ANNABEL CRABB: Meet the Ferrones.
Who set this table? OTHERS: Julian.
Peter, Carol, Julian, Sienna and Olivia.
And we like to eat.
Yeah, that's us.
(ALL LAUGH)
This everyday Australian family has set out
on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure...
..to find out how our changing dinner plate....
It's actually the lining of a cow's stomach.
..has transformed the way we live.
Roast beef.
ALL: Cheers!
With their own home as a time machine...
Is this our house?
..the Ferrones began their journey in the thrifty '50s,
and are moving through a different decade each week.
Last time...
Oh, my God! It's really nice.
..the decadent '80s brought in appliances and ready-to-eat meals...
We're gonna go into the lounge room.
..that would change the way we ate...
Where is everybody?
..and introduced sugar as a major player.
The kids of Australia started getting fatter.
Stop that.
Now...
Whoa! Oh, my God!
..it's the '90s, a decade of change...
We have to do this and, what, you get to sit and do whatever you like?
..where the men are told to clean up...
Oh, my God! Get off the computer.
..or clear out.
Turn it off.
(LAUGHS)
(SQUEALS)
Food moves closer to home with Asian flavours...
I decided I would name it Jeff.
Oh!
..and the belated discovery of our own backyard...
We've got our kangaroo fillet.
..with Indigenous cuisine.
Here were in a country which has embraced every other culture...
Except our own.
Skippy has got a lot to answer for.
♪ Can't touch this... ♪
Do you think this is how they use to dance?
They used to walk like that.
The Ferrones have ditched their overpriced power suits
and the excess of the '80s
and busted out the neon windbreakers
for a decade that was almost unforgivably casual,
a decade that holds special memories for Carol and Peter.
CAROL: So, the '90s really was an exciting decade for us.
We actually got married, we bought our first apartment then.
Be good for these guys to live through
the period that we met and got married.
Yes, yes. Look there's Annabel!
Oh, what have we done to you?
It's the Ferrone crew.
What about a bit of a gangster walk, guys?
I just wanna personally apologise for those tracksuits.
I can't help but feel partially responsible.
Well, it all crashed and burned with the stock market.
It sure did.
Everyone had to wear tracksuits after that for a bit, right?
What about you, Vanilla Ice? Yeah.
Feeling comfy?
Yeah, I'm gonna go shoot up some gang that's been on my turf.
Alright, are you ready to take a spin to the '90s?
ALL: Yeah!
You do the honours, my friend. Of course me.
Alright, let's go to the '90s.
It's all looking a bit flammable from this end.
Oh, yeah.
Whoa! Oh, my God!
This is nice. Oh, my God!
We have a nice lounge room. It's so cool!
The exaggerated pastels and weird animal motifs of the '80s
are swept away in favour of a sleek and uncluttered feel.
A lot more minimalist than the '80s.
This is so nice.
Even the entertainment system has been downsized.
Our stereo just got smaller.
No, the speakers are at the top. Yeah.
I was actually very, very surprised about how good it actually looked,
especially from the '80s and every other decade comparing them,
the '90s are so simple.
This is, like, our style.
Yeah, look at our phone!
We can talk about whatever we want!
Hon, we had that exact phone.
Oh, my gosh. I absolutely love it.
Love the colours, I love the furniture.
I am so impressed with our '90s style.
I know, I like the floors.
Well spotted, Sienna, because polished wood floorboards
became really big in the '90s.
So, people's dingy old carpets came up,
and everybody was polishing up their floorboards
and increasing their home values. Yes.
I'm excited about the kitchen. Yes.
Well, shall we go have a look? Yes!
Alright. OK.
ALL: Wow!
It looks so good!
Over the past four decades, the Ferrones have seen their dining room
and kitchen area gradually morph into one
in the evolution of open plan living.
This new kitchen is the closest they have come to their 2018 home.
That's so cool.
Oh, my... and it's back on the right side.
Oh, yeah!
The giant microwave that terrorised turkeys
in the '80s kitchen
is now a discreet and understated feature,
and the most important appliance of all has finally arrived.
Dishwasher! Yes!
I was so grateful that we got the dishwasher.
It's been so many decades without one. It was a must.
Guess who's unloading and unloading the dishwasher.
These two!
You as well. You don't get exempt.
Have you noticed that all of the appliances that used to stick out...
All integrated. All integrated, yeah.
And everything has kind of toned down.
Colours, design... So good in here.
No clutter.
I love the colours. It's very nice.
If you have a look in the cupboards,
you'll find that your convenience foods are still kicking along.
But they've changed a little bit since the '80s.
Convenience foods are now about opening the jar.
Oh, sauce! I know.
It was the Chicken Tonight decade.
All you've got to do is brown up some meat and vegetables.
♪ I feel like chicken tonight. ♪ Yep, exactly.
