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== Symposium of Australian Gastronomy ==


----
The '''Symposium of Australian Gastronomy''' (SAG) is the culinary biennale that draws cooks, historians, food writers, academics and the food curious together to present research, share knowledge and discuss topics such as food, gastronomy, cooking, food and culinary history and culture.

{{Short description|An event that explores Australian food and gastronomy}}
{{Draft topics|oceania|politics-and-government}}
{{AfC topic|org}}

== Symposium of Australian Gastronomy ==


The '''Symposium of Australian Gastronomy''' (SAG) is a culinary biennale that draws cooks, historians, food writers, academics and the food curious together to present research, share knowledge and discuss topics such as food, gastronomy, cooking, food and culinary history and culture.
== Why a symposium and not a conference? ==


That the event is called a ], rather than a conference, references the spirit of the ancient Greeks who gathered for drinks and convivial discussion after banqueting. The term is also notable as the title of a work by ].
The original intention was to follow in the spirit of the ancient Greeks. A symposium is defined as a drinking party or convivial discussion, especially as held in ancient Greece after a banquet (and notable as the title of a work by Plato). <ref>Oxford Languages https://www.google.com/search?q=meaning+of+symposia&oq=meaning+of+symposia&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABhDGIoFMgkIAhAAGEMYigUyCQgDEAAYQxiKBTIJCAQQABhDGIoFMgkIBRAAGEMYigUyCQgGEAAYQxiKBTINCAcQABiDARixAxiABDIKCAgQABixAxiABDINCAkQABiDARixAxiKBdIBCDI3NjBqMWo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8</ref>


== The first symposium: 1984 == == The first symposium: 1984 ==


The first Symposium of Australian Gastronomy (SAG 1) was held at ], a mansion in North Adelaide, South Australia, on March 12-13, 1984. The symposium was convened by Gay Bilson, Graham Pont and Michael Symons and organised by Barbara Santich. The first Symposium of Australian Gastronomy (SAG 1), with ''The Upstart Cuisine'' as the theme, was held at ], a mansion in North Adelaide, South Australia, on March 12-13, 1984. The symposium was convened by Gay Bilson, Graham Pont and Michael Symons and organised by Barbara Santich.


At the time, Gay Bilson was proprietor of Berowra Waters Inn, a restaurant on the northern perimeter of Sydney; Graham Pont was a senior lecturer at the University of NSW; Michael Symons was proprietor (with Jennifer Hilliard) of the Uraidla Aristologist in the Adelaide Hills and author of the book ''One Continuous Picnic, a gastronomic history of Australia'' (Duck Press, 1982); and Barbara Santich was a scholar of French language and cuisine. At the time, Gay Bilson was proprietor of Berowra Waters Inn, a restaurant on the northern perimeter of Sydney; Graham Pont was a senior lecturer at the University of NSW; was proprietor (with Jennifer Hilliard) of the Uraidla Aristologist in the Adelaide Hills and author of the book ''One Continuous Picnic, a gastronomic history of Australia'' (Duck Press, 1982); and Barbara Santich was a scholar of French language and cuisine.


], co-convenor of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, which commenced in 1983 and which inspired the Australian symposium in part, and ], a campaigner for progressive social policy and an Australian politician who had served as premier of South Australia, were both among the attendees. ], co-convenor of the , which commenced in 1983 and which inspired the Australian symposium in part, and ], a campaigner for progressive social policy and an Australian politician who had served as premier of South Australia, were both among the attendees.


Barbara Santich writes: “The event was partly inspired by symposia held in Oxford, but covered the broad field of gastronomy. Rather than concentrating on culinary history. Barbara Santich writes: “The event was partly inspired by symposia held in Oxford, but covered the broad field of gastronomy. Rather than concentrating on culinary history.


“We considered that Gay Bilson had summed up the history, the pretentiousness and the promise of the Australian cuisine by the comment that ours was an ‘upstart culinary country’. The lack of food traditions called for a positive and reasoned response, so that the emerging culinary exuberance could be guided by food scholarship and perhaps work wonders.” <ref>Prologue, page iii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref> “We considered that Gay Bilson had summed up the history, the pretentiousness and the promise of the Australian cuisine by the comment that ours was an ‘upstart culinary country’. The lack of food traditions called for a positive and reasoned response, so that the emerging culinary exuberance could be guided by food scholarship and perhaps work wonders.”<ref>Prologue, page iii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref>


