You’re invited to our beautiful new exhibition Eat your history: a shared table which has opened at the Museum of Sydney! The deliciously clever Annabel Crabb was guest speaker at the official launch last Wednesday night – and began:

…thank you Sydney Living Museums for programing the festival of my dreams. You do not need to spend one second convincing me how much food can tell us about how other people live, how other people work, and about what they love.

… I think if you asked someone how did they learn to cook what you often hear in response is often a life story, and I love hearing those stories, and what… Eat Your History – A Shared Table actually demonstrates is that it works for cities as well.

Thank you Annabel, we couldn’t have hoped for a lovelier ambassador! Click on ‘play’ to hear her very witty and entertaining  speech – that ranged from her own foodie exploits on ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ to her favourite highlights from the exhibition, Bronwyn Bishop’s hair-do and silver-laden table to a mock-chicken ‘loaf of horror’ and Meroogal’s teacups to a celebration of Election Day cakestalls – along with photos from the night and a glimpse of the exhibition itself!

Young Henry’s special Eat your history peach braggot gave the launch plenty of punch and John Hicks’ Frog-in-a-sock catering sustained the crowd with a tailored and innovative menu that drew on the exhibition themes and family recipes from Sydney Living Museums properties:

Vegetable Mulligatawny

Traditional Pork Pies with Rouse Hill tomato chutney

Kangaroo and quail ‘Scotch egg’ with lilli pilli conserve

Young Henry’s ale Welsh rarebit

Cold smoked Sydney rock oyster, Karkalla samphire

Young Henry’s braggot infused Devils on horseback

Pickled seasonal mushrooms, maize flat bread

Mulled wine jelly with Aunt Kate’s shortbread

Meroogal ‘cocoanut’ ice

Cheeseboard: Woodside fresh goats cheese with lemon myrtle, Pyengana cloth-bound cheddar, Papillion Roquefort

…and here’s what Gourmet Traveller had to say about the event!

Now that Eat Your History has opened, we’d like to express our thanks to the talented exhibitions team who brought the whole project to fruition, with huge helpings of dessert (food puns still reign supreme) to project manager Bob Whight who kept the pot on a steady simmer throughout – while not boiling over – and to Amy Simpson who got the ball rolling. For the outstanding ‘look’ of the exhibition thanks to the  extraordinary 3D design talents of Kieran Larkin, our 2D designers Anne-Louise Falson and Sarah Christiansen, and our long suffering text editor Rhiain Hull; to Alysha Buss and Bronwyn McKenzie for their careful and expert handling of precious collection items; to Tim, Mason and Justin for their multimedia masterpieces (and cheerfully helping us clean up); to our tireless marketing team, especially to Ron, Kate and Julie, and to the crew at the Museum of Sydney who are wonderfully sociable hosts of so many events.