Around the Table

Slow Sundays are for herbed roast chicken with buttery croutons. Eating outside means cheddar and chive scones and fresh, spring salads. Friends coming for afternoon coffee calls for a simple blackberry yoghurt loaf, or a warming ginger cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting if you're feeling decadent.

Beloved home cook Julia Busuttil Nishimura (Ostro, A Year of Simple Family Food) always knows the right dish for the occasion, weather or time of day. She also understands the power food has to bring people together around the table, whether that's to prepare a meal or to enjoy the delicious results.

With chapters ranging from the quick, tasty meals in Weeknight Saviours to the simple indulgence of Summer Feasting, Around the Table perfectly matches dishes to time and place. It includes recipes laden with personal meaning - Mediterranean classics from Julia's time in Italy and Malta, and Japanese dishes she has learned from her husband, Nori - that will transport readers through flavor, too.

Julia Busuttil Nishimura is a Melbourne-based cook, author and teacher. Her work celebrates simple ingredients, seasonal produce and the joys of coming together at the table. Julia's cooking is influenced by her Maltese upbringing and by her time spent living in Tuscany, where she first learned the joys of the Italian kitchen. She is a regular contributor to publications such as Good Weekend, Good Food, Country Style magazine, The Design Files and ABC Everyday. Her first cookbook, Ostro, was short-listed for the 2018 ABIA 'Illustrated Book of the Year' and named in Gourmet Traveller's 'Best Food Books for 2017'. Her much-awaited second book, A Year of Simple Family Food, was published in 2020. Julia lives in Melbourne with her husband, Nori, and two children. julia-ostro.com