Well-known writers, restaurateurs and students of gastronomy attended the first symposium. They included chef and restaurateur ], restaurateur ], writer ], chef ], South Australian caterer Cath Kerry, winemaker ] and cook and restauranteur ]. <ref>Participants, p135, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref> Well-known writers, restaurateurs and students of gastronomy attended the first symposium. They included chef and restaurateur ], restaurateur ], writer ], chef ], South Australian caterer Cath Kerry, winemaker ] and cook and restauranteur ].<ref>Participants, p135, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref>


The goal was to attract “a balance of ‘theoreticians’, ‘practitioners’ and ‘passionate amateurs’" <ref>Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.</ref> to the two-day program of talks and discussions. The 'theoretical' program was interspersed with meals that included a Brown Bread Lunch, Cuisine du Coeur (a lunch ‘cooked from the heart’ by participants) and a banquet prepared by Australian chefs Phillip Searle and Cheong Liew that has since “become gastronomic legend”. <ref>Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.</ref> The goal was to attract “a balance of ‘theoreticians’, ‘practitioners’ and ‘passionate amateurs’"<ref>Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.</ref> to the two-day program of talks and discussions. The 'theoretical' program was interspersed with meals that included a Brown Bread Lunch, Cuisine du Coeur (a lunch ‘cooked from the heart’ by participants) and a banquet prepared by Australian chefs Phillip Searle and Cheong Liew that has since “become gastronomic legend”. <ref>Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.</ref>


"The banquet was planned as the spectacular finale to the symposium, an extravaganza that would say something about gastronomy… and respond in an exciting and original way to the tag of ‘upstart’. <ref>Barbara Santich, P128, Proceedings SAG 1</ref> "The banquet was planned as the spectacular finale to the symposium, an extravaganza that would say something about gastronomy… and respond in an exciting and original way to the tag of ‘upstart’.<ref>Barbara Santich, P128, Proceedings SAG 1</ref>


The ‘banquet’ would go on to become a defining feature of future symposia. The ‘banquet’ would go on to become a defining feature of future symposia and showcase the cooking and creative vision of a generation of renowned Australian cooks and chefs.


== Organisation == == Organisation ==
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Since 1984, the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy has been held approx. every two years in various towns, cities and states in Australia and in New Zealand. Since 1984, the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy has been held approx. every two years in various towns, cities and states in Australia and in New Zealand.


The decision of who will host the following event is made in the plenary session of each Symposium. Bids for hosting the following symposium are made during the plenary session of each symposium.


The convenor and organising committee of each symposium undertake the roles as volunteers and they are free to make decisions about location, duration and content. There is no central secretariat. The convenor and organising committee of each symposium undertake the roles as volunteers and they are free to make decisions about location, duration and content. There is no central secretariat.
Line 41: Line 47:
Convening committees have reported a desire to balance rigorous discourse (upping intellectual standards, extending invitations to specialists and scholars, following a formal conference format, including a keynote address) with the ‘recipe’ of the earlier symposiums, as expressed by Michael Symons, which originated in food-centeredness and a few unwritten and uncodified conventions. Convening committees have reported a desire to balance rigorous discourse (upping intellectual standards, extending invitations to specialists and scholars, following a formal conference format, including a keynote address) with the ‘recipe’ of the earlier symposiums, as expressed by Michael Symons, which originated in food-centeredness and a few unwritten and uncodified conventions.


“We can describe the symposiums as being both ‘open’ (self-selecting, participative, experimental, consensual, nurturing) and ‘closed’ (limited in numbers, self-contained, inward-directed, inconspicuously consuming)," he writes in the prologue of SAG 5, held in Adelaide in 1990. <ref>A Personal Prologue, Fifth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, The Pleasures of the Table, Proceedings, Adelaide, March 10-13, 1990.</ref> “We can describe the symposiums as being both ‘open’ (self-selecting, participative, experimental, consensual, nurturing) and ‘closed’ (limited in numbers, self-contained, inward-directed, inconspicuously consuming)," he writes in the prologue of SAG 5, held in Adelaide in 1990.<ref>A Personal Prologue, Fifth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, The Pleasures of the Table, Proceedings, Adelaide, March 10-13, 1990.</ref>


== Track Record – dates, places and themes ==
== Themes ==

While the individual papers, panel discussions and performances that have been presented at each SAG speak of their creators' own interests and pursuits there has been a consistent focus – as observed in the convenor's choice of theme and program content – on Australia's culinary and gastronomic experience, including presentations relating to indigenous and multicultural foodways and cultures.

