Digital Cookbook
Digital Cookbook
About the Project
The interactive, digitised cookbook that unites food and history.
The food of our culture is able to share the story of a community and its adventure with change and continuity throughout time. This cookbook shares dishes contributed by members of the Chinese-Australian community, as a way to celebrate and engage with the history of the Chinese community in Australia.
Dinner Dishes
EARLY GOLD RUSH
MODERN AUSTRALIAN ADAPTED DISHES
Dinner Dishes
CLASSICAL CHINESE
EARLY GOLD RUSH
MODERN AUSTRALIAN ADAPTED DISHES
The History of Chinese Cuisine in Australia
The first Chinese restaurant in Australia was opened at Bakery Hill, Ballarat in 1854, by Chin Thum Lok, also known as John Alloo. Chinese restaurants are now found in every major city in Australia. How did Chinese restaurants rise to popularity in a country with tastebuds so different from their own? How did they continue to flourish despite immigrant restriction acts and institutionalised racism?
A painting by Will Dyson in 1901 of the interior of a Chinese restaurant at Flinders Street, Melbourne.