1990s

1999 Energy drinks arrive in Australia

Energy drinks arrived in Australia in the late '90s.  ‘V’ was first launched in New Zealand in 1997 and hit… Read More

1999 Dick Smith Foods, the Aussie way

In 1999, entrepreneur Dick Smith launched Dick Smith Foods. The move was prompted by the increasing foreign ownership of iconic… Read More

1999 McDonald’s launches McOz

The truly Australian touch in this burger was the addition of beetroot. The McOz consisted of a burger patty with… Read More

1999 Aussies love soft drink

In 1999, Australians drank 113 litres of soft drink per person per year, or 300 ml per person per day (ABS).… Read More

1998-9 Egg consumption declines

n 1968 the American Heart Association announced a dietary recommendation that you should eat no more than 300 mg of… Read More

1998 Nigella Lawson publishes How to Eat

If Jamie Oliver was all about energy, Nigella Lawson was all about sensuality. Her first book, How to Eat, had… Read More

1998 Great Vanilla Slice Triumph

The Great Vanilla Slice Triumph began in Ouyen, Victoria, in 1998 after then-Victorian premier Geoff Kennett claimed the vanilla slice… Read More

1998 Broccolini introduced in USA

Broccolini, a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale, was invented by the Sakata Seed Company of Yokohama, Japan in 1993.… Read More

1998 SMH Good Food Month launched

The Sydney Morning Herald sponsored Sydney's Good Food Month in October as an adjunct to their Good Food Guide. The… Read More

1997 Tasting Australia begins in Adelaide

Aimed primarily at bringing international food and travel media to Australia, Tasting Australia was initially held in conjunction with the… Read More

1997 The Jamie phenomenon

Jamie Oliver became The Naked Chef. The impossibly jaunty young chef received his big break from appearing on television as… Read More

1997 Women cooking most

In a study called How Australians Use their Time, 1997, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that we still relied… Read More

1997 Arnott’s ownership passed to Campbell’s

The Arnott's ownership passed to the American  Campbell’s Soup Company in 1997.  Campbell’s had been increasing its stake in the company… Read More

1996 Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion

tephanie Alexander’s opus, The Cook's Companion, subtitled ‘The complete book of ingredients and recipes for the Australian kitchen’  went on… Read More

1996 Modern Australian food defined

The term “Modern Australian” first appeared in the Age and Sydney Morning Herald  Good Food Guides in 1996. This description… Read More

1996 Community gardens get organised

The Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network was set up in 1996. The Network was started by Dr Darren… Read More

1996 Sunday trading throughout Victoria

Sunday trading was introduced on ten Sundays per year in 1991. In 1992, stores in the Melbourne CBD were permitted… Read More

1996 Gloria Jean’s arrives

The US coffee chain Gloria Jean's opened two stores in Sydney in 1996 and by 2003 was trading in every… Read More

1996 Woolworths moves into petrol

Woolworths was the first of the supermarket giants to move into the fuel business.  The first Woolworths petrol outlet carried… Read More

1995 Smoking ban in ACT restaurants

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was the first state or territory government in Australia to introduce a total smoking ban… Read More

1995 Fags become Fads

Fags were candy cigarettes, produced since the 1930s, initially by Riviera Confectionery and later by Fyna Foods. They were white,… Read More

1995-96 Takeaway sushi

Sushi had appeared in Sydney restaurants as early as 1963 and by 1982 the Australian Women's Weekly was telling people… Read More

1995 Sydney’s first organic food market

British immigrant Elizabeth Taylor opened Sydney’s first organic food market at French’s Forest in Sydney, concentrating on locally grown food.… Read More

1995 E.coli outbreak highlights food safety

In South Australia, an E.Coli outbreak among people who had eaten contaminated Garibaldi metwurst killed one four year old child… Read More

1995 Slow Food Australia founded

Slow Food Australia operates through a series of convivia, each mandated directly from the Italian headquarters in Bra, Italy. The first… Read More

1995 Arrival of pay TV

The first subscription TV service was Galaxy, which offered eight channels via microwave and satellite. It was followed the same… Read More

1994 First laneway bar in Melbourne

The first laneway bar in Melbourne was set up by a group of architects who wanted a quiet drinking spot… Read More

1994: Liquor laws relaxed further in Victoria

The Victorian government revisited the liquor laws in 1994, creating the General Licence Class B which allowed establishments that didn’t… Read More

1994 Fly Buys program introduced

Fly Buys was originally a joint venture between Coles Myer, Shell and the National Australia Bank, offering flights in return… Read More

1994 Government regulates Anzac biscuits

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs must authorise the use of the term Anzac. In 1994 a general policy relating to… Read More

1994 First genetically engineered food

The FlavrSavr tomato became the first genetically engineered food to be commercially grown and licensed for human consumption by the… Read More