At SAG 1, Helen Peacocke asked the question, 'If we can eat oysters, why not witchetty grubs?

Betty Meehan, whose book on Aboriginal cookery will soon be published.
Stephen Harris, spoke about three indigenous Tasmanian plants that had potential for commercial development at sag 5, 1990.

== The Banquet ==

The most anticipated of the unwritten and uncodified SAG conventions is the final banquet; an opportunity for the convening committee to create a meal that encompasses and expresses that symposium's theme in collaboration with the culinary talent and food producers of the area in which the symposium is being held.

Over the years, there have been some remarkable banquets. Highlights include (more details to come):
* Phillip Searle and Chiong Lieu, Beechworth

==== SAG 7, 1993 – Nature and Culture – presented by Gay Bilson ====

“Turned out of a tiny tent in the gallery’s courtyard by a team of six cooks and six waiters, each dish was superbly crafted. More interestingly, it was unlike any banquet at the end of a similar event anywhere in the world, not just in its execution, but in its conception.”<ref>Cherry Ripe, Food and Art (Corporeal Versus Surreal), pages 103-104, Nature and Culture, Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Canberra ACT. Eds Mary Brander, Betty Meehan and Elizabeth Minchin.</ref>

* Christine Manfield, Sydney
* Orange cattle truck

== Other unwritten conventions ==

The convenors and organiser of the first symposium set out with the intention of making the event food-led and participants, especially in the early years, cooked and contributed food.<ref>Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref> Some examples include:

===== Jam and Biscuits =====

Lois Butt and Gwenda Robb baked a selection of eight biscuits for the first symposium, including ] and ]. Participants also contributed jars of jam for breakfast.

===== Box dinner =====
The Box Dinner was introduced at SAG 5 in 1990. Organisers filled boxes with various foods and, working in small groups, participants cooked a meal and served it to each other, using the contents of the box.

===== Brown Bread lunch =====
Lunch on the first day of the first symposium was listed in the program as a ‘brown bread lunch’.

“Bread has strong symbolism. Such was the shortage of grain in the early NSW colony that Governor Phillip added a “bring your own bread” request at the bottom of invitations . We ask participants to bring their own brown bread to the first lunch, which will stress simplicity.”<ref>Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref>

At SAG 1, the brown bread was supplemented with fresh churned butter, boiled fresh lobster and mayonnaise. Mature rinded cheddar cheese, Bronhill fresh goat cheese and fresh fruit. The meal was served with Perrier Jouet champagne, Petaluma Rhine Riesling 1983 and Hungerford Hill Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1980.

While not a regular program feature, homage was paid to this lunch at SAG 15 in 2007. A sandwich of crayfish tail meat and freshly whisked mayonnaise in pocketed sourdough bread, wrapped in a brown paper bag, was served alongside a glass of Mumm Champagne NV Cordon Rouge. Participants sat on the decking of the boathouse where the lunch was held, feet dangling over the sparkling water below.

<gallery>
SAG 1 Brown Bread Lunch Menu.png|Brown Bread Lunch menu, 1984
</gallery>

