Summary

Alternative Name: Recipe book.

Cookery book issued by Fletcher, Chester & Co, who described themselves as Italian warehousemen, grocers, wine and spirit merchants, of Elizabeth Street Melbourne, and whose business was under Vice-Regal patronage. The business, established in 1842, was originally promoted as 'grocers, tea, wine and spirit merchants and Italian warehousemen', with a focus on coffee roasting and tea.

The book includes recipes as well as many advertisements for goods, many made by local Melbourne manufacturers, and price lists for Fletcher, Chester & Co liquor and food products. It also includes a kitchen garden calendar on the inside back page, promoting Purves seeds.

This book not only highlights the role of the Italian community in the food and beverage retailing business in Melbourne, but also the changing manufacturing base and food supply industry in Melbourne over the twentieth century, with many once well-known companies and brand-names, most of which are now defunct, promoting their products through advertisements in the book. The changing nature and trends in food is also evident in this cookery book.

The advertisements include Old Gold Coca made by MacRobertson, Preservene soap flakes, McAlpin's Flour, Bryant & May matches, Vacuum Oil Company 'Perfection' oil stoves and 'Laurel' oil.Robur tea, Crosse & Blackwell San-chova sandwich spread, Atlas assurance co, George Coulet champagne and various alcoholic beverages, Seppelts and Penfolds wines, the Metropolitan Gas Company stoves, Del Monte asparagus, George Farmers' smallgoods, O-Cedar polish, Kraft cheese, Fred Walker Pty Ltd vegemite, JR Allen & Sons fish and oyster merchants, W Saunders Pty Ltd Zeestos yeast, Dr Jenners cough balsam, Lifeguard milk products, Swallow & Ariell plum puddings, Ardmona and SPC canned and dried fruits, Fowlers Vacola fruit bottling outfits, Handbury's butter, and Purves bird seed.

Physical Description

132 page booklet, including cardboard front and back cover, bound with three metal staples. The cover is pale blue with dark blue printing, while the inside is black ink printed on white paper, with many line illustrations featuring in the advertisements.

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