EVENTS & TALKS
PUBLIC LECTURE 16 MAY 2026
Move over meat pie: How Italian food conquered Aussie dinner tables, 1960s-70s
A free talk by Dr Tania Cammarano as part of the one-day heritage event at Mount Martha House, Our Stories: Living the 60s & 70s.
When: Saturday 16 May 2026, 1.30pm - 2.15pm
Where: Mount Martha House, 466 Esplanade, Mount Martha, 3934, view map
Italian cuisine has a long history in Australia but during the 60s and 70s it moved beyond the kitchens of Italian migrants and restaurants to firmly establish itself on the dinner plates of Anglo-Australian households.
But how did the food of a migrant minority win over the mainstream? Against a backdrop of rapid social change and challenges to Australian cultural identity, food historian Dr Tania Cammarano will examine how Italian food conquered Aussie palates.
In particular, the talk will focus on how glamorous ideas of Italy, entrepreneurial migrants, a flourishing food industry and a thriving cookbook culture all combined to give our food's flavour an Italian accent. It will also explore what the Italian revolution on our plates looked like on the Mornington Peninsula, a place where one of the earliest espresso coffee lounges outside a major city was established.
Free but bookings are essential
For more information about the event and to book, go to:
Our Stories: Living the 60s & 70s
“The Italian flavor and feeling are seeping out everywhere. Our urban diet used to be the bottle of Fosters and the meat pie… now, more and more, the urban diet is the bottle of red and a pizza…” So wrote “Batman” (aka Keith Dunstan) in this 1969 cover story for The Bulletin, at a time when the food traditions of Italian migrants were beginning to make a significant impact on the mainstream food culture. Source: Trove