Events

Details

Spend a Thursday afternoon making goey, delectable Monte Carlo biscuits with Jessie and Jac DiBlasi, the creators of Nonna to Nana: Stories of Food and Family. Enjoy a biscuit and a cuppa whilst hearing about how you can document your own family recipes.

This special event officially launches the Nonna to Nana exhibition.

ABOUT NONNA TO NANA: STORIES OF FOOD AND FAMILY

Jessie and Jacqueline DiBlasi love food and family. They recall Sunday lunch – a DiBlasi family tradition spent sitting around the extendable table at their Nonna Giovanna’s house.

Dubbed affectionately ‘Sunday Spaghetti’ the sisters tell how family gathered to eat, talk, share stories from their week and enjoy Nonna’s lovingly prepared home-cooked food.

‘She created the quiet heart of the family where busy lives could rely on the coming together at Nonna’s every week, if only to share a simple bowl of pasta’, they said.

This memory formed the inspiration behind their project Nonna to Nana, which documents grandmothers and their favourite recipes in a beautiful coffee-table cook book and subsequent photographic exhibition.

Jessie and Jac started talking to friends and family, while acquaintances and even strangers came forward to volunteer their own grandmothers – along with their most loved recipes. Over time they became aware of a need to document and celebrate the histories, traditions and recipes of this fast-disappearing generation of matriarchs.

The sisters were invited into the homes of over fifteen grandmothers, from diverse cultural backgrounds, all over Australia. They set out with camera and an open ear, to document the living culinary traditions of each unique grandmother. Sitting in their kitchens, Jessie and Jac began an open conversation – and they were told stories, often while recipes and culinary techniques were taught.

The exhibition presents photographs and anecdotes, celebrating the diverse culinary traditions of Australia’s grandmothers.

Exhibition on display until 21 April.