Johanna Griggs AM (bite-sized)

On Johanna Griggs's menu: Nanna's lemon sponge, cooking en masse, and all the Better Homes and Gardens goodness. 

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TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

It was the greatest thing that ever happened because Nana and Pa would spoil your rotten, they had their dogs, you had loads of beach walks, and Nana would make this beautiful lemon sponge cake. And they didn't care if you ate half of it, which I just would smash it every time. Often they'd make two a day because they just knew you'd eat it. But came this thing of comfort, and I s I still love citrus on in any form and in any food. I love putting citrus on everything as well. And I'm certain that it's like a little trigger memory that goes back to just feeling very secure and very loved and um and just that that happy memory that you associate with it. Describe the cake if you remember it. Just a tip like it was like a literally a typical sponge where she'd pour the lemon syrup over the top, and then sometimes a little bit of icing sugar on the top of that. So no cream, no fruit. And I still I still don't love having cream or fruit on my sponges. I still love it. If I can have it with it, just that little citrus flavour, I love it. Citrus tarts, citrus cake, yeah, anything to do with citrus. I I absolutely adore.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Which leads us straight into your second food memory. Cooking for m the masses.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

My favourite thing in the world. Why? Uh so I think one, because it was what my parents did growing up. Like it's all we were ever exposed to. Um, we had quite an unusual upbringing in the sense that uh like our family was I don't know, it was the base for a lot of people. It was where our friends, when they were struggling, would come and stay. It's where when the local sports club couldn't find somebody to billet people, they would turn to mum and dad knowing they'd always say yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

No, I love because we used to billet a lot, and I used to get billeted and things like that for us, you know, again, swimming, athletics or musicals. We'd get billeted or run around the countryside. So what is billeting?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

So back then it would be a way for, I guess, all those little tiny clubs who are usually amateur clubs, um, anyone who's traveling, anyone who's in a different state, what they would do is they'd contact everyone and be like, hey, who's got room to basically look after these people while they're here for this duration? And it used to happen all the time. It'd be netball, it'd be swimming, it'd be football for my brother, it would be, you know, the local scouts and brownies, it would be like community-based things. Um, and they would, if they needed somebody to be looked after, that's what you do. But yeah, I can remember being away for uh, you know, all Australian schools things and being billeted out in Darwin and having great memories.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

A bit like a a bit airbig and be, but not, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

But more personal because you're actually becoming part of those families.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

And we were young. Like I I remember the first time I was I must have been 12. No, I was 10. I was in year four the first time I was billeted with three other people.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. That is young. I sometimes I think our parents were actually a lot more relaxed back then when you think about in your terms of your own kids and those moments where you think, I when I was travelling overseas and I looked at the ages my boys were, I would never have had that will to say, go for it, knock yourself out. Because I th I've I don't know, I think my parents were amazing that they let you do it. But some of the billets we had were random. Save it. Like we we had we had the Alaskan swim team, which I didn't even know there was an Alaskan swim team. They came and stayed with us for a while. We had like six members of a junior um English football touring team came and stayed with us for a while. My dad picked up a hitchhiker in Far North Queensland. He lived with us for four years. Bill Gunning from Seattle. My sister still goes over and sees his family. Um, just random, just always had people. So years later, when my parents actually divorced, the four of us feel like we spent more time consoling our friends who couldn't quite believe that their marriage had broken down. Because that was there was always food. There was always food en masse. You know, they cooked for the masses. And you know, I loved, I loved cooking even back then. So you you would work out how to expand food, how to add, you know, breads and grains and pastas and you know, rice and things so you can make easy meals feel like they could feed a lot more. So now, um, when mum, when she after the divorce and eventually she moved into an apartment, she ended up getting all the furniture cut down to size because she still wanted to be the heart of a home. And she moved to Manley and then decided that she loved Manly so much she was never going to cook again. So she handed the baton over to me and she's like, I've done my time, now it's up to you. So we have loads of food intolerances in our family. So like we literally have everything from celiacs to um uh sugar-free, vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and just absolute carnivals. And so when I'm making uh cooking for say 34 on Christmas Day, I'm making a range of different dishes. And what I try to do is make it so that everything is is gluten-free, but people who you know might have an aversion to the thought of that don't even realise. They just love how it tastes, and then I have it so you can always add on the extra bits that you want, the dairy and the meats and all the rest. And it's amazing how if you put a bit of planning into it, how easy it is to be able to feed all those people.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

When does the planning start, the processing and the thinking?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Well, if you're talking about the table decorations, that's different to the food that comes first. Table decorations happen in the Christmas sales the year before. Um and I go all out with things like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So you're very resourceful. You're really taking you're not missing an opportunity, you're not missing a beat. It's everything I've learned from Better Homes and Gardens. So let's talk about your third food memory as something that's very big in your life, and we've touched on several times. I tried to save it to the end, but you can't not you can't not talk about Griggsy and not talk about Better Homes and Gardens.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah. Look, it's it's a gift of a show, and it's the food experiences like I I was trying to think about them when I was asked to come on it, and and I I didn't just have three memories, I had a million memories. It's like, you know, the first time that you walk around with Troy Rhodes Brown and then go to Muse and taste his amazing dedicatational thing, or Dan Hunter at Bray, or you know, Ali Wolf Tasker at the Lake House. You mean all these people that you actually work out are icons within their own industry, or Josh Nyland, or you know, and they spend time with you and they show you and they share their passion. And next second, I I don't think by the time I've shot something and three weeks later it's on air, I've probably cooked it three times at home. You know, like you just pick their brains, you you you ask a million questions, there's no such thing as a silly question.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

They're so keen to see. But they're giving to you.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

They're not But they're giving because they love they love food and they love And they love you. That everything are really annoying, actually. No, they they love that you're so excited, you're so passionate. And then, you know, like like every aspect, like I grow 85% of my veggies. I I have been Do you buy anything from a supermarket? I do because you can't, you can't. I mean, I can I now pickle and preserve and dehydrate and uh freeze so much. Um, but there's also there's just times where you you you just have to top up depending on what your numbers are, or there's times where you have to give a lot of produce away that you just can't possibly find room to keep anymore. But I've learned all of that. You know, I went, I I I pitched a story in WA to go and work with a lady called Amy Sloan, who is the most extraordinary pickler and preserver you've ever met in this country. Um, you know, I I basically pitch all the stories for things that I love about that my veggies are grown in these amazing wicking beds that I first discovered when we were doing Australia's most um you know eco-friendly uh development that was down near um Phillip Island. You know, so you you just you learn, that was called the Cape. You learn and you see and you're exposed to amazing things, amazing architecture, all the latest technology you can do. You might go to the Lost Trades Fair, hence I took up Whitling after that. I mean, you you just get exposed to so much and you get exposed to people who are so willing to share.