== Symposia 1984–2022 ==


{| class="wikitable" {| class="wikitable"
Line 97: Line 56:
! Number !! Year !! Theme ! Number !! Year !! Theme
|- |-
| 1 || 1984 || The Upstart Cuisine, Adelaide SA | 1 || 1984 || ''The Upstart Cuisine'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 2 || 1985 || Foodism: Philosophy or Fad?, Adelaide SA | 2 || 1985 || ''Foodism: Philosophy or Fad?'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 3 || 1986 || A Multicultural Society, Melbourne VIC | 3 || 1986 || ''A Multicultural Society'', Melbourne VIC
|- |-
| 4 || 1987 || Food in Festivity, Sydney NSW | 4 || 1987 || ''Food in Festivity'', Sydney NSW
|- |-
| 5 || 1990 || The Pleasures of the Table, Adelaide SA | 5 || 1990 || ''The Pleasures of the Table'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 6 || 1991 || Much Depends on Dinner, Geelong VIC | 6 || 1991 || ''Much Depends on Dinner'', Geelong VIC
|- |-
| 7 || 1993 || Nature and Culture, Canberra ACT | 7 || 1993 || ''Nature and Culture'', Canberra ACT
|- |-
| 8 || 1994 || Sustaining Gastronomy, Adelaide SA | 8 || 1994 || ''Sustaining Gastronomy'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 9 || 1996 || Food and Power, Sydney NSW | 9 || 1996 || ''Food and Power'', Sydney NSW
|- |-
| 10 || 1998 || Beyond the Tuckerbox: Securing the Future, Grampians VIC | 10 || 1998 || ''Beyond the Tuckerbox: Securing the Future'', Grampians VIC
|- |-
| 11 || 1999 || The Pursuit of Happiness from Colony to Republic, Hobart TAS | 11 || 1999 || ''The Pursuit of Happiness from Colony to Republic'', Hobart TAS
|- |-
| 11A || 2001 || In Holiday Mood, Wellington NZ | 11A || 2001 || ''In Holiday Mood'', Wellington NZ
|- |-
| 12 || 2001 || The Edible City: Ideas for Urban Gastronomy, Adelaide SA | 12 || 2001 || ''The Edible City: Ideas for Urban Gastronomy'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 13 || 2004 || Food, Fears, Fads and Fantasies, Orange NSW | 13 || 2004 || ''Food, Fears, Fads and Fantasies'', Orange NSW
|- |-
| 14 || 2005 || Preservation or Change, Beechworth VIC | 14 || 2005 || ''Preservation or Change'', Beechworth VIC
|- |-
| 15 || 2007 || Beyond the Supermarket: Learning to Overcome Gastronomic Poverty, Dover TAS | 15 || 2007 || ''Beyond the Supermarket: Learning to Overcome Gastronomic Poverty'', Dover TAS
|- |-
| 16 || 2008 || Hunter ‘Cry the Beloved River’, Hunter Valley NSW | 16 || 2008 || ''Hunter ‘Cry the Beloved River’'', Hunter Valley NSW
|- |-
| 17 || 2009 || Gastronomic Economies, Adelaide SA | 17 || 2009 || ''Gastronomic Economies'', Adelaide SA
|- |-
| 18 || 2011 || The Federation of Taste, Canberra ACT | 18 || 2011 || ''The Federation of Taste'', Canberra ACT
|- |-
| 19 || 2013 || The Generous Table, Newcastle NSW | 19 || 2013 || ''The Generous Table'', Newcastle NSW
|- |-
| 20 || 2014 || Ferment, The Australian & New Zealand Symposia of Gastronomy & Food History, Wellington NZ | 20 || 2014 || ''Ferment, The Australian & New Zealand Symposia of Gastronomy & Food History'', Wellington NZ
|- |-
| 21 || 2016 || Utopian Appetites, Melbourne VIC | 21 || 2016 || ''Utopian Appetites'', Melbourne VIC
|- |-
| 22 || 2018 || Out of Place, Sydney NSW | 22 || 2018 || ''Out of Place'', Sydney NSW
|- |-
| 23 || 2020 || The Education of the Senses: Aesthetics of Food and Drink, Brisbane QLD | 23 || 2020 || ''The Education of the Senses: Aesthetics of Food and Drink'', Brisbane QLD
|- |-
| 24 || 2022 || Reclaiming Happiness: The Epicurean Garden, Simple Pleasures and a Sustainable Future, Bendigo VIC | 24 || 2022 || ''Reclaiming Happiness: The Epicurean Garden, Simple Pleasures and a Sustainable Future'', Bendigo VIC
|-
| 25 || 2024 || ''Island'', Launceston, TAS
|} |}


== Published proceedings == == Published proceedings ==


The proceedings of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy is a faithful record of each event. The collection provides valuable insight into Australia’s food history and contributes to the discussion and study of gastronomy. The proceedings of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy provide a valuable insight into Australia’s food history and contribute to the discussion and study of gastronomy.


Proceedings published in book form (1984 to 2006) can be found in various libraries. Copies of the proceedings published in book form (1984 to 2006) are held in National and State libraries.


The 2007 Symposium was produced on a CD, copies of which are held at National Library and University of Adelaide. The 2007 Symposium was produced on a CD, copies of which are held at National Library and University of Adelaide library.


Since 2006, proceedings have been produced in digital form. These can be found on the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy website. <ref>https://www.gastromomers.net/</ref> Since 2006, proceedings have been produced in digital form. These can be found on the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy website.<ref>https://www.gastromomers.net/</ref>


== Location of SAG proceedings by library == == Location of SAG proceedings by library ==
Line 182: Line 143:
WESTERN AUSTRALIA WESTERN AUSTRALIA
* : 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10 * : 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10

== Conventions ==

The convenors of the first symposium set out with the intention of making the event food-led<ref>Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref> and participants, especially in the early years, cooked and contributed food to share.

