Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion is one of the most recognised and beloved Australian cookbooks with half a million copies sold.

Following the success of this classic, Stephanie established the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation which supports food education for children and young people in schools and early learning centres.

Stephanie has been a restaurateur, authored hundreds of articles about food and is a passionate advocate for equal access to good food and food education.

After graduating from high school in the country as the only girl in her class she moved to Melbourne and started a Bachelor of Arts at The University of Melbourne.

“My three years at the University of Melbourne were of great importance to me. I met there my lifelong friends, all of whom were pursuing different degrees,” she said.

“We greatly enjoyed the camaraderie experienced at University Women’s College, now University College.

“To this day sixty years later they are still the friends I go to for discussions about world affairs, and local matters.  We have shared values.  Our children are friends.”

The transition to university was a shock to the system and challenging for Stephanie. She struggled with the transition from a regional high school finding that a larger institution lacked the support she needed which she found alienating and discouraging.

What kept her there was family support, the good friends she made in residential college and the belief that this education was the best opportunity to embrace the values instilled in her by her parents.

“Both my parents had left school very early but they put great value on education. They wanted me to attend university,” she said.

“My parents openly valued education and humanist values. They welcomed migrants and refugees into their home in the post-World War Two period.

“We had many dinners of laughter, shared food and drink and stories around the dining table.

“This is the kind of environment that encouraged me to be curious about different people’s histories and food culture,” she said.

She says she was fascinated by the world of ideas.

“I loved listening to conversations and engaging with different perspectives,” she said.

“I chose standard subject offerings of the Bachelor of Arts – English, History, French and Psychology in the first year.

“I found everything about food to be interesting – knowing its history, why some people did things one way and somebody else did it differently and how it connected with geography, climate and family customs.

“The idea of how food connects people sparked a motivation for learning more. I was fascinated by France and by French restaurant culture.

“I wanted to travel to France to learn more and understand why a respect and love of good food was such a key part of French family culture.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to build on the language foundation acquired at the university.”

Stephanie completed her Bachelor of Arts after taking a break to travel and work overseas. Influenced by her father’s love of books Stephanie undertook a Diploma in Librarianship.

Whilst still maintaining her love and interest in all things food, the librarianship studiesbecame more directly relevant to her working life.

‘I learnt about research skills as well as how to arrange material,” she said.

“Decades later these skills proved of great value in writing The Cook’s Companion which is reliant on indexing and cross-referencing to increase its relevance to readers.”

Stephanie established the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation which supports educators to provide food education to children and young people in over 1000 schools and Early Learning Centres around Australia.

It was a direct response to her rejection of the media obsession she perceived, with articles about diet and obesity, none of which mentioned joy or pride or discovery or flavour.

Working with schools and early childhood services around Australia, Stephanie’s foundation promotes the skills to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, affordable and culturally diverse food.

It enables students to develop knowledge and enthusiasm about a wide range of foods representing the cultures present in our communities as well as understanding the importance of sustainable practices.

“It’s an area of life where excitement and curiosity comes alive,” she said.

Stephanie has authored hundreds of articles about food matters and 17 books including The Cook’s Companion which is regarded as an Australian classic as well as directing the kitchens at Stephanie’s Restaurant for 21 years.

While Stephanie’s university experience was not always easy, she says the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities continue to play an important role in society and should be valued for themselves.

“The arts are incredibly important… any broad humanist approach to the world and civilisation we find ourselves in is of tremendous value,” she said.

“The question is how best to pass that onto students. Universities are a very important part of that.”

With her foundation work, Stephanie is most often engaging with enthusiastic children whose parents did not have access to education and whose education opportunities are limited.

She says one of the values of an arts degree is the multiple pathways it provides.

“I will be forever grateful that I completed my Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Education, and met and made great friendships during my three years at Melbourne University.”