Why the ‘old school’ is so cool right now
A RETRO REVIVAL OF BAKING, COOKING, PLANTING AND RAISING CHICKENS IS KEEPING CHILDREN HAPPY AND AN EXPERT SAYS IT IS AMAZING FOR OUR MENTAL HEALTH
THERE is a Donna Hay-worthy quiche Lorraine in the oven and a big pot of minestrone bubbling away on the stove when I ring Miranda Porter at her home in Lota on Brisbane’s bayside. We’ve barely exchanged greetings when she gently calls out to her eldest daughter, “Not yet Ruby, it needs another five minutes!”
Porter, an in-demand food stylist, photographer and cinematographer, is literally cooking up a storm during the COVID-19 pandemic, making all sorts of deliciousness for her first recipe book. It’s a personal project, one she hopes will ultimately be a printed volume of family favourites, and her daughters Ruby, 12, and Ivy, 10, are involved in everything from recipe selection to cooking, styling and snapping the final result.
“It’s something that I have been meaning to do for years,” Porter says of the project which has kept her busy, and the children happy, entertained and well-fed during the lockdown.
“We are cooking honest food.
“One of the great things about being at home during simple, this lockdown is having the time to prepare the food. The smells that permeate the house throughout the day naturally entice their little appetites.”
Of course, baking one’s way through a crisis is nothing new.
Pandemic baking has spawned a raft of hashtags – #isobaking, #lockdownbaking, #bakingfromscratch – as home cooks from around the world bond over snaps of their loaves, cookies and crumbles.
Other old-school pursuits such as sewing, gardening, board games and jigsaw puzzles are also enjoying a revival as the cabin-fevered seek stimulation in time-honoured traditions.
Psychologist Meghan Gray, director of GrayMind Psy
Leesa Maher