I was quite shocked that in the '90s,
a lot of things still packaged, ready made, preservative...
Frozen pizzas.
..not so fresh food.
We still haven't eaten this from the '80s.
We might have to protest against that.
Well, Carol, you are still doing a lot of housework.
Twice as much as Peter does.
You do about 30 hours a week.
He does about 15 in the 1990s. Oh, wow.
As ever, I have the intel for you. Ah! Of course. Thank you.
You're in charge of that. Have a great time in the 1990s.
Thank you. Thank you.
Don't listen to any terrible music.
And I will see you very soon.
We'll see you soon, Annabel. OK. Good luck.
Thank you. See ya, Olivia.
Bye. Even the manual's colour coordinated.
Of course it is.
The '90s were an era of changing national identity
and rapid advances in technology.
Australia limped into the decade...
..with a giant economic hangover from the '80s.
This is the recession that Australia had to have.
For the first time, Asian immigrants outnumbered those from Europe.
REPORTER: Young Tom is getting on well
with his classmates from Australia, Lebanon and Greece.
And the High Court made a historic decision on Indigenous land rights,
dismissing the presumption that Australia had been unoccupied
before white settlement.
More than two centuries later, the High Court has recognised
there were people here and their descendants have rights.
By the end of the decade...
(DIAL-UP MODEM TONE)
..the internet would arrive to change our lives forever,
but some things remained the same.
Women were still fighting for equality in the workplace
and at home.
PETER: So, what's our manual say, honey?
Oh, I like this. What?
"In the '90s, women encouraged their sons more than ever
"to participate in housework." Great.
You'll make a good husband one day. What a bucket of fun.
And you say you wanna go out and live on your own.
You need to know how to cook and clean.
OK, alright.
Mum's not gonna come over and do it for you.
But don't worry, with the frozen food market increasing dramatically,
throwing a pizza in the oven is the only heavy lifting
you'll have to do... Oh, great.
Speaking of food... Yeah?
..I'm gonna get stuck into dinner. Great.
So we're gonna have some fresh packet ravioli.
Yeah. ..with sauce.
But before you get too excited, it's out of a jar.
Oh, not my eight-hour bolognaise sauce?
No, about eight minutes. Aw.
I know, I know. But you know what?
With me still working full-time,
it's a good way to kind of have a fresh meal that's still convenient.
The ingredients for tonight's recipe couldn't be simpler.
A jar of bolognaise sauce and packaged ravioli.
While this doesn't look all that different from the food of 2018,
for Australians in the '90s, packaged fresh food was new,
and a welcome change from microwave-ready meals.
Ah, remember this? Aw...
Long life fresh pasta was now possible
because of something called modified atmosphere packaging -
a blend of gases sealed inside the plastic film
stopped the food from spoiling.
Scary but handy.
And the piece de resistance.
Oh, no, what are you doing to me?
I know, right?
I've got to go to church and confess my sins if I eat that.
And it was the closest thing available to a home cooked meal.
I've got an Italian background.
Tonight's meal,
definitely not what I would call a traditional bolognaise sauce,
or my bolognaise sauce that cooks for eight or nine hours.
This sauce smells alright.
Yeah, it's alright.
But I suppose this was a way that
families would have a nicer meal at home,
and not going to a restaurant and spending lots of money,
because we're still in the middle of a recession.
In 1990, 77% of households with children owned a VCR,
while cassette tapes were being overtaken by compact discs.
OLIVIA: Wow! What's this?
I'm playing music. Don't watch a movie, Liv.
I'm just gonna see what movies we at least have.
I don't know if they have kids' movies.
The personal computer, a new, improved and quicker model
than those of the '80s, was an investment for a child's future,
but for most kids like Julian, it was simply a portal to virtual combat.
You struggling, Julian, with that monstrosity?
JULIAN: Not really, no.
Look at the size of that box.
I know.
Oh, yeah, it's bigger than the desktop.
Anyway, it's got three drives in it. You've got two floppies and a CD.
Yeah.
That's nuts. You don't even get one these days.
The new personal computer in the house
is extremely welcome in the 1990s, especially the video games.
Yeah, that looks so familiar, that game.
Either I've played it, or I've played something similar.
Yeah, it's a very well-known game.
Though obviously game play is not as good as 2018 games.
For people of the time, this would have been huge.
He's an Allied soldier who has to infiltrate Castle Wolfenstein,
which is like some Nazi fortress or whatever.
Good to see nothing's changed in 30 years,
as in teenage boys spending too much time on their computers.
Well, you know what? Get with the times.
Julian is equally as obsessed in 2018 as he was in the '90s.
You know, not happy that he basically wanted to spend
all his time on the computer.
Oh, Jesus, I'm on low.
Julian, that's it, cut it. Yes. OK.
What's for dinner? Um, pasta.
You know what? It's actually pretty good.
PETER: You gonna get off that, Julian?
