Australia

My childhood diet in Wanganui was centred around basic, good-quality ingredients: predominantly home-grown vegetables, occasional home-butchered meat plus family-caught fish, whitebait, crayfish and paua. However, it was Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, with its mixed population of Australians and vast numbers of migrants from Greece, Italy, Morocco, Turkey and Vietnam - and many other places - that improved my palate and developed my food-shopping abilities - a much underrated skill! Prior to my move across the Tasman Sea to create a new life and start a career, I’d never seen an avocado, drunk a cappuccino, tasted chinotto (a bitter cola-based drink for which I developed a strong liking) or doused a salad with olive oil without, literally, having to count the cost. I’d never seen sushi, spaghetti carbonara, goat curry, masala dosa, cous cous, rice-paper wrappers or even something as commonplace (these days) as an uncooked fresh prawn still in its shell.