Enjoy a preview of the newest Fiction Edition here, with Nina Wan’s short story The Tickets.

When I arrived in Australia, my wife Cath introduced me to the humble lamington and I was struck by its elegance, simplicity and, of course, flavour.

Plain cakes are the ones I grew up with. They are not only my comfort zone, but my happy place, too.

Vicky Daddo discovers that football is not the same on the other side of the world – but now football is coming home. I’m nine years old, thumping my frozen feet on the concrete of the Carshalton Athletic Football Club stand, south of London, with my dad and brother. Mum’s at home, probably enjoying the...

There’s a reason why my son Miles will eat bowls and bowls of this – you just can’t beat a bowl of juicy, melt-in-your-mouth beef in a thick and flavoursome sauce. You just can’t.

Melanie Saward inherited her nanna’s love of dolls – but her sister may have had other ideas. Nanna’s house is full of dolls. She has beautiful antique cabinets stuffed to the brim with vacant plastic faces staring out. All the wardrobes in her house are stacked high with boxes full of immaculate porcelain dolls bought...

This is the soup of my childhood. Every time I was sick with a cold or flu this would be the soup my mum would make for me. Simply eating this soup would actually make me feel less sick; it was home in a bowl. It would make me feel loved and cared for, nurtured,...

In Chinese culture, we always share food and the table is full of a mix of vegetables, meat, fish and rice, so that the food is varied for good health. At each meal, fish is the most important dish. The fish must be very fresh, and well-chosen in an Asian fish market. We prepare it...

Sometimes a recipe is more than just a recipe. It comes with a family story and memories. It can transport you to another time and place. To your grandmother’s kitchen. To another country. To a more innocent era, before you were forced to leave your home.

In the far northwest of Australia, Exmouth Gulf is a sanctuary for humpback whales, dugongs and turtles, a blue-carbon reservoir in a breathtaking landscape like no other on Earth. But all that could change, as developers push ahead with potentially tragic consequences. Tim Winton is one of those fighting to preserve this wonderland.

I used my sensory memory to create this recipe based on the curry leaf tree in my paternal grandmother’s garden. Each time I went to her home, the leaves of this large tree would be heavy with the fresh, zesty and distinctly mouth-watering scent of curry leaves.

Mum’s recipe for Shaking Beef was amazing, and I’ve adapted it here. With your parents’ cooking, they know your palate and how to season for your taste. Mum was not a big sugar person, so her recipe isn’t as sweet as when we went to restaurants. I think that’s what made me fall in love...

Few things in this world taste as good as birthday cake. Cake is always good, of course – but birthday cake is special. Each bite is happy; every last crumb a celebration. It might taste of chocolate and sugar and sprinkles, but the strongest flavours are love and nostalgia and the very happiest of memories.

Corfu, one of the lush green Ionian islands, sits west of mainland Greece. Historically, the island was ruled by the Venetians, so it retains a strong Italian influence in both food and architecture. Pastitsada, one of Corfu’s most iconic dishes, is a pasta dish I grew up on. The tomato-based stew is made with chicken...

Like a Y2K fever dream, the glitchy game Saddle Club: Willowbrook Stables continues to haunt Louise Cain and her siblings.

Over time, I’d wonder how to make a better version of items sold at coffee shops, as I would think I could make them cheaper – and maybe better! – as they wouldn’t be mass produced. A cheesecake was one of those items.

Friends come and friends go. Some give, some take. Most do both. Why do we care for each other? Does necessity draw us together? Or is it shared experiences, common stories? It must be more than this, if it’s to last.

I remember running home after playing and asking Mum for a little money, and we sat together sharing these wonderful fresh noodles and everything was perfect.

For me, this recipe evokes pure childhood nostalgia. It brings back memories of times down the beach with a big paper tray of seasoned wedges and sweet chilli sauce.

When Jasper Peach’s eldest child had that momentous first day of school, the love was shared with a very large community.