===== Jam and Biscuits =====
Participants were encouraged to bring homemade jam for the breakfast table and biscuits for morning and afternoon tea. Lois Butt and Gwenda Robb baked a selection of eight biscuits for the first symposium.

===== Box dinner =====
The Box Dinner was introduced at SAG 5 in 1990. Organisers filled boxes with various foods and, working in small groups, participants cooked a meal and served it to each other, using the contents of the box.

===== Brown Bread lunch =====
Lunch on the first day of the first symposium was listed in the program as a ‘brown bread lunch’.

“Bread has strong symbolism. Such was the shortage of grain in the early NSW colony that Governor Phillip added a “bring your own bread” request at the bottom of invitations . We ask participants to bring their own brown bread to the first lunch, which will stress simplicity.”<ref>Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.</ref>

The brown bread was supplemented with fresh churned butter, boiled fresh lobster and mayonnaise. The meal was served with Perrier Jouet champagne, Petaluma Rhine Riesling 1983 and Hungerford Hill Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1980.

While not a regular program feature, homage was paid to this lunch at SAG 15 in 2007, in Dover, Tasmania, with a sourdough sandwich of crayfish tail meat and freshly whisked mayonnaise, wrapped in a brown paper bag, was served alongside a glass of Mumm Champagne NV Cordon Rouge. Participants sat on the deck of Martin's Boathouse, feet dangling over the sparkling water below.<ref>''Dover Venues'', Karen Pridham. Fifteenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. Beyond the Supermarket. Proceedings. 2007.</ref>

==== The Banquet ====
The most anticipated SAG convention is the final banquet, an opportunity for the convening committee to create a meal that encompasses and expresses that symposium's theme in collaboration with the culinary talent and food producers of the area in which the symposium is being held.

In the history of the Symposium, many fine meals have been served. Among them:

* Nature and Culture, Gay Bilson. SAG 7, 1993

“Turned out of a tiny tent in the gallery’s courtyard by a team of six cooks and six waiters, each dish was superbly crafted. More interestingly, it was unlike any banquet at the end of a similar event anywhere in the world, not just in its execution, but in its conception.”<ref>Cherry Ripe, Food and Art (Corporeal Versus Surreal), pages 103-104, ''Nature and Culture'', Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Canberra ACT. Eds Mary Brander, Betty Meehan and Elizabeth Minchin.</ref>

*Beyond the Tucker Box, Phillip Searle and Chiong Lieu. SAG 10, 1998.

"For two days the cooks cooked and the baker baked. The cooks dug a large rectangular oven in the earth and baked stones to store heat. They stuffed, then coated, young emus (all 'drumstick' as if a deformed foetus) in seasoned butter and flour and wrapped them in banana leaves and paper and cloth and mesh and mud and did variations of the same to sides of pork and to Murray Cod, enough, too much, for seventy people. The parcels were hugely, grandly primeval and of the earth to which they were returned, mud to mud, and buried in a graveyard hours before the time at which it would be ransacked for the feed. Above the pit, scrubbed, tight-lipped oysters were opened and tainted by flaming twigs and leaves as the first course of the banquet. Blue swimmer crabs as cold and fresh as the Grampians air were grilled over the fire to become the unsurpassed food of the banquet. Underneath, the meat and fish suffered stone-warmed changes: in bed with heat for eight hours animal and fish in slow combustion became food."<ref>''Buried Treasure'', review by Gay Bilson. p 152. Tenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, ''Beyond the Tuckerbox: Securing the Future''. Proceedings. 1998.</ref>

* The Beef from this Pasture at The Stanmore Barn, Simon West, Scott Minervini, Steve Cumper and Justin Harris. SAG 15, 2007.

Both the pasture and the cow that had lived on it were to be the feature of this dinner. The pasture was bought "into the barn by laying grass on the long central table as a tablecloth. The idea morphed further when a local orchardist turned up with what he called 'apple prunings' although they were the size of a small tree, laden with wrinkling apples and yellowing leaves. Another arrived with a box of mushrooms that had sprung up overnight in his garden. Rocks laid under the grass made it more like a paddock than a bowling green and in reality it looked more like an orchard than a pasture but then who's splitting hairs? We felt that the beast we had chosen to give up its life for our pleasure on the night was honoured both by the setting and the delicious meal."<ref>''Dover Venues'', Karen Pridham. Fifteenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, ''Beyond the Supermarket''. Proceedings. 2007.</ref>


== External Links == == External Links ==
Line 194: Line 191:


