Home Cooked, the Carlton Community Cookbook Project
Sneak peek inside our cookbook.
OUR very first cookbook is out, and it’s all about cooking from the heart!
To celebrate Carlton, and the multicultural community of which Meld Magazine, and many international students are a part – we embarked on a little project last year, inviting residents, students, workers, business owners and volunteers from all around the neighbourhood to share their stories through food.
The project was also borne out of our belief that everyone, regardless of race, culture, socio-economic background, or gender, has something to bring to the table.
We dubbed it Home Cooked, The Carlton Community Cookbook Project.
And so we began, running test kitchens, styling food, organising photoshoots – out of a tiny kitchenette in the city fitted with only a two-burner stove and oven.
In the kitchen. Meld Magazine editor Karen Poh and photographer Shaun Lee at work.
Like many grassroots-driven projects, it was a painstaking and messy affair.
We broke plates. Had photoshoots redone when we didn’t think they were up to scratch. Returned to the drawing board again and again as we revised the cookbook for the umpteenth time.
But it was also a rewarding, exciting and bonding experience.
Staff from Bendigo Bank Carlton got to share a meal with international students at Arrow on Swanston. Meld Magazine volunteers hosted a community lunch at the Church of All Nations. Members from the church community Life* Expedition got to sample the dishes coming out of our test kitchen.
From left, Meld volunteer Ellie serving community lunch at the Church of All Nations, Aggie and Susanna from Bendigo Bank share a meal with international students in Carlton, Aggie’s homemade arancini, students from the Arrow neighbourhood, Greg, Karen and Aun from Meld Magazine (bottom left).
Thank you to all our contributors and volunteers who have given so much their time to this project, and the City of Melbourne who has supported us through the Opportunities for Carlton Fund. We couldn’t have done it without all of you.
We hope this cookbook will inspire you, our readers, to gather people round the communal table and share recipes and dishes that taste like home, sweet home.
You can now purchase your copy of Home Cooked online via PayPal. All prices are inclusive of postage and handling, except for local pick-up from Meld Magazine, Level 10, 488 Swanston St, Carlton. For more information and all other enquiries, email meld@meldmagazine.com.au.