Stephanie Alexander is an author and cook, best known for her kitchen bible The Cook’s Companion. Here, the 83-year-old shares why her father had to moderate family dinners, the compliments she credits to her high school French teacher and her confusion about why she married a second time. “I get plenty of hugs from them and I am happy with that.
I feel fulfilled in my life.” Credit: Armelle Habib My paternal grandfather, George , was a fierce and interesting old man. He was radically political.
He came back to Australia after his wife died of a stroke in England and lived with us for 25 years in our family home in West Rosebud [now Capel Sound], Victoria. My mum, Mary, converted her painting studio to accommodate him. His presence in the family home wasn’t always fabulous because dinner table conversations could get quite heated.
My father, Winston, had to moderate some of Grandpa’s opinions for the sake of us kids. Grandpa was always writing and arguing about things that weren’t the official line of thought in Australia. He died aged 94.
I worshipped my father – he was great to all his children. He was big on having a balanced view in life and taught us that the world is not black and white, that it needs shades of grey. He’d always say “look it up in the encyclopedia” so it’s no wonder I became a librarian.
He ran a caravan park with my mum and later retired to East Melbourne, where he wrote a history of the houses in the area. My parents met on a Jap.