Development of the Lune Finger Bun Croissant was a delicious meander down memory lane. Especially that Boston icing (turns out, adult Kate still can’t get enough of that).

This recipe is close to my heart. It is a reminder of time spent with my son in the garden, exploring, observing and learning together.

This dish takes me right back to when I was five years old and would stay with my grandparents in Bashtanka.

Designer Jenny Kee looks back at swingin’ London, 70s Sydney and defining 80s fashion.

There is something incredibly satisfying about feeding your family good food – by putting in the effort to say: I made your favourite dinner and I love you.

Elva and I would banter about baking, and she once served me this cake, her signature chocolate sponge recipe, which is now a regular at my shop, Cakeboi.

Our family has always organised itself around eating. Even the memories I have of my great-grandmother are through the lens of food.

From being bullied in boarding school to singing for the Queen and surviving pancreatic cancer, Monty Python’s Eric Idle looks back on the dark, bright and bizarre sides of his life.

Soups are very important in Persian cuisine and Ash Reshteh is the absolute king.

It’s a longstanding family joke that I’m completely biased when I adamantly declare at every opportunity that my mum’s gyoza are the best in the world.

Food in our family means celebration; it means coming together as a family and enjoying each other’s company.

I mean, what’s not to love about gravy, vegies and mashed potatoes all baked together?

Read ‘Morticia and Me’ by Emma Darragh, featured in our latest Fiction Edition.

A new generation of students returns for a fresh take on ground-breaking Australian series Heartbreak High.

You see, there is genuine love in desserts that resists all attempts to tamp it down. These are not the foods you need to eat; they are the foods you want to eat. They are not sustenance, but a gift of affection.

These eggplants have all the things I love. Cooked and served whole with little interference, with layers of sweet, sour, acid, crunch, creaminess and herbs.

It is wonderful for afternoon tea and keeps well thanks to the extra-virgin olive oil.

On a cold winter’s night in Sydney, people gather to remember those who lost their lives living on the streets.

Now I have a large, active family who seem to be always on the go, this soup takes me back to those slow, treasured newborn days in an instant. Isn’t it so lovely how food can do that?

Before Jack Irish, before Easttown, Guy Pearce was a boy from Erinsborough. He talks fatherhood, fame and overcoming his fears.

Ricky French takes the opportunity to do one of the final Neighbours tours of Vermont South.

The most nostalgic egg dish for me is the big bowl of steamed savoury egg custard my family would make as part of dinner.

It’s a simple pleasure, the smell of it cooking and the soft, gently flavoured crumb is like time travel to Mum’s warm, colourful kitchen. My happy place.

KL Hokkien mee was a family favourite. Poised with our bowls and chopsticks, we would unwrap our neatly packaged supper and dive in. Words of gratitude were replaced by the noise of slurping noodles.

Most cultures have some form of toffee, fudge or caramel in their repertoire. This recipe is my version of the one found in Sri Lanka – milk toffee, which I learned from my Nan.

This recipe brings back so many fond memories. It has all the flavours of a warm, classic apple crumble, but with much less effort.

Next door lives our very own angel, Yiayia (grandmother in Greek). And this was the first dish she gifted us after our mother passed away.

"If there’s one thing that I hope my kids can cook by the time they leave home, it is this."

One of my all-time favourite scents is a heavily spiced hot cross bun wafting through the kitchen...

Food says community to me because enjoying a great meal is a great way to get together with those who are important to you.

We revisit cricket legend Shane Warne’s Letter to My Younger Self, in which he revealed the importance of good manners, good friends and good scents.

My earliest memories of the wonders of baking were in my grandmother’s kitchen. The aroma as you walked in the door spelled “Welcome. Sit down, have a chat and something nice to eat.” It was like you were enjoying a cuddle with food.

The Big Issue’s Women’s Workforce are a force to be reckoned with, as Melissa Fulton discovers when she joins them on a shift.