I'll finish when I finish the level,
which I promise you I am trying to do as quickly as possible.
Oh, my God. Get off the computer!
I'm making up for 40 years of video game...
Pull the plug on that.
Don't worry! OK, I'm turning it off. Jesus!
Dammit! I wanted to pull the plug.
Alright, let's give it a go.
Hmm, the sauce is sweeter than what we're used to.
Yeah, it's sweeter, and you can taste that it's mass produced.
There's not that authenticity there, but it's not offensive.
I can see the attraction to creating this sort of meal.
10 minutes, you're done, you've eaten, and away you go.
You know what?
When we think about the TV dinners from the '80s,
this is such a step up.
Like, I still feel like it's a meal that I've made fresh.
Yeah.
And those things taste really bad.
ANNABEL CRABB: While food has improved,
the family's dining habits are still the same as the '80s.
Dinner on laps in front of the television
is still a nightly ritual.
REPORTER: Moving away now
from today's historic events in South Africa,
Western Australia also made history
with the election of Australia's first ever woman premier.
Oh!
Carmen Lawrence's ride to victory
has had its fair share of bloodletting...
So, um, like the '80s and now the '90s,
the TV is still this big priority.
We sort of enjoyed meals in front of it,
but you weren't aware of who was next to you.
And there was no conversation. It was just eyes glued to the screen.
Everyone done? Yep.
Alright. Chop, chop. Let's clean up.
Clean up, scrape your plate into the bin
and straight into the dishwasher. JULIAN: Ugh!
I'm hoping, you know, there are some family outings
and some time that we do spend together out of the home.
The '90s was a good decade for us then,
and hopefully it will be a good decade for us now.
Yay for the dishwasher.
Let's go into the lounge room.
How quick and easy was that meal?
1991.
JULIAN: Do you wanna help me do some oranges?
Yeah.
It's an early weekend morning in the Ferrone household.
Julian and Olivia are busy making orange juice - rather slowly.
Come on, keep going.
With a juicer invented in 1990
and considered an icon of industrial design.
I thought that was just like some sort of sculpture.
It's both a nice sculpture that you can look at... and a juicer.
How great is that?
The juice squeezer, it just looked like an alien on three legs.
It was just really weird.
OK, keep squeezing.
The alien's peeing!
Lovely, Liv.
That's OK if the bench is sticky after, right?
We'll clean that up later.
No, we won't. Mum will do it.
In the '90s, women were increasingly frustrated.
While they were doing similar jobs to men, they were being paid less.
In areas like women in trades, they are going backwards.
On top of that, they were doing twice as much of the housework.
So mothers started pushing every member of the family,
particularly sons, to help out more.
(PHONE RINGS)
Carol, who's currently away working, is on the case.
(MACHINE BEEPS)
CAROL: Hi, everyone. I've left some jobs for you to do,
and, kids, there won't be any pocket money if I come home
and there are jobs left undone.
Bye!
JULIAN: Command.com - bad or missing?
Mum just called, and if we don't do the chores, we get no money.
We're gonna get money.
Only if we clean up, which means you have to get off that right now.
We need to clean up. It's an absolute mess.
Julian, get off that. Hold on.
Liv, Liv, you're the shortest. Start vacuuming.
All here, all here. Julian, get off that.
I am trying to fix something. I don't care. Get off it.
Which one am I supposed to use? So disgusting in here. I don't know.
Julian, wipe down this.
I am trying to fix something.
I don't care. Wipe this down.
I am doing something.
Get off it! I mean it.
No, no, no, no, no. Liv, I am trying to fix something, OK? Jeez!
It was extremely unfair
that Julian was still sitting there on the computer,
and he refused to help.
Julian doesn't have to it. Why should we?
Still in the '90s, the household chores were so unbalanced,
and men still weren't expected to do as much,
and women were expected to do everything.
Julian, get off that! I am trying to fix something.
If Mum was here... No, you need to help clean up.
This is ridiculous. No, you're ridiculous.
No, I'm not. We have to do this,
and, what, you get to sit and do whatever you like?
I'm not sitting and doing whatever I like.
You're not sitting? Are you kidding?
I'm just ignoring you. I'm just gonna ignore you.
You know what? Just wait till Mum gets home.
He isn't getting money.
Jesus! No, I'm getting Dad.
(MOCKS) Oh, you're getting Dad.
I'm turning this off.
I think that men should definitely start doing a lot more housework,
especially as the years go on, and women should be more equal to men.
It should be a bit more shared.
Like, more people should be in here doing it.
It does suck for Mum that she has to do this much.
PETER: Can you understand why they might be angry?
You're not actually helping them?
I am! Well, I'm not helping them, but I'm still helping.
But are you doing anything around the house?
I am, I'm trying to fix the computer.
No, no, housework. I am!
Goddammit, I came here for someone that I wouldn't get angry at,
and now look at me. Ugh.
