Celebrated Melbourne cook and restaurateur at Gertrude Street Enoteca, Brigitte Hafner has cooked with Kylie Kwong, Guy Grossi, Neil Perry and Jacques Reymond. But it is her mother Madeleine’s love of home cooking that she credits as her greatest influence in the kitchen.
“My mum is an amazing cook,” says Hafner. “My sister and I are so anchored by her and her kitchen.”
Hafner’s mother was born in Yugoslavia prior to the war, and her culinary influences included Jewish, Polish and Hungarian cuisines. Moving to Australia in her early twenties, Madeleine carried on cooking the recipes she learned from home. The rich cuisine, loaded with nutritious ingredients like butter and potatoes, proved relatively heavy for the Australian climate.
Three generations of cooks: Madeleine with her granddaughter Vivi. Source: Brigitte Hafner
“She had a cookbook with 500 recipes for potatoes,” recalls Hafner. “She’d make these incredible potato dumplings stuffed with plums, which were crumbed, fried in butter and dusted in cinnamon… She went to a lot of trouble to feed us, everything was made with such care.
She had a cookbook with 500 recipes for potatoes .. potato dumplings stuffed with plums, which were crumbed, fried in butter and dusted in cinnamon.
Madeleine’s Bavarian roots deep in the foothills of the German Alps, gave her an edge on the pastry game, as well as an uncompromising love of great produce. Food was an obsession and Madeleine brought this tradition to Australia, where Brigitte and her sister were raised.
“Mum figured Melbourne inside out when it came to food,” says Hafner. “She knows which deli has the best wurst, where to get great kosher chickens, which producers at the market to go to for which vegetables. She taught us the virtue of being picky about produce. Our family lunches were always a spread of a huge array of wurst, cheeses and gorgeous rye bread. Baking, in particular, was a really rich part of our weekend.”
Like many migrant children, culinary education for Hafner began from an early age almost by osmosis. “As a child, I basically hung off the kitchen bench. I would dip my finger into everything mum baked… it was probably more of a hindrance to her than anything, but I remember always being interested. It was the beginning of developing a great palate.”
Though these days at her menu at Gertrude Street Enoteca, Hafner has balanced out the butter with olive oil and a lighter, more Mediterranean style of cooking, her mother’s influence remains. This is especially true in Hafner’s emphasis on creating atmosphere around sharing food.
There’s so much warmth and generosity in the way she’d present food with ceremony. Nothing fussy, just appropriate.
“I think what I take from her cooking is that she takes great care to create a sense of occasion,” Hafner explains. “There’s so much warmth and generosity in the way she’d present food with ceremony. Nothing fussy, just appropriate. We always ate together and there were candles, the plates were hot… It was simple food but she honoured the effort by involving everyone and making eating together feel special.
“Over the years, I’ve celebrated mum by sharing her recipes in the articles I’ve published, and she says, ‘Oh, you can’t share those with people because they will know my recipes!’. I think, though, that she’s quietly chuffed, and I think in a way, all of my cooking comes from her.”
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