Matt Preston’s new book reveals the first print references to the chicken parmigiana, spaghetti bolognese can be traced to Adelaide

Chicken salt, the Hill’s Hoist, cask wine. Australia can thank Adelaide for many things, but did you know Adelaide also pioneered two of the country’s most popular dishes?

Adelaide can lay claim to be being the Australian pioneers of the humble chicken parmigiana according to celebrity chef Matt Preston.

The former MasterChef judge has turned food historian for his new myth-busting book, World of Flavour, which traces the origins of some of our most beloved dishes.

After hours of painstaking research, Preston has revealed the first printed reference to a chicken parmigiana, as we know it – complete with chicken, melted cheese and ham – can be found in an edition of Adelaide newspaper The Mail, way back in 1953.

Celebrity chef and author Matt Preston. Picture: Nicole Cleary.

A food columnist for The Mail described the now-iconic dish in an article about a cabaret venue in Adelaide’s CBD, said Preston.

“What was interesting about that time is that restaurants were not doing very well in Adelaide post-war so lots of them were converting themselves into nightclubs and they started serving continental food,” he said.

“So at this precise moment, I would suggest Adelaide can claim to being the parmi pioneers of Australia, if not one of the parmi pioneers of the world.”

As for the long-running debate over whether parmigiana should be abbreviated to Adelaide’s “parmi” or Melbourne’s preferred “parma”, Preston is more circumspect.

“What’s interesting is the parmi, in a way, logically makes more sense because it’s descended from the dish of parmigiana,” he said.

“However, in the 50s there was a famous racehorse called Parma, we were obsessed with the Parma Wall, parma ham, so you can see there was another side of it.

“But I love it... how do you get two different names for the same thing? That’s one of the great mysteries of Australia.”

Preston’s book, which features over 100 different dishes, also confirms the first recipe for spaghetti bolognese – as we recognise it – wasn’t published in Italy or the UK but in Adelaide.

Celebrity chef and author Matt Preston. Picture: David Caird

Joy Campoli, the wife of acclaimed violinist Alfredo Campoli, who played with Dame Nellie Melba, wrote in The Mail in 1950 about a pasta sauce consisting of minced steak and onions slowcooked with tomato, water and tomato puree.

Campoli learned the recipe for ‘spaghetti alla bolognese’ from her mother-in-law, Elvira Celi, the lauded Italian opera singer who had toured with Enrico Caruso.

“That’s the moment I almost dropped off my chair,” he said. “That’s the earliest bolognese recipe I could find. But as I say with all these things: please prove me wrong.”