Dr Emma Beckett believes no-frills comfort food has always served their big family well. "Simple food is comfortable. You don't need to over-invest time and money for something to be satisfying and nourishing," she says.
"I'm very proud of my parents. They never let on that we were growing food because we needed to. We ate a lot of what we grew."
Her parents homegrown food featured in dishes that had no names, which she and her siblings still remember fondly.
It wasn't like we had Bolognese or stroganoff. We'd have some chicken with vegetables, for example. Kind of like an eclectic mix.
"I've been thinking about this lately now that I work in food. The dishes we ate had no names; instead, the plate was kind of an assembly of what we had. It wasn't like we had Bolognese or stroganoff. We'd have some chicken with vegetables, for example. Kind of like an eclectic mix."
CHICKEN & VEGGIES
Strawberry salad with chicken
Beckett remembers that the eclectic mix was always served with lots of bread.
"It was only later on that I realised that not everyone has a big pile of bread every dinner," she laughs. "But I think that's how my parents stretched the food we had further."
Pickling and novelty cakes
Pickled food was another mainstay of the Beckett kitchen. "I remember mum doing all kinds of pickles, so that vinegary salty kind of scent is always a fond memory."
The kids also looked forward to birthdays because 10 of them meant 10 birthday cakes.
"We had a novelty cake book that everyone used to have," she says. "The way our house was designed was there was a loft where you could look over the kitchen…It was kind of like our own cooking show. All the kids would dangle their heads over the edge, watching mum assemble her cakes."
Microwaves and nutrition
One of Dr Emma Beckett's novelty cakes. Source: Dr Emma Beckett
While her mum was the primary cook, Beckett had a penchant for "looking at weird recipes in women's magazines".
"Microwaves were pretty new then. I would go home and show my mum the recipes I found and say, 'I want to cook this'." She wanted to cook everything in the microwave, from chocolate cake to lasagne.
"I remember going through a real phase of torturing my mum with wanting to microwave absolutely everything."
Nowadays, instead of rummaging through women's magazines for microwaveable recipes, Beckett's relationship with food is grounded by research and family.
I was really interested in the way all of us could grow up eating the same food but end up as very different biological people, with different conditions.
"Because I have so many siblings, I was always interested in genetics and the things that made us different from our family members…because I'm a twin as well.
She ended up choosing nutrition. "I was really interested in the way all of us could grow up eating the same food but end up as very different biological people, with different conditions."
Mum's carer and cook
The more Beckett became scientifically trained in food, the more she appreciated her mum's cooking.
"There's so much pressure now to make a perfect, fancy meal. Mum's food was simple and less intimidating. It was done with so much kindness.
Now, Beckett takes care of her mum. "I ask her what she wants for dinner, and I'd think she'd say, 'I want this meal or that', but it's not the case. It doesn’t have to be a discernible dish.
Dr Emma Beckett (right) with her mum. Source: Dr Emma Beckett
"You can get smoked salmon and some vegetables in the fridge. It's simple. Yeah, that simple."
