Proceeds from The Queer Australian Cookery Book will support

Buon-Cattivi Press launched with Peering Through in 2018. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary in 2028, we will be publishing two books that collect and share memories from our rainbow community. The first will be the second edition of Peering Through and the second the The Queer Australian Cookery Book. The book draws inspiration from charity cookbooks, such as the Green and Gold Cookbook, and will highlight the connection between food and queer memories.

Please read the information below and submit your recipe and memories at the bottom of the page.

We are now open to recipe and memory submissions. They are best kept short (250 words maximum in total of both) and in your casual voice, or in the voice of the person who passed the recipe on to you. Think of it as sharing a recipe over the phone in such a way that the language is direct, easy to follow, and friendly.

We are looking for the dishes and snacks of importance to individual members the queer community and the personal reason as to why that meal is in their heart. It can be any food: a salad that was at every family event, a sandwich or snack combo that only you seemed to make, the dessert you'd try to sneak when no one was watching, or that sauce that you could smell from down the street. Whatever the recipe, it should be something connected to a special memory that has meaning to you. 

Feel free to submit more than once. If there are multiple similar recipes, we will edit the book so that all the variations are published together.

If any commercial or well-known recipes are used as a base, inspiration, or companion, please reference these so we can accurately acknowledge the recipe creators. 

In the style of the charity cookbooks, each recipe will be published with a first name and location of the author. You’re welcome to anonymise yourself and use a general location (e.g., Joe, South Australia). Also in the charity cookbook spirit, proceeds from book sales will go to Queer Archive Collective of South Australia (QACSA) to support the important work of archiving and making accessible South Australia’s Queer History.

By submitting you agree that the recipe and associated memory may be edited, published, used in promotional material, and sold as part of the The Queer Australian Cookery Book project. Requests for removal of a submission can be made in writing and only prior to the book going to print.

The final decision of submissions included in the book, their editing, and their placement rests solely with the publisher. The publisher will endeavour to present submissions in the most respectful manner possible. The publisher will attempt to include as many submissions as possible but cannot guarantee publication to all work submitted.

You agree that the publisher will only hold rights to the recipes and memories as they exist as part of the full book project. Individual recipes and memories will continue to belong to the author. Any submissions that breach copyright and/or fair use principles will not be accepted. No artificial intelligence (AI) created work will be accepted.

By submitting you also agree that proceeds will go to Queer Archive Collective of South Australia. 

Grandma B’s Stew

Cut and braise chuck meat in stock pot. Add thick cut ‘sturdy’ vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, and carrots. Add 1 tin chopped tomatoes, rinse tin and add that water to pot as well. Add ¼ cup each of paprika, Worcestershire sauce, and raw sugar. Add 1 beef OXO cube and just enough water to cover all ingredients. Keep on low and simmer for 2-4 hours or until meat tender and veggies soft. Sauce should thicken. If not, add a corn flour slurry to thicken like gravy.

The kitchen was always a safe space at my grandparents’ house. No matter how dark or cold, there was always warmth and care. Despite being a devout Christian household, key tenets of their faith were acceptance and forgiveness, not judgement. I was still quite young when my grandmother passed yet I know there would have been no issue being my authentic self in front of them, she would have cared more that we were not eating enough hearty meals, like a stew. Her stew had a sweet undertone, which I later found out came from her waste nothing approach, which involved rinsing out any sauce bottle they had almost finished into the stew. No drop was left unused. - Alex, Unley.