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Adele Wessell is currently a lecturer at Southern Cross University. She co-ordinates and teaches courses on: Making History, Writing Place: History, Narrative, Memory, Empire and Ecology, EcoActivism, Food for Thought and Home.
Adele's current project 'From palate to paddock - taking ingredients for change back to their roots' traces the culinary history of Australia through the Museum's collection of cookbooks.
Cookbooks are a dynamic reflection of domestic life and social history. This project aims to provide a glimpse into some of the main developments in food, as well as a record of changing tastes. Changes in transport, industry and technology are illustrated in the availability of different ingredients and new methods of food preparation.
However, cookbooks have not been confined to culinary advice, they often offer information on appropriate social behaviour and etiquette. They have also been intimately connected with reform activities and the major social and cultural movements of their day, from consumer issues to health and women's rights. Cookbooks in turn have been transformed by changes in the social class of their readers and their authors.
Adele is based in the Centre for Historical Research until 19 December 2008. On Sunday 30 November she will be speaking at the Museum in a public program on 'History in the baking'. Bookings are essential on (02) 6208 5021. Visit our
online Calendar
for more details.
Adele can be contacted by email awessell@nma.gov.au or via Anne Faris at the Centre for Historical Research 6208 5103.
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