Food and Stories, and the Memories They Create
Amy Minichiello lives in a humble white weatherboard home on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia with her husband and two small children. She is a cook and writer, bringing to light the simple, slow and joyful memories that surround food through storytelling.
Self-portrait by Amy
Words by Amy Minichiello & Photography by Sally Frawley
There is comfort in watching fingertips rub small cold chunks of butter into flour. It’s the feel; the way I can silently stand in the one spot, forced to stay still for a moment. Tiny speckles of flour dance before my eyes, catching the soft light filtering through the kitchen windows.
It is in this very moment I am once again a little girl, standing by my Great-Grandmother’s side as I watch her delicate fingers gently bring the dough together—patting it out on her lightly floured bench. An upturned glass, with its rim coated in flour. It rests momentarily on top of the pillowy soft dough before, “poof,” a single round appears, one by one they are lined up. Each one kissing the soft curve of the next.
Our eager little hands had to be almost tied down by our sides as they were pulled from the oven, then wrapped in a fresh tea towel—a damp cloth resting on top. There they sat for a while, nestled into a cosy environment, just like being in the warm embrace of my Granny’s arms.
I wipe my bench down, put away the last of the dishes and momentarily pause once again—there they are sitting under my windowsill, the same golden rounds wrapped up in a fresh tea towel. A damp cloth rests on top. It is these small ordinary moments that make me smile. My Granny is no longer with us in person, but she will forever live on in my kitchen through her cursive scrawl on the yellow-tinged pages of her recipe journal, the worn edges peeking out, all held together with a single elastic band. And of course, in those times that I find myself regularly rubbing small cold chunks of butter into flour--simple acts that bring forth life’s most beautiful memories.
For many of us, we find ourselves blessed with these types of memories—memories that weave their way through the tastes and aromas we experience throughout our lives. It is these emotions that fill our hearts with that comforting warmth as we remember sitting or standing at the kitchen bench alongside our Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents or Aunties. Those special people who play such an important role as the memory-makers throughout our childhood years and beyond.
Perhaps it is not until we become older, wiser even, that we realise just how precious these times are. As the years pass by however, it is these moments that become everlasting. I really do believe that they only become stronger in our minds, and that pull to relive childhood memories of our own, to share them with our children and Grand-Children becomes wonderfully important. That joy of creating similar memories with them by our sides, as we share our stories whilst stirring, rolling, kneading, mixing and of course, licking cake batter straight from the spoon. It is what helps bring a new generation into the folds of old memories. And so, they live on. Changes may be made, adapted, and made our own, but it is the origins that lie deep, firmly planting their roots at the base of our hearts.
It was the essence of all of this. Of the wonderfully intricate and always emotional stories that weave their way into food that had me wanting to create something meaningful. Something that would highlight these moments in a tangible way. I lined up the thread, pulled it through the eye of the needle and began stitching together a selection of family food stories into what has now become known as, Recipes in the Mail.
A project that began on the 17th of August 2018 saw me spreading this little seed of an idea out into the world via Instagram, with an invitation extended to anyone who would be interested in being a part of it. All I asked was for them to share a recipe that had been handed down from generation to generation or a recipe that meant something special to them. The ones written on scraps of paper—an old envelope, the back of a card—worn around the edges, splotched and splattered. Or one from a cookbook that had been so well-thumbed the spine had broken. My only stipulations were the chosen recipe had to be handwritten, have a story or memory attached, and it had to be sent to me via the post.
The sheer joy I received when the postie began regularly dropping letters into our mailbox was palpable. Some letters had been decorated, some arrived with little gifts—ceramic mugs, doilies, and beautiful cards. These letters—some from people I knew and some from people I didn’t know at all but can now call friends, had me welling up with tears and smiling from ear to ear as I was invited into a precious moment of theirs. I was instantly transported into their world, standing with their Grandmother as they carefully folded cocoa-dusted flour into cake batter or bending over a bubbling pot of soup. I was even in the warm glow of a Norwegian kitchen as freshly baked bread was pulled from the oven.
I was given the great privilege and immense pleasure of cooking and baking these recipes in my own kitchen. Styling, photographing and eventually sharing them on my Instagram page. An instant connection was made, and it all came back to food.
It became noticeably clear that everyone has a story to tell. We all have moments in our own lives that create nostalgic food memories. We need only to smell or taste a particular dish or ingredient, and it transports us to those places and those people who have left a little imprint on our hearts. Through storytelling and in conversation, they have the power to transport us, creating a ripple effect of emotion amongst a wider community.
So, it is with one giant leap of faith that I am about to hit send on my proposal to a handful of publishers, with fingers and toes crossed! It will be a book that allows the reader to hold something in their hands that can magically transport them into these stories, conjuring up their own special memories, a feeling of connection that weaves its way through the food we share with our friends and families and strangers alike. Because, what is life without sharing good food and stories.