Bilson, Gay (2004) ''Plenty. Digressions on food'', Melbourne: Penguin, pp. 57–8 (dinner for symposium 1993), 215–218 (10th symposium 1997) Bilson, Gay (2004) ''Plenty. Digressions on food'', Melbourne: Penguin, pp. 57–8 (dinner for symposium 1993), 215–218 (10th symposium 1997)

Driver, Christopher (1985)
The Guardian, pp. 17. Friday October 25 1985


Halligan, Marion (1994) ''Too solid flesh'' , ''Island'' (Sandy Bay), 58, Autumn, pp. 3–6. Halligan, Marion (1994) ''Too solid flesh'' , ''Island'' (Sandy Bay), 58, Autumn, pp. 3–6.

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  • Comment: This could well be notable, but close primary sources do not establish that. Per WP:GNG, we need to see significant coverage, directly of the subject, in multiple secondary sources that are both reliable and entirely independent. DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:44, 12 June 2024 (UTC)
An event that explores Australian food and gastronomy

Symposium of Australian Gastronomy

The Symposium of Australian Gastronomy (SAG) is a culinary biennale that draws cooks, historians, food writers, academics and the food curious together to present research, share knowledge and discuss topics such as food, gastronomy, cooking, food and culinary history and culture.

That the event is called a symposium, rather than a conference, references the spirit of the ancient Greeks who gathered for drinks and convivial discussion after banqueting. The term is also notable as the title of a work by Plato.

The first symposium: 1984

The first Symposium of Australian Gastronomy (SAG 1), with The Upstart Cuisine as the theme, was held at Carclew, a mansion in North Adelaide, South Australia, on March 12-13, 1984. The symposium was convened by Gay Bilson, Graham Pont and Michael Symons and organised by Barbara Santich.

At the time, Gay Bilson was proprietor of Berowra Waters Inn, a restaurant on the northern perimeter of Sydney; Graham Pont was a senior lecturer at the University of NSW; Michael Symons was proprietor (with Jennifer Hilliard) of the Uraidla Aristologist in the Adelaide Hills and author of the book One Continuous Picnic, a gastronomic history of Australia (Duck Press, 1982); and Barbara Santich was a scholar of French language and cuisine.

Alan Davidson, co-convenor of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, which commenced in 1983 and which inspired the Australian symposium in part, and Don Dunstan, a campaigner for progressive social policy and an Australian politician who had served as premier of South Australia, were both among the attendees.

Barbara Santich writes: “The event was partly inspired by symposia held in Oxford, but covered the broad field of gastronomy. Rather than concentrating on culinary history.

“We considered that Gay Bilson had summed up the history, the pretentiousness and the promise of the Australian cuisine by the comment that ours was an ‘upstart culinary country’. The lack of food traditions called for a positive and reasoned response, so that the emerging culinary exuberance could be guided by food scholarship and perhaps work wonders.”

Well-known writers, restaurateurs and students of gastronomy attended the first symposium. They included chef and restaurateur Stephanie Alexander, restaurateur Dur-e Najaf Dara, writer Marion Halligan, chef Gabriel Gaté, South Australian caterer Cath Kerry, winemaker Max Lake and cook and restauranteur Maggie Beer.

The goal was to attract “a balance of ‘theoreticians’, ‘practitioners’ and ‘passionate amateurs’" to the two-day program of talks and discussions. The 'theoretical' program was interspersed with meals that included a Brown Bread Lunch, Cuisine du Coeur (a lunch ‘cooked from the heart’ by participants) and a banquet prepared by Australian chefs Phillip Searle and Cheong Liew that has since “become gastronomic legend”.

"The banquet was planned as the spectacular finale to the symposium, an extravaganza that would say something about gastronomy… and respond in an exciting and original way to the tag of ‘upstart’.

The ‘banquet’ would go on to become a defining feature of future symposia and showcase the cooking and creative vision of a generation of renowned Australian cooks and chefs.

Organisation

Since 1984, the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy has been held approx. every two years in various towns, cities and states in Australia and in New Zealand.

Bids for hosting the following symposium are made during the plenary session of each symposium.

The convenor and organising committee of each symposium undertake the roles as volunteers and they are free to make decisions about location, duration and content. There is no central secretariat.

The convening committee builds on what has gone before and aims to create an event that connects geography, the theme they have chosen for discussion and food.