I was a bit surprised that Julian was reluctant.
I'm definitely a hands-on father, I like to do my part all the time.
I think it's important that we share a load.
Now women work and they've got a lot less time.
They had to come home and do most of the housework.
So can you see how there's some unfairness there?
Yes!
And mums were trying to push their sons.
Their husbands had just seen their fathers do nothing
in decades gone past, and did the same thing,
so I think it was about changing their sons' attitudes to housework
and helping around the house.
I can see Dad's point of view,
but it's not so much that I think women should do more housework,
it's more like I was trying to make sure we hadn't accidently destroyed
how many dollars computer,
which the girls of course didn't appreciate.
(WAGNER'S RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES PLAYS)
(GIGGLES)
(SQUEALS)
I think it was a bit of sweet revenge by the girls, hey?
Not so sweet, by that face.
An eye or an eye, squirt for a squirt.
Cooled down now? Yeah, it's good.
1992.
The Vietnam War was one of the longest conflicts
in which Australia participated.
(EXPLOSIONS)
Millions of lives were lost, and after the fall of Saigon in 1975,
a wave of Vietnamese refugees fled their homeland.
Thousands risked their lives in boats,
hoping Australia would provide a safer and better future.
REPORTER: For those lucky enough
to be accepted for a new life in Australia,
the waiting and the uncertainty was over.
They were the first large group of Asian migrants to arrive here
after the end of the White Australia policy.
By 1992, more than 130,000 Vietnamese had settled in Australia.
They established vibrant expat communities...
SIENNA: It smells like fish sauce.
..like Sydney's culinary jewel, Cabramatta.
All the smells making me hungry. Yes.
Among them was Michael Thai.
Hi, guys. How are you?
I'm very well. How are you? Good, thank you.
Are you enjoying your walk in Cabramatta?
Loving it.
A respected chef and restaurateur,
Michael has been titillating Australian tastebuds
with the sweet, sour and spicy flavours
of traditional Vietnamese cuisine since the 1990s.
Have you been tasting a bit of fruit while you were walking?
Not yet, and I'm curious about that one,
because, um, we don't know what that is.
This is actually a type of fruit, and it's called mangosteen.
They have quite a unique taste, and in the '90s,
this actually cost about $12 just for one.
ALL: Wow!
It's actually quite difficult to find as well back in those days.
Now, what we're going to do is go back to the restaurant
and show you the different types of Vietnamese cuisine.
Yep, let's go. Back to the restaurant.
Let's go. Let's go.
PETER: How long have you been in this restaurant?
We arrived in Sydney in 1990, and then my mum bought the restaurant.
OK. So, it's been a long while.
The arrival of migrants like Michael
meant that European fare faced a serious rival
for space on our dinner plates
in this exciting and affordable Asian street food.
Oh, wow, that's mine. What's everyone else having?
JULIAN: Oh, that looks divine. That looks amazing.
And for many Australians, pho was an magical introduction.
Back in the old day, at the beginning of the '90s,
white Australian knowledge of Vietnamese food
was still very primitive,
and so the traditional pho, which is the beef noddle soup,
it's always very popular items, because that's something that
they would be more familiar with.
Feel a bit like a steak, that sort of thing.
So that's a bit more easy for them to actually accept.
The traditional pho recipe consists of beef, beef broth, rice noodles,
bean sprouts, and a selection of fresh herbs,
the most important being basil.
The basil tends to be...
I would put some of the leaf in my bowl
because we don't want to overcook them.
And then we just put some raw meat slice up the top
and then pour this soup over it just to cook it.
So you have the hoisin sauce and the chilli sauce.
CAROL: Dig in. Please do.
Oh, my God. Ah!
JULIAN: Yeah, that is fantastic. Just so light and tasty.
PETER: It's delicious. I know, it is divine.
I will say that the meal was probably the best one we've had so far
in every single decade.
Vietnamese is my absolute favourite.
Being able to finally eat it was incredible.
This is so good. That is really nice.
I am very glad to see by the '90s,
Australia's a nation of immigrants,
a lot of people would eat very multiculturally.
I'm really pleased with that.
So, what's your family story, I suppose?
You know, your journey to Australia?
My parents had four children, and my brother,
the eldest brother and the second sister actually left the country
in the '80s by boat,
and they then sponsor us.
That was how we got here.
Were they refugees?
They were, yeah. Wow!
When the war finished, the whole country was completely closed off.
So we were trying to escape.
Their boat was adrift at sea for about 40 days
before they were rescued.
Wow.
So it was quite a journey.
Were they adults at the time?
My sister was 17, my brother was 18.
Wow. That's your age.
Yeah. That's nuts.
Michael's sister being my age when she escaped, you know,
and she risked her life for the chance of freedom on a refugee boat.
I don't know, that really...
Hmmm.
