Around 10 years ago, in the inner suburbs of Sydney, Hetty McKinnon started to make salads in her home kitchen and deliver them by bicycle to local residents and businesses in the area. She then self-published a cookbook, Community, an anthology of the salads she was known for in her Surry Hills neighbourhood, which exploded onto the Australian home cooking scene. Then Hetty promptly upped sticks and moved with her family – husband and three children – to Brooklyn, New York. The books didn’t stop.
In each of her cookbooks, Hetty weaves community and her life story into the pages, with photography that pops and stories that celebrate our common humanity through food. Nostalgia, sentimentality and tradition end up on the table. She continues to explore the world of food and cooking in a print journal, Peddler, and accompanying podcast, The House Specials.