Poh

Australia’s culinary Beyoncé – almost always known by her mononym – Poh, is back in the MasterChef kitchen! Our cover star sits down with writer Maggie Zhou to talk whipping up laughs and dishing out advice to Back to Win contestants. Reflecting on how food helped her reconnect with culture, Poh is an artist in her element: “Food is the language that keeps surpassing all these other things, beyond language, beyond cultural values,” she tells us. “It’s like the thing that seems to be able to live on.”

More highlights in this edition:

• What’s that smell? In this issue, we meet the artist bottling the scent of shared collective experiences, the doctor training people to regain their sense of smell, and the scientist studying the influence of scent on our everyday lives. Then, get to training your own olfactory system with our guide on How to Smell Good!
• When bestselling author Hannah Kent left Adelaide for Iceland as a 17-year-old exchange student, she had no idea that the trip would provide the foundation for her bestselling novel, Burial Rites. Now, she’s returning to the place where it all began in her memoir Always Home, Always Homesick.
• For singer-songwriter Bonnie “Prince” Billy, creativity is all about collaboration: “It’s how I feel I can engage with anything and everything.” On his latest album, The Purple Bird, he’s going where the music demands.
• What would it take for the world to start listening to Deaf people? In 1988, this question sparked a civil rights movement at a Deaf university in Washington DC. We speak to the filmmakers revisiting this revolutionary student protest in new doco Deaf President Now!
• In her Letter to My Younger Self, author and social philosopher Sarah Wilson tells us about how she finally found her yes.
• As a child, Michael James loved baking with his grandmother. Now, he’s making no-fuss, zesty Lemon, Polenta and Raspberry Teacake for friends and family with his 10-year-old in Tastes Like Home. Read the full recipe here.

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