Fay oliver's
akka mum's
brandied
cherries

go straight to the recipe

Our mother Fay was a woman of her time who took like a duck to water to the cooking of the migrant friends she made, from Italy for Singapore and Malaysia. Like many Australian women of her time, she also took to the books of the late Margaret Fulton, who although she may have bastardised many European classics, changed forever the face of Australian cooking.

It was also the era of dinner parties, and these divine cherries were our mother’s speciality, along with her equally famous pickled beans. Something I always thought a little strange as she was a non-drinker for her entire life. One year my Grandmother Quinn and I tasked with the prepping of boxes of cherries decided that individually pricking them with a needle was ridiculous and fast tracked the operation with a single prick. Four months later they were shrivelled in the brandy instead of being plum, firm and crunchy. Fay was of course furious with us.

In those days our cherries came picked in the cool of that morning directly from our friends Bessie and Geoff Mortimer’s cherry farm in Summertown in the Adelaide Hills. The quality of your cherries is essential to the success of the brandied cherries, and we recommend Cowlings Organic Cherries and Fleurieu Cherries. You will not that cuisine-extreme features many recipes from Bessie Mortimer, who was herself a legendary cook. Our particular favourite is her Orange and Walnut Pudding.

AO 29 decemBER 2025