Food and Freedom

In November 1956, a young couple packed their few possessions into a small brown suitcase and set off on foot for the Hungarian border. Half frozen, shot at by Russian soldiers, they eventually reached Austria and freedom. Like so many of their countrymen, they ended up in Australia.

This is their story.

A tale of an immigrant family in Australia interwoven with the history of Hungary and some favourite recipes for the food that united the two. Food that defined a woman's love for her friends, her family and her Hungarian culture. The food she would gift to strangers and the gift of cooking that she would pass on to her daughter and grand-daughters. For her, Food was Love yet it was more than that.

Asked why she and her husband had fled the Russian tanks as they rolled into Budapest, her answer was forthright and uncomplicated, "For food, and freedom."