Margaret Fulton OAM (1924-2019), food writer, began writing cookery pages in women’s magazines in the early 1950s. The first of her many cookbooks, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook, was published in 1968. It sold more than a million copies and remains a staple in many kitchens around the country. In 1999 she published I Sang for My Supper. Part forthright memoir, part social history, the book documents her life and the changing social and cultural scene in Australia from the 1920s to the eve of the 21st century. Fulton was a Living National Treasure, and in 2006 she was named one of the one hundred most influential Australians by the Bulletin. Margaret Fulton’s Kitchen (2007) and the revised edition of the Margaret Fulton Cookbook (2010) brought together recipes devised over her career as a cook and writer, and she lived to see Margaret Fulton Christmas become available as an iPhone app. Her daughter and granddaughters are food writers.
Gift of the artist 2002. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Lewis Morley Archive LLC
This is a full colour photographic portrait of Margaret Fulton by Lewis Morley. It measures: 36.1 cm by 28.5.
Margaret stands at a table covered by beautifully presented food. She smiles directly at the camera from the corner of a warmly lit dining room. Behind her are floor to ceiling curtains, drawn closed, bearing a repeat print motif of a small blue flower on a beige background.
At a right angle to the curtain is a recessed pine cabinet with glass doors. Margaret stands in front of the cabinets four shelves displaying blue and white china plates and bowls. On our right, a speckled brown marble fireplace and perched on the mantle is an arrangement of apricot and white roses in a silver bowl. Above the mantelpiece and against the beige wall is a framed, bold, black and white abstract, geometric art-work.
Margaret is a full-figured, short-haired, smiling middle-aged woman and she stands behind a table laden with delicious-looking food and snacks.
She has an oval shaped face with a warm, light complexion and laugh-lines around her eyes. Her thick, red hair parts across her forehead. Subtle makeup highlights her brown eyes and eyebrows and soft red lipstick rims her open-mouthed smile.
She wears a brown beaded necklace with a fan shaped black and gold statement pendant, it stands out against her plain, beige, short-sleeved top and tightly pleated, flared skirt. At waist level, and as if about to lift and offer it to us, she holds the rim of a large silver platter of fruit on the table in front of her.
The pale-wood table is laden with tiered, edible arrangements; devilled eggs, roast meat, vegetables, salad, cheeses, brandy snaps, pastries, cake and strawberries.
Amongst the bounty of food there are flowers, a blue and white china tureen with its lid on, crystal wine glasses and a silver candelabra with three tall white unlit candles.
Audio description written by Annette Twyman and voiced by Emma Bedford
Lewis Morley (49 portraits)
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