I find it really sad.
Her country's been so stuffed up
that she'd feel that she'd have to do something like that,
and risk her life to find some freedom.
It just boggles the mind, you know. It boggled my mind.
They basically, I think at that time, it was...
..you just try to leave the country
and not think of what is ahead of you.
It's very inspiring, but it's also very...
Yeah, it's just amazing, to be honest.
Olivia, I want to show you something.
Whoa!
Want to choose a fish? I like that one.
That one there? Let's see whether we can catch one.
Oh, my God!
Ohh! I can't watch.
That's what they're there for. No, no.
I was very shocked that Olivia had just chosen the meal.
Oh, I got splashed. There you go.
They caught a fish!
JULIAN: Fresh produce.
There's a surprise for me.
I got to pick a fish. I decided I would name it Jeff.
OK, now do you feel bad we're about to eat Jeff? You picked it.
Jeff! ALL: Oh! Oh!
CAROL: OK, I'd like to take a moment to say a few words
about our friend Jeff,
who sacrificed his life for our dining pleasure.
He'll be delicious.
The water is boiling, so what we'll do is we'll put the whole fish in,
because we actually use the heads as well.
PETER: Yeah, of course, yeah.
Just for the flavour.
Did you say that's a barramundi? That's a silver perch.
Oh, perch, oh.
I was just like, I can't eat it.
Bye, Jeff.
It doesn't get much fresher than that, does it?
PETER: No, not at all.
Oh, that soup is amazing.
Beautiful, isn't it? Jeff's good as well.
I think we can all agree that I don't think we've eaten this much
in any of the decades,
so this is actually the best meal that we've had, so thank you.
Wonderful. Thank you.
I'm glad to have you here.
'93 - it's no longer just me.
1993 was a year of memorable victories.
The Labor government
whose leader, Paul Keating, trailed heavily in the polls,
managed to win anyway in a shock result,
gaining a fifth term in power.
This is a victory for the true believers.
The International Olympic Committee awarded Sydney
the 2000 Olympic Games.
The winner is Sydney.
But for Peter and Carol, there was one even that outshone the rest.
1993 was the year Carol and Peter were joined in holy matrimony.
They're having a romantic evening for two to celebrate their special day
a second time around.
PETER: OK.
Ah! Oh! (LAUGHS)
Oh, my God! Oh, cool.
That's your car.
Ah! The cool... the phone as well.
Oh, my goodness. Is this a blast from the past or what?
It is.
The Capri was my first new car that I bought.
Yeah, I feel like I'm 20 again.
But it was also the car I had when I met Carol,
so it brought back some memories.
Lift that... Yep.
Close your door, pull this out.
It really was like stepping back in time, which was amazing,
and, you know, just this overwhelming feeling of nostalgia.
You know, I felt like I was 18 and dating him again.
So, my first job was working as a checkout chick
at the local supermarket,
and there was a young man that used to come shopping.
My queue always used to be the longest,
but he would still line up at my queue.
The day before my 18th birthday,
he plucked up the courage to ask me out on a date...
A year later, I actually proposed. The rest is history.
It's funny because when Peter and I first met,
I was working in a supermarket and I wasn't sure about him,
and then he pulled out of the car park and drove behind me,
and I thought, "Oh, convertible. He's got a job, he's a keeper."
So it was all about the car. Oh, for sure.
Do you remember how to drive it?
Yeah! Do I remember how to drive it?
Aw, it's like going out on our first date again.
This one's a bit different, there's no back seat.
Maybe that's a good thing.
With Mum and Dad out of the house,
the Ferrone children are fending for themselves.
SIENNA: I want fries.
OLIVIA: I want pepperoni pizza.
In 1993, convenience was still king,
frozen food was a mainstay of domestic cuisine.
Liv, do you wanna pass me your thing?
Yep.
In fact, in that year, we spent more than $54 million
on frozen pizza alone.
In 20 minutes that should be done.
I'm not too keen on all the frozen food.
It's not the best quality,
and don't know how good it is sitting in the freezer for so long.
Liv, don't you think Mum looked really pretty on her wedding?
Yeah, I love her dress.
And Dad looks so young and skinny.
I know.
Back in 1993 when Peter was but a blushing groom,
a new culinary term emerged to describe Australian cuisine
and sum up our complex journey from simple colonial food
to the riot of different cultures
occurring every night on our dinner plates.
That term was modern Australian.
What we saw on the table reflected our causal climate, lifestyle
and diverse produce and culture.
At the cutting edge of this new cuisine
was renowned chef Luke Mangan.
Beautiful.
Luke now runs 21 restaurants worldwide,
and still believes that Australian cuisine means great produce
with influences from all corners of the world.
I think it was pretty exciting to be a chef in the '90s.
I was 24, 25, running my first restaurant as head chef,
showcasing what Australian food was all about.
