As it is the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival this month, we’re excited to highlight the PMI Library Food and Wine collection.
The books you can see are only part of the wide-ranging collection, if you want to know about food and wine in Victoria we’ve got you covered. For this month’s display we decided to focus on some of our recipe and cookbooks, you’ll see lots in the photo. These practical books are often put out by restaurants, and contain information on the history of the restaurant as well as the recipes. Collecting the recipes is part of acknowledging and recognising that Victoria’s heritage is expressed through tangible things like food, not just by knowledge wrapped up in books. This is history you can make, history you can eat! And that’s exciting. You’ll see many well-known restaurants represented including: Naked for Satan, Tivoli Road Bakery,
Food and Wine Books at the PMI Library
Tip00, Chin Chin, Moroccan Soup Bar, Mabu Mabu, Igni and more.  We also have more general food books like Tried Tested and True which looks at untold stories from community cook books, and books about Australian food legends like Margaret and Me, which is the story of Margaret Fulton and her granddaughter.
And we’re not forgetting the drink. We have books on wine and wineries galore including books on many individual wineries and wine guides throughout the years as well as general books on wine such as How To Drink Australian : An Essential Modern Wine Book. Our drinking history is not confined to just wine either, you can also learn about many different types of alcohol, including gin, rum and beer. Or if you want to know more about our drinking history more generally? We have some amazing overall histories too, including: Knocking the top off : a people’s history of alcohol in Australia and Intoxicating : ten drinks that shaped Australia.
You’ll find food and wine book throughout the Victorian towns collection as well, with many community groups and often schools putting out local cookbooks. These are invaluable small scale local stories like Cooking with Mallee spirit / St Mary’s Primary School or Bake me happy cookbook : a collection of recipes from the students and staff of St Arnaud PS.
Last but absolutely not least we have the PMI’s own cookbook. This was put together in 2024 as part of one of our volunteer chats, and features photos and recipes from our PMI staff and volunteers. Telling the story of our PMI Library community.
All the books featured are for loan, and many are on display so come on down. Hopefully we’ve made you hungry, both for the food featured in our amazing food collection, but also for the history itself 😊