before MasterChef. Before celebrity chefs. Before Australian food was something the world talked about.
There was a nation learning to cook from a single book.
Then something began to change.
No manifesto. No movement declared. Just cooks and restaurateurs and critics and suppliers who began, slowly and then all at once, to change the way Australia ate.
Most of them have never told their full story.
Until now.
About the Project
The Architects is a series of long-form recorded conversations with the chefs, critics, producers and suppliers who shaped modern Australian cuisine from the late 1970s onwards. Their stories have never been collectively recorded. We are recording them now.
The recordings will be released as podcast episodes and filmed interviews, capturing these essential perspectives to build a permanent, accessible historical archive for future generations.
People
Greg Huggett
Adelaide born chef, hospitality professional and food writer across five decades. The first Australian born Executive Chef within Hilton, he changed how five star hotels in this country were seen — and brought Cheong Liew to lead the Grange. Forty years on, he is recording the stories of the people who built modern Australian cuisine before they are lost.
Cheong Liew OAM
Self-taught chef, born in Kuala Lumpur in 1949. Opened Neddy's in 1975, fusing Chinese, European and Australian traditions in ways nobody had attempted. Led the Grange for fourteen years, creating Four Dances of the Sea — one of Australian cooking's most celebrated dishes. Awarded an OAM in 1999, and regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Australian cooking.
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The Story
Something extraordinary happened in Australian kitchens between the late 1970s and the turn of the century. A generation of chefs, restaurateurs, producers, suppliers and winemakers began, quietly and without manifesto, to transform the way Australia eats. They drew on Europe, Asia and the indigenous food knowledge of the oldest living culture on earth, on Australia's remarkable produce, on the richness of a newly diverse community, and on the courage to cook in ways nobody had seen before.
The result was a cuisine now recognised internationally as one of the great culinary achievements of the late twentieth century.
Most of the people who built it have never told their full story.
What It Is
Food Architects is a series of long form recorded conversations with the chefs, producers, suppliers, winemakers and food journalists who shaped modern Australian cuisine. Released as podcast episodes and filmed interviews, the series reaches a broad public audience while simultaneously creating a permanent historical record for future generations.
The first season comprises conversations with some of the most significant figures in Australian culinary history. Subsequent seasons will expand the record to twenty or thirty conversations — building the most comprehensive oral history of Australian food culture ever assembled.
Why Now
Half a century has passed since the beginnings of this movement. The people who shaped it are now in their seventies, eighties and nineties. Their stories exist in fragments — in books, in reviews, in memories — but they have never been collectively and properly recorded.
Food Architects captures these voices now. Before the opportunity is lost.
Season One — The First Conversations
Our inaugural season brings together the pioneering voices who laid the foundations of modern Australian cuisine. Upcoming episodes feature deep-dive conversations with:
- The Visionary Chefs & Restaurateurs Season One
- The Pathfinding Producers & Suppliers Season One
- The Legend Winemakers & Viticulturists Season One
- The Definitive Food Journalists & Critics Season One