Using great Australian produce,
but also pairing it with those Asian ingredients,
the Italian ingredients, with a local product.
It's been a big influence for my career.
This is beautiful, isn't it?
Oh, it's amazing. I'm so excited. Look at the menu.
Hi, guys. How are you? Hello.
I'm Carol. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you.
Peter. Good to meet you.
Do you mind if I sit down for a minute?
Please. No, please do.
Talk you through your menu.
Oh, excellent.
What we're gonna do is put you through a journey
of food of the '90s,
pretty much what I was doing in the '90s, in our restaurants.
Australian food for me has got, you know, bits of Italian influence,
a bit of Japanese influence, a bit of French influence,
things like that,
and it all comes together using great Australian produce.
Yeah.
It sort of makes sense
that we live in a melting pot of different cultures,
that this should translate into our food.
A hundred per cent. And it's funny, you know, back in the '80s,
Australia was looking at the rest of the world
for what they're doing for food, but in the '90s,
people were looking at what Australians were doing,
because we were becoming so creative,
and all our amazing produce, so all that really helped.
And hopefully you'll see in these dishes tonight that balance.
So, why don't I go get cooking?
You sit back and enjoy your anniversary.
Thank you.
Really looking forward to it. Enjoy the night.
Thank you. Thanks, Luke.
Interesting how the '90s was a turning point for food in Australia,
but, you know, we are a multicultural country,
and we are a melting pot of different cultures,
and our food reflects that.
Oh, my goodness. Here we go.
That looks amazing.
Smells amazing.
So, your roasted sea scallops, blue cheese polenta,
shiitake mushrooms, and truffle oil.
Welcome to 1990.
Thank you! Oh, my goodness.
Those scallops are cooked perfectly.
Oh, my God! That is unbelievable.
Delicious. Happy anniversary, honey.
Happy anniversary.
SIENNA: Pick something. OLIVIA: (GASPS) Oooohhh!
What? This better be good.
What are you putting on? It's a surprise.
You just... Yeah.
Um, press play?
Oh! (LAUGHS) Oh, my God!
That's not them.
(LOVE IS IN THE AIR BY JOHN PAUL YOUNG PLAYS)
In the '90s, with technology improving,
wedding videography became an industry,
opening happy couples up to a whole new world of awkwardness.
Oh, that's so lame. Oh, no.
♪ Love is in the air... ♪
Oh, it's actually cringe.
That's not my dad.
I've never seen Mum and Dad look like that,
and I just didn't like it.
Ew!
Oh, get... ugh!
It was awful. They were there, like, making out the whole time.
It was so lame. I just...
It was terrible. I couldn't watch it.
"I love you" in lipstick!
Oh! I love you, Peter!
(LAUGHS)
If I was them, I'd be embarrassed and burn this video.
PETER: Here we go another year - 1994.
In 1994,
butchers were heavily marketing a new kind of meat, kangaroo.
MAN: Come on, shoppers. Come and try some kangaroo.
It wasn't new at all, of course.
Kangaroo had been eaten in this land by Indigenous Australians
for many millennia, but when the British arrived,
they rejected the lean meat,
preferring to import sheep and cattle.
For a long time, it was even illegal to sell kangaroo meat
for human consumption.
Mark Olive, an acclaimed Indigenous chef, opened his first restaurant
in the 1990s, featuring the ingredients he had grown up with,
and over decades he's continued to share his passion
and inspire Australians to discover their own cuisine.
Oh! Hello.
Hi. Mark. How are you? Carol.
Nice to meet you. Come on in. Thank you.
Hon, we have a special guest. This is Mark.
This is Peter. Nice to meet you.
So I've got a bagful of tricks here.
I'm just like Felix the Cat, really.
I've got some really interesting herbs.
Basically we're giving you a little bit of insight
into Indigenous foods.
In the '90s, Indigenous food
was just starting to make a prevalence in our food culture.
And I've been right at the very beginning of it.
So, we've got a few things here.
I just want to go through that were popping up around in the '90s.
Look. Here we've got lovely kangaroo.
Kangaroo is such a clean meat.
Extremely high in iron and also protein.
They're an amazing source of natural food that we have here
that we just don't embrace. Mm.
Here we are in a country which has just embraced every other culture...
Except our own!
..except what we've got in our backyard,
which I think is a real travesty.
So I've got a small dish here that I used to do in the '90s.
Honey, we've got another guest.
Hi! Mark Olive!
Hello. How are you? I'm good. And yourself?
I have brought some dessert. Oh, lovely.
We're having kangaroo, Annabel. Oh, right. Bouncy, bouncy.
Have you had kangaroo? Well, look, I don't eat meat, so...
I think probably before I became a vegetarian
I'm pretty sure I tried kangaroo.
But it was actually illegal to sell kangaroo for human consumption
until 1993.
Wow! Crazy, isn't it?
Isn't it crazy?
