Delicious by Kate Legge

‘Magnificent. I devoured it and then I licked the plate for another taste of every glorious tale. Food is life and life is food and Legge is a storytelling wonder.’ Trent Dalton
‘I enjoyed this journey into a more innocent world.’ Stephanie Alexander AO

A new memoir celebrating food and friendship from one of Australia’s most admired writers.

What is the alchemy of food and love? Award-winning journalist and author Kate Legge’s evocative reflections take us to the heart of this mystery. The pull of a child to cook alongside their mother. The picnic produced on a first date that parades the possibilities of a romantic partner. The sugar-hit cake left on a porch to welcome you into a neighbourhood under siege.

These indelible meals and shared recipes-scribbled in biro on the back of a school sports carnival program (Janet’s date loaf) or copied out in cursive script on lined paper (Deb’s chicken pie)-are staples of Kate’s kitchen table, tried and true, never-fail, simple fare. They have survived long years and all seasons, much as the friendships that underpin them have navigated arguments, distance and forgiveness. All forged on the hearth, stirred with love.

Delicious is a tribute to the girlfriends, mothers, sisters-in-law, colleagues, friends and family who nourished her soul, shared their culinary secrets and wound up trading other intimacies.

A new memoir celebrating food and friendship from one of Australia’s most admired writers.

About the Author: Kate Legge started her writing career at Melbourne University as a co-editor of the student newspaper Farrago in 1980. She joined The Age in 1981, becoming an award-winning journalist who has reported on people, politics and social affairs for national newspapers and magazines over a forty-year period. She has been a correspondent in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Washington D.C. She has published two novels (The Unexpected Elements of LoveThe Marriage Club), a historical biography (Kindred – A Cradle Mountain Love Story), and a collection of essays (Infidelity and Other Affairs). Delicious is her fifth book. She has two sons and five grandchildren.

31 Mar 2026
 

Delicious: Stories of cooking, love and friendship by Kate Legge ISBN 9781761472268