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“My mum is English and my dad is Australian; so food-wise, ours wasn't very diverse. What I do remember growing up though was fighting against eating peas for many years," satirist Mark Humphries tells SBS Food.
Even if he was forced to eat peas, Humphries does admit that his mum was an amazing cook who was "incapable of making a bad meal".
'Cooked bananas changed my life'
Amid the Cocoa Puffs and chicken-nugget staples, Humphries says that there were dishes in his childhood that remain vivid memories. Two of these dishes involved potatoes.
"My mum had this dish called chicken potatoes. They were basically thinly sliced, crispy potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper. Dad had his own potato dish that he would peel and place inside a plastic bag to coat with flour, salt and pepper."
Desserts were also big in the Humphries household. "I couldn't get past a chocolate cake," he says. "The whole thing of licking the bowl gave me as much joy as the actual cake itself. This contributed to my lifelong love for cakes and pastries."
Mark Humphries says of his mum Lynn: "She was an amazing cook who was incapable of making a bad meal." Source: Supplied
Adding heat to bananas and turning them into a dessert? Delicious.
But Humphries says that his palate was forever changed by a cooked fruit. "The day that I realised that you could cook bananas and not just eat it raw…that was life-changing! Adding heat to bananas and turning them into a dessert? Delicious."
"I couldn't get past a chocolate cake," Mark Humphries admits. Source: Supplied
Chilli sauce with veggies and burnt hands
While Humphries considers his mum the infallible cook in the family, his dad had specialties too.
"My dad had his own mint-sauce [recipe] for lamb cutlets. He had his own garden, and he would harvest the mint from it. We always had fresh vegetables."
His dad also grew his own lettuce, but possums liked to raid his garden. "One of the memorable dishes he made was a concoction he used to spray the lettuce with to try to dissuade the possums from eating the veggies. It was an elaborate [mix] of chilli sauce and Worcestershire sauce. It was potent. The possums probably had the most interesting meals."
The possums probably had the most interesting meals.
While the possums had chilli with greens, the humans had his dad's signature barbecues. "Dad oversaw the barbecues. That was his specialty.
"This isn't really related to dad's cooking, but a big tragedy happened when I was two or three at a barbecue. I was sort of entranced by the flame. My 2-year-old brain told me I should put my hand into that fire. That ended the barbecue quickly," Humphries says, adding: "I'm fine now."
I may not be a natural, but…
While his parents had their culinary repertoires, Humphries admits that cooking doesn't come naturally to him. "I haven't set fire to the kitchen or anything like that," he clarifies. "I don't have a lot of natural ability, so I pretty much learn from cookbooks."
Humphries acknowledges that half of his core recipes come from cookbooks.
"Scones, chocolate mousse and a chicken with a lemon-garlic stuffing are some of my favourite go-to dishes to make."
He has also been using the same salad-dressing recipe for the last 25 years.
"I'm kind of a creature of habit, so I'd be lying if I said I was constantly evolving; but I think my taste has evolved with food when I eat out.
"The reality is a lot of my food memories are also from restaurants. We're in Australia, so we're spoiled for choice!"
Photographs supplied by Mark Humphries
