Queer Eye for the Moloney Guy
When I first read Oh, for a French Wife! my gaydar twitched. When I read the Sydney Morning Herald obituary notice of his death, it went into overdrive: no mention of a wife or children, the kind of obituary of that time, April, 1982, whose coding could be read by other homosexuals, like me, but not by the general public. This paper uses the framework of gay male culture and camp developed by gay academic David Halperin to read three cookbooks authored or co-authored by Moloney as gay culture/camp texts.: Oh, for a French Wife! (1953), Cooking for Bachelors (1959 later republished as The Young Gourmet’s Cookbook 1968) and Cooking for Brides (1965). The paper places the books in the gay male books are placed in the context of the gay culture in Australia of the 1940s – 1970s.
Paul van Reyk is a food writer and food activist. Paul has published articles in Gastronomica, Artlink, Petit Propos Culinaire and Divine. He has presented papers at Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy. Paul manages compost.sydney, a website for new Australian writing on food. Paul has also published an annotated ebook facsimile copy of the Cookbook of Ada dela Harpe. Paul is currently writing a history of food in Australia for Reaktion Books. He is also a long time LGBTIQ activist and historian and has presented papers to annual conferences of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
We look forward to your questions and chat in the comments fields below
Hola Juan-Carlo, great to have you join us. The benefits of online indeed. I’m “off” to a conference in Lisbon next week though sessions are at set times which leads to crazy viewing hours for us here. A sensible decision to go on demand, Adele!
You guys have done a bang-up job! Well done 😃
This is fantastic! I feel so privileged to be able to see this and join in from a terraza in Madrid. PS: there is so much more research to be done on ‘gaydar’, claro.
That was some closure, to end on the promise of a consommé. Not much more you could ask for in a twenty minute conference talk, with a bit of history, theory, & self-reflective guesswork. How do you explain the rebranding of Cooking For Bachelors after the publication of Cooking for Brides?
Oh! The crepes Suzette, I do wish they make a comeback. Your wonderful explanation of role-playing and stereotypes has me thinking there might be a wonderful movie or theatre script hidden in Moloney's biography!
As a new- Australian I would love to know a bit more about the book audience and sales? Was it a widespread item?
She’s affiliated with Monash. Do send her a copy of the paper- she’d love it. Let me know if you can’t find her email as I have it somewhere ( I still remember we three meeting up during your splendid Christmas cake presentation).
She’s affiliated with Monash. Do send her a copy of the paper- she’d love it. Let me know if you can’t find her email as I have it somewhere ( I still remember we three meeting up during your splendid Christmas cake presentation).
I adore 'Oh, For a French Wife' (alongside several other books he contributed to) and often trot it out for culinary literary loving friends. Your paper has offered me more insight on the man behind the works, for I, too, attempted to research more about him but drew many blanks.
Many years ago, I threw that title in the ring for our 'foodies bookclub'. It was with glee I reproduced some of the recipes including chilled cucumber soup and some kind of potted meats, if I remember correctly.
Thank you so much for your paper, Paul. It was illuminating and brought me many new constructs for both sexes. I found myself thinking back through my life, putting context to events and situations I'd been in. Thanks for the life lesson.
Oh for a French hostess! (who needs a wife). But as a wife, as Supski notes, feeding others is a highly-charged emotive demonstrative force; a role, as you say say so beautifully, not exclusive to women. And I'd love to presume that your water glass was in fact a martini with a twist of lemon peel....
Fabulous Paul!
I did a bit of research on Moloney in his role as a restaurant critic. You've made me wonder if, and if so how much, he might also have been influenced by Craig Claiborne, although he made no attempt to imitate Claiborne's stance as an objective reviewer. Moloney's restaurant reviews were no where near as entertaining as his cook books and he was very fond of plugging his friends and their establishments. He favoured elegance and tradition and had no time at all for what the Bilson's were doing at Tony's Bon Gout.You might be interested to know that he counted himself a friend of Barbara Cartland and lunched with her at Camfield Place.
As to family, I could only find reference to a sister who was briefly involved with Johnnie Walker's cooking school at the Bistro. As you say he kept his private life very private.
Oops Moloney. Spelling was never my strong suit.
Paul, that was terrific! I really liked the way you used Sian's work on femininity and cooking to argue so originally for domestic kitchens and dining rooms as safe place for gay men to "perform" within heteronormative cultures. And incidentally, a great performance on your part - really brought the figure of Maloney to life. Looking forward to your Q and A.
Yes, I think so. Can you tag the symposium?
That was wonderful though I was left saddened by the fact that I could never master the art of profiteroles.
Magnifique! I related to this analysis on a cellular level, from the sensual experience of cooking & watching people eat, to the importance of rehearsal (of course, I was an actor before I was a scientist!), to 'the theatre of the meal' and even to the tendency to turn food description or tragedy into high narrative melodrama! That description of the vesuivius crepes suzette was absolute gold! Thank you for a tremendously enjoyable paper and performance thereof :-)
Paul will be holding a QandA/chat about his paper via ZOOM on Saturday 18th July. Look out for the schedule for the Symposium weekend. It'll be posted here in the site, on facebook, and an email will go to ticketed members. @Paul van Reyk
Cheers
Very good descriptions- very interesting
Hi Paul - this was great. Moloney seemed to be a real character and I really want to have attended one of his parties! I found your conceptualisation of him as 'hostess' very interesting with his appropriation of traditionally gendered ideas and anxieties surrounding entertaining.
A brilliant presentation, and very interesting content.