Convening committees have reported a desire to balance rigorous discourse (upping intellectual standards, extending invitations to specialists and scholars, following a formal conference format, including a keynote address) with the ‘recipe’ of the earlier symposiums, as expressed by Michael Symons, which originated in food-centeredness and a few unwritten and uncodified conventions.

“We can describe the symposiums as being both ‘open’ (self-selecting, participative, experimental, consensual, nurturing) and ‘closed’ (limited in numbers, self-contained, inward-directed, inconspicuously consuming)," he writes in the prologue of SAG 5, held in Adelaide in 1990.

Track Record – dates, places and themes

Caption text
Number Year Theme
1 1984 The Upstart Cuisine, Adelaide SA
2 1985 Foodism: Philosophy or Fad?, Adelaide SA
3 1986 A Multicultural Society, Melbourne VIC
4 1987 Food in Festivity, Sydney NSW
5 1990 The Pleasures of the Table, Adelaide SA
6 1991 Much Depends on Dinner, Geelong VIC
7 1993 Nature and Culture, Canberra ACT
8 1994 Sustaining Gastronomy, Adelaide SA
9 1996 Food and Power, Sydney NSW
10 1998 Beyond the Tuckerbox: Securing the Future, Grampians VIC
11 1999 The Pursuit of Happiness from Colony to Republic, Hobart TAS
11A 2001 In Holiday Mood, Wellington NZ
12 2001 The Edible City: Ideas for Urban Gastronomy, Adelaide SA
13 2004 Food, Fears, Fads and Fantasies, Orange NSW
14 2005 Preservation or Change, Beechworth VIC
15 2007 Beyond the Supermarket: Learning to Overcome Gastronomic Poverty, Dover TAS
16 2008 Hunter ‘Cry the Beloved River’, Hunter Valley NSW
17 2009 Gastronomic Economies, Adelaide SA
18 2011 The Federation of Taste, Canberra ACT
19 2013 The Generous Table, Newcastle NSW
20 2014 Ferment, The Australian & New Zealand Symposia of Gastronomy & Food History, Wellington NZ
21 2016 Utopian Appetites, Melbourne VIC
22 2018 Out of Place, Sydney NSW
23 2020 The Education of the Senses: Aesthetics of Food and Drink, Brisbane QLD
24 2022 Reclaiming Happiness: The Epicurean Garden, Simple Pleasures and a Sustainable Future, Bendigo VIC
25 2024 Island, Launceston, TAS

Published proceedings

The proceedings of the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy provide a valuable insight into Australia’s food history and contribute to the discussion and study of gastronomy.

Copies of the proceedings published in book form (1984 to 2006) are held in National and State libraries.

The 2007 Symposium was produced on a CD, copies of which are held at National Library and University of Adelaide library.

Since 2006, proceedings have been produced in digital form. These can be found on the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy website.

Location of SAG proceedings by library

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

NEW SOUTH WALES

QUEENSLAND

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

VICTORIA

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Conventions

The convenors of the first symposium set out with the intention of making the event food-led and participants, especially in the early years, cooked and contributed food to share.

Jam and Biscuits

Participants were encouraged to bring homemade jam for the breakfast table and biscuits for morning and afternoon tea. Lois Butt and Gwenda Robb baked a selection of eight biscuits for the first symposium.

Box dinner

The Box Dinner was introduced at SAG 5 in 1990. Organisers filled boxes with various foods and, working in small groups, participants cooked a meal and served it to each other, using the contents of the box.

Brown Bread lunch

Lunch on the first day of the first symposium was listed in the program as a ‘brown bread lunch’.

“Bread has strong symbolism. Such was the shortage of grain in the early NSW colony that Governor Phillip added a “bring your own bread” request at the bottom of invitations . We ask participants to bring their own brown bread to the first lunch, which will stress simplicity.”

The brown bread was supplemented with fresh churned butter, boiled fresh lobster and mayonnaise. The meal was served with Perrier Jouet champagne, Petaluma Rhine Riesling 1983 and Hungerford Hill Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 1980.

While not a regular program feature, homage was paid to this lunch at SAG 15 in 2007, in Dover, Tasmania, with a sourdough sandwich of crayfish tail meat and freshly whisked mayonnaise, wrapped in a brown paper bag, was served alongside a glass of Mumm Champagne NV Cordon Rouge. Participants sat on the deck of Martin's Boathouse, feet dangling over the sparkling water below.

The Banquet

The most anticipated SAG convention is the final banquet, an opportunity for the convening committee to create a meal that encompasses and expresses that symposium's theme in collaboration with the culinary talent and food producers of the area in which the symposium is being held.