So it was declared to be a pet meat,
and South Australia where I grew up was the first state
to decriminalise the sale of kangaroo
for human consumption.
But how weird that for 40,000 years
it would be the main protein source of this country, and then just...
Suddenly... "Oh, no, sorry, that's illegal now."
When the Brits did come over, it was their favoured source of meat.
You know, right at the very beginning.
And it's only this stigma now.
Skippy has got a lot to answer for. (LAUGHS)
So what we're gonna do is we've got our bunya nut here.
This is gonna be the great base for our...
So instead of a breadcrumb, you use that.
Instead of a breadcrumb.
We're using this lovely, lovely flavoured bunya nut.
Mark's crusted roo steak recipe includes kangaroo eye fillets,
olive oil, and a selection of native nuts and herbs.
Got a little bit of saltbush.
And we've got our lemon myrtle.
So we can put a little bit of citrus in there as well.
And then we've got our wattle seed. Yep.
We're gonna give it that lovely little bit of...
Chocolatey. Almost like a caffeine. Yep. Beautiful.
Add to that as well. Less is more.
Less is more because Indigenous herbs are very intense in flavour.
Yep. And a lot of people
didn't figure that out back in the '90s
that these were so, so strong with their essences.
Prior to today I hadn't really had much experience
or knowledge of Indigenous cuisine.
And look, it's a lovely meat to cook.
Because it's a barbie, it's not an oven atmosphere,
we'll leave that for about 15 minutes.
Just to see how that goes.
It will be good to share that knowledge on with the three kids.
What you been up to? Just, you know...
Chilling around. I went grungy today, actually.
You did! You're like Seattle.
So we've got our kangaroo. We've got all of this.
I think we're ready to eat. Kangaroo?!
Oh, no, we've got...
I'm not eating kangaroo. It's really good.
Kangaroo?
I thought we were just gonna have just a normal barbecue
with, like, chicken or something, not kangaroo.
It tastes like normal meat.
Yeah.
All you have to do is cut just a little bit like this.
That's all you need.
And a little bit with the crust on the outside.
Put it in your mouth.
Now chew.
Now, what can you taste?
Can you taste all the herbs and the flavours?
It's a bit lemony? Yeah.
The decade that we're now dwelling in, the 1990s,
was a time of great change.
What was it like living through that time?
What do you remember about the time?
Oh, look, it was great structure of change, be it with the food,
be it with technology,
but attitudes, and for Indigenous people it was that change
of optimism and I think a bit of hope.
You're living in a country that has an amazing history,
and it's just looking into it and owning that and being proud,
because this country has a base. Yep.
It has a spiritual base which is the oldest in the world.
And hopefully young kids like Olivia and Julian and Sienna
coming along the way that can teach people to break down those barriers.
Absolutely.
To actually make a difference happen in this country
because you live here, we live here,
this is a global community living in our country.
Find out the Aboriginal name or the history of where do you live now,
what is the country here that you're living on?
Bring that spirituality into your everyday life.
Thank you so much for sharing everything with us today.
Annabel, a pleasure. I'm blown away by your cooking.
And you got Olivia to eat a kangaroo.
I really think Australians do need to be educated on our local produce.
You know, I think we really do need to step up
and showcase our Indigenous cuisine
and culture to the rest of the world.
1996.
The late 1990s signalled a new era in technology.
A mobile phone was no longer a brick costing $4,000.
Now smaller and a fifth of the price,
it became a device that people couldn't live without.
Yes! We have phones!
Do you remember these? No photos.
Yeah, no camera.
Oh, my goodness. Oh, remember the game on it?
Snake! Snake!
Oh, my gosh!
While 40% of Australian adults had a mobile by the end of the '90s,
children's time was yet to come.
But the biggest new invention that would change all our lives...
(DIAL-UP MODEM TONE)
..was the internet.
No longer exclusive to universities, the information superhighway
had made its way to our homes, and the tone of the dial-up modem...
(MODEM BEEPS AND SCREECHES)
..became the soundtrack of the era.
Australians enthusiastically entangled ourselves
in the World Wide Web,
and while we were yet to shop online, we could chat, play games
and socialise without leaving home.
(VIDEO GAME NOISES)
But as dial-up internet could only transmit its signal
through a pre-existing phone line,
not everyone could connect at the same time.
(PHONE LINE BEEPS)
What happened to the phone?
Julian! What?
The phone is broken.
It's making a funny sound.
I can't use the phone.
OK. Well, that's because I'm using the internet.
Well, then, can you get off it for, like, 10 minutes?
10...
Well, I'm using it.
But you're not even doing anything productive.
I am doing plenty of things that are productive.
Please?
No. Please?
No.
Write a letter.
Excuse me? Ha! Sucker.
The internet would take over our lives, both at home and at work.
But it wasn't the only obsession on our minds.
1997.
