The indisputable Queen of the foodies
The Libran star sign which seems to breed food professionals celebrated the Queen Libran foodie’s 85th birthday last week.
Margaret Fulton OAM – Australia’s living national treasure – kicked her small but perfectly formed heels up in The Strangers dining room in Sydney’s Parliament House with some 230 colleagues, friends, family and admirers.
The woman who taught Australia to cook presided over the development of the menu with resident executive chef Scott Clark making the Aussie snapshot of past dining favourites a reality. To warm things up a special flavoured Margaret Fulton vodka was developed by Vitek of Vitek Vodka fame. A twist on a prawn cocktail and a terrine were openers with an individual beef wellington as mains coupled with Robert Oatley wines followed by a wicked trifle for dessert. And for a pièce de résistance birthday cake – eight layers of different vanilla interpretations was devised by star pâtissier Adriano Zumbo.
As patron of the august food body, the Food Media Club Australia Margaret, garnered an avalanche of congratulatory messages from those who had worked with her for the past four decades. The eternal French cook and food commentator Gabriel Gaté expressed his disappointment at not being able to attend to personally to deliver a French kiss, but instead said he would “kiss Margaret 85 times next time I see her”. It bought peels of laughter from the diminutive national living treasure.
In responding to the accolades solicited by broadcaster and MC Simon Marnie from food dignitaries in the packed room, Margaret said that “I’ve often thought cooking is just as interesting as men.” Take a number Gabriel!
But all the joyousness and frivolity aside, this was the celebration of a cooking and publishing powerhouse. There are no less than 166 records on the national bibliographic data base for Margaret Fulton titles in their various editions and guises.
In this, her 85th year, the Margaret Fulton Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery has been published in its 3rd edition (previous editions being 2005, 2007) as well as the republishing of Margaret Fulton’s Christmas and next year we already know there will be the reissue of the sell-out Margaret Fulton Cook Book.
If ever there was a ‘not out’ score to celebrate this had to be the one!