In the history of the Symposium, many fine meals have been served. Among them:

  • Nature and Culture, Gay Bilson. SAG 7, 1993

“Turned out of a tiny tent in the gallery’s courtyard by a team of six cooks and six waiters, each dish was superbly crafted. More interestingly, it was unlike any banquet at the end of a similar event anywhere in the world, not just in its execution, but in its conception.”

  • Beyond the Tucker Box, Phillip Searle and Chiong Lieu. SAG 10, 1998.

"For two days the cooks cooked and the baker baked. The cooks dug a large rectangular oven in the earth and baked stones to store heat. They stuffed, then coated, young emus (all 'drumstick' as if a deformed foetus) in seasoned butter and flour and wrapped them in banana leaves and paper and cloth and mesh and mud and did variations of the same to sides of pork and to Murray Cod, enough, too much, for seventy people. The parcels were hugely, grandly primeval and of the earth to which they were returned, mud to mud, and buried in a graveyard hours before the time at which it would be ransacked for the feed. Above the pit, scrubbed, tight-lipped oysters were opened and tainted by flaming twigs and leaves as the first course of the banquet. Blue swimmer crabs as cold and fresh as the Grampians air were grilled over the fire to become the unsurpassed food of the banquet. Underneath, the meat and fish suffered stone-warmed changes: in bed with heat for eight hours animal and fish in slow combustion became food."

  • The Beef from this Pasture at The Stanmore Barn, Simon West, Scott Minervini, Steve Cumper and Justin Harris. SAG 15, 2007.

Both the pasture and the cow that had lived on it were to be the feature of this dinner. The pasture was bought "into the barn by laying grass on the long central table as a tablecloth. The idea morphed further when a local orchardist turned up with what he called 'apple prunings' although they were the size of a small tree, laden with wrinkling apples and yellowing leaves. Another arrived with a box of mushrooms that had sprung up overnight in his garden. Rocks laid under the grass made it more like a paddock than a bowling green and in reality it looked more like an orchard than a pasture but then who's splitting hairs? We felt that the beast we had chosen to give up its life for our pleasure on the night was honoured both by the setting and the delicious meal."

External Links

Further Reading

Alexander, Stephanie (2016) A cook’s life, Penguin, pp. 107–112.

Bilson, Gay (2004) Plenty. Digressions on food, Melbourne: Penguin, pp. 57–8 (dinner for symposium 1993), 215–218 (10th symposium 1997)

Driver, Christopher (1985) The Guardian, pp. 17. Friday October 25 1985

Halligan, Marion (1994) Too solid flesh , Island (Sandy Bay), 58, Autumn, pp. 3–6.

Santich, Barbara (1996) Remembrances of Symposia Past, Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Food and Power, St. John’s College, University of Sydney, 10–14 April 1996, pp. 5–8.

Symons, Michael (1998) The pudding that took a thousand cooks, Melbourne: Viking, pp. 352–355. (Phillip Searle dinner at Carclew, 1984)

Symons, Michael (2011) Confessions of a passionate diner, The Aristologist, 4, pp. 9–21

Symons, Michael (2013) 18th Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Canberra, Australia, The Australian Journal of Popular Culture, 2 (1), pp. 131-133.

Vincent, Alison (2015) Thirty years of the Australian Symposium of Gastronomy, The Aristologist, 6, pp. 9–18.

References

  1. Prologue, page iii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.
  2. Participants, p135, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.
  3. Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.
  4. Barbara Santich, Page 5, Proceedings, Ninth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, 1996.
  5. Barbara Santich, P128, Proceedings SAG 1
  6. A Personal Prologue, Fifth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, The Pleasures of the Table, Proceedings, Adelaide, March 10-13, 1990.
  7. https://www.gastromomers.net/
  8. Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.
  9. Program, ii, First Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. The Upstart Cuisine. Proceedings. 1984.
  10. Dover Venues, Karen Pridham. Fifteenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy. Beyond the Supermarket. Proceedings. 2007.
  11. Cherry Ripe, Food and Art (Corporeal Versus Surreal), pages 103-104, Nature and Culture, Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Canberra ACT. Eds Mary Brander, Betty Meehan and Elizabeth Minchin.
  12. Buried Treasure, review by Gay Bilson. p 152. Tenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Beyond the Tuckerbox: Securing the Future. Proceedings. 1998.
  13. Dover Venues, Karen Pridham. Fifteenth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, Beyond the Supermarket. Proceedings. 2007.
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