1994 Peter Doyle opens Cicada in Sydney

Chef Peter Doyle, realising that the old-style formality was out-of-step with the times, transformed Sydney institution Le Trianon into Cicada.… Read More

1993 Truffle farming starts in Tasmania

Two Tasmanians started Perigord Truffles of Tasmania, the first truffle farming operation in Australia. They inoculated the roots of oak… Read More

1993 Bill Granger opens his first café

Bill Granger is the self-taught cook and restaurateur credited with introducing Australians to avocado on toast. In 1993, he opened… Read More

1993 Jill Dupleix’s New Food

According to its author, Jill Dupleix, New Food was based on new information and ideas we can all live by,… Read More

1993 Melbourne has world’s first McCafé

In an acknowledgement of Melbourne’s status as the coffee capital of Australia, Mcdonald's opened the first McCafé in the world… Read More

1993 First Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was devised and, initially, financed by leading Melbourne ad-man Peter Clemenger as a way… Read More

1993 Fanny’s Restaurant closes

In the early 1990s, Australia paid a high price for the excesses of the 1980s with what Paul Keating famously… Read More

1993 Gay Bilson’s tripe tablecloth

The kitchen staff from Berowra Waters Inn restaurant, under the leadership of Gay Bilson, made a tablecloth of raw tripe… Read More

1992 Margarine outsells butter three to one

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report in 1994 quoted industry sources that put 1992 market shares of butter… Read More

1992 First Indigenous-owned restaurant in Victoria

The first Indigenous-owned restaurant in Victoria (and possibly Australia) opened in 1992 at Hall's Gap in the Grampians (Gariwerd to… Read More

1992 Greengrocers still sell most vegies

As I was growing up, in the 1950s, food retailers specialised. The small shopping strip around the corner in Malvern,… Read More

1991 The Cheesecake Shop founded in Sydney

My daughter has a skill I never acquired. She's a dab hand at writing "Happy birthday" atop an iced cake,… Read More

1991 “Modern Middle Eastern” food at O’Connell’s

In 1991, Greg Malouf started cooking upmarket Middle Eastern food at O’Connell’s Hotel in South Melbourne, redefining the possibilities of… Read More

1991 The term ‘Gastropub’ coined

It’s not a fashionable term anymore, but ‘Gastropub’ was coined in the UK in 1991 to describe pubs offering something… Read More

1991 Easter Bilby campaign introduced

The Foundation for Rabbit Free Australia (RFA) developed and registered the Easter Bilby campaign in December 1991. The aim was to raise… Read More

1991 Organic certification introduced

At the request of the organic industry, the Australian government sought to establish a national organic standard for production and… Read More

1991 First Orange F.O.O.D. Week

The Orange F.O.O.D. Week was initially held in April 1991 with a small number of visionary Orange producers and chefs,… Read More

1991 Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes KFC

With health-consciousness increasing, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to eliminate the ‘F’ word. It became KFC. No longer ‘Finger-lickin’ good’,… Read More

1991 Pacific Dunlop acquires Petersville

The Petersville brands acquired by Pacific Dunlop  included Edgell-Birds Eye, Peters Ice Cream, Herbert Adams Bakeries, Socomin and Four ‘n’Twenty.… Read More

1991 National Foods created

The new food giant, National Foods, was created by the Adelaide Steamship Company by amalgamating several dairy and food-related businesses with… Read More

1991 The National Food Authority founded

The new National Food Authority promoted cooperation between governments, industry and the community to provide a safe and wholesome food supply.… Read More

1991 Darley Street Thai opens

David Thompson opened Darley Street Thai in Sydney’s Newtown in 1991, taking Thai food in Australia to a new level.… Read More

1990 The Hard Rock Café

Cheap and cheerful was the order of the day as the recession bit. Part of the international chain, The Hard… Read More

1990 Paul Keating’s “recession we had to have”

In 1990, Treasurer Paul Keating admitted that Australia was in recession. "The first thing to say is, the accounts do… Read More

1990 Milk, calcium and osteoporosis

The Australian Dairy Corporation (now Dairy Australia) began its osteoporosis campaign, talking about calcium intake. Although milk had always been… Read More

1990 Tiny Teddy biscuits launched

Arnott’s Tiny Teddy biscuits hit the market, becoming the most successful product launch in the company’s history. More than five… Read More

1990s Food allergies in the news

Studies showed that peanut allergy in children increased from 0.5 to 1.5% between 1989 and 1994-6 in the UK and… Read More

1990 Heyday of the Caesar salad

Although generally held to be invented in 1924 by the eponymous Caesar Cardini at his hotel and restaurant in Tijuana,… Read More

1990s More pre-packaged meals

In the 1990s, individually packaged, ready-made meals and snacks appeared in increasing numbers in the supermarket. Microwave pasteurisation techniques extended… Read More

1990s Fusion cooking

Fusion cooking started before the 1990s (at Tetsuya’s, for example) but in this decade became more widespread. Chefs combined eastern… Read More

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