Generations

Your Life - Summer 2005/06

Margaret Fulton, 81, has written more than 20 cookbooks, contributed countless recipes to magazines and shown generations of Australians how to cook. Her daughter, Suzanne Gibbs, has written 15 books and is food director of Australian Table magazine.

Margaret

“Right from the time Sue was little I can remember being in the kitchen with her. I was going through my Chinese period and I would show her how to fold cloud swallows (wontons). She learnt very quickly. By the age of eight or nine, she could do quite intricate things.
“I wasn’t one of those mothers who told their kids to get out of the kitchen. If I was making biscuits, I’d give her some dough and she’d decorate them. I think it’s sad that a lot of people don’t embrace their children in what they are doing.
“When she told me she wanted to go into food as a career, I said I’d pay for her to go to the best school available, and so she went to the Cordon Bleu School in London. I thought it would be good for her to get away from my influence. It’s most flattering that she chose to follow in my footsteps.
“Sue lives only three doors away from me and we still have family meals. When I go to dinner at her place, everything is nice. When she was helping me on my new Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery, it was a joy working with someone who does things correctly. It was almost like we were speaking shorthand. I could hardly tell my writing from her writing. It’s just nice seeing what you’ve started being continued with a fresh approach.”

Suzanne

“Margaret was a busy woman and a single mum. She was trying to build a career and I was an only child. It was often left to me to keep the house running from a very early age. I remember going shopping and putting a meal on the table when I was about 10 or 11. They were simple meals but I was taught to do them perfectly.
“She had this little gourmet club with famous people and they would take turns in hosting do’s and I’d be the helper. I suppose I had quite a mature palate. At the age of 13, she asked what she could cook for my birthday and I chose brains in black butter sauce.
“We have very different personalities. I don’t think I have the same ego and it’s possibly why I don’t feel overshadowed by her. I wanted to have the family life I didn’t have and I’m really pleased I’ve got that.
“When I helped her run her Margaret Fulton Cookery Course in the ‘70s, she had enormous admiration for what I did and I had enormous admiration for her. I still have admiration for the way she puts a meal together. It’s always beautifully presented and lovingly done.
“I admire the way she has brought good food to this country and done it in a very accessible way. She’s brought herself into people’s homes and not intimated them, and I think in that she’s unique.”

© Christine Salins

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