In the '90s, having the perfect body was everything,
with TV screens and magazines giving us the skinny on how to look.
WOMAN: This is what we're led to believe
is healthy, normal and Australian.
Slim, blond and bronzed was the epitome of health -
or so they claimed.
Teens and young women got the message loud and clear.
MAN: We haven't got control of melanoma yet
and there is no doubt that we've got a serious problem
and will be the most common cancer in Australia
soon after the turn of the century.
Despite rising awareness of skin cancer,
hordes of Aussies still insisted on oiling up
and lying out in the sun to fry.
It's the way of life here in Australia.
Done it all my life and I'm not prepared to give it up.
It's just really shocking.
I don't know why the people in the '90s
would think that it's so healthy for them.
I know from learning in 2018 in PE class and things like that
that you should never, ever sit in the sun,
especially with no hat, no sunblock and just sit there applying oil.
Like, that's probably the worst thing you could do for your skin.
And it makes you age a lot.
Sunbaking wasn't the only health myth to come out of the 1990s.
I think we should make a salad for lunch.
The caesar salad was a '90s favourite.
Even though it was chock-a-block full of calories and fat,
we saw it as a salad, so it had to be healthy, right?
Green is good.
Carol's recipe is from the famed Marchetti of Melbourne,
and includes eggs, oil, bacon, parmesan,
fried bread and cos lettuce.
Anchovies, as always, are optional.
(KNOCK AT DOOR) Ooh!
Hello. Oh, my God!
I love you! (LAUGHS)
Hi, Deborah. Deborah Hutton, there you go.
Yes. And Sienna, my daughter.
Hi. Hi, sweetheart.
Oh, my God.
It is such a pleasure to meet you. You're so funny.
Joining Carol and Sienna for lunch today
is one of Australia's most celebrated media personalities, Deborah Hutton.
Who, with an early modelling career, then stints as a magazine editor
and a television presenter in the '90s,
has a firsthand knowledge of the pressures on young women at the time.
I was watching some news
and everyone in the '90s would just sit out, no hats, no sunscreen.
I know. I know. Just in oil, getting tanned all day.
Yeah. So unhealthy.
Well, you know, it was kind of...
The era was really interesting.
I remember being the bronzed Aussie was seen as being the thing, right?
The browner you were, the better it was.
I think I started with Women's Weekly
as a beauty editor at the time.
So I think back to what the magazines were like
at that point in time.
On television there was Pamela Anderson and Baywatch.
Yes. And she became -
I don't know if you've ever seen her -
just enormous breasts and the tiniest, tiniest waist.
And I think that's what started this unrealistic view
of what we thought we should have been.
I used to love just getting my face burnt,
because you'd get that red glow here, you know like blush,
and, you know, you always...
..when you're rosy you look good, and now I regret it.
But it was that look.
You embraced it because it's the fashion of the time.
But you don't think about the damage that it does.
My entire family is riddled with skin cancer.
I had a... You had an experience, didn't you?
I had one removed, yeah.
And the scar that goes from my nose to my chin, because it was...
I've had three removed.
I've got a lifetime of skin cancers and getting things burnt off
and cut out.
It's just... That's what it is for me.
Yep.
I think the girls in the '90s definitely had it very tough.
If you were born different and you wouldn't go tan in the sun
and didn't have that perfect body,
I can't imagine how bad you would feel about yourself.
You've got to fit, you know, into the size, the shape, and I think...
I always struggled with that,
trying to be one of those girls.
Because you feel like you have to. Yeah, you have to.
And the beautiful thing now is that there's an acceptance
of being as natural as you can and embracing that.
Yeah.
Deborah was absolutely amazing.
I have really loved her and followed her career for decades now.
She's still glamorous and working and being the best that she can be.
Does it taste any good?
Oh, it's seriously good.
Good job.
That's the role model that I want to be for my children
and for my girls, in particular.
I think we're good like that. I think that's good.
I'll turn it over like that. OK.
Oh, yeah. Mm.
We did well. It's delicious.
I know.
Can I just tell you, Deborah, in the '90s,
people were doing the Rachel haircut.
I was doing the Deborah Hutton bob. You were doing the...
Your baby photos, I have the Deborah...
I would walk into my hairdresser and say,
"Give me the Deborah Hutton bob from the ad."
So, you're like my hair idol. So, with that...
Oh, drink to that. Let's say cheers to the '90s.
How gorgeous. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me in your lovely '90s house.
Thank you.
It's a joy to be here and it's a beautiful salad.
Thank you.
I'm gonna party like it's 1999.
♪ This is it ♪ This is it... ♪
We've reached the end of the '90s,
when Australians turned a corner
not only into a new century but also into new shopping and eating habits.
Swiss brown. 250g.
No longer satisfied with our grab-and-go lifestyle,
we started questioning what was really in our foods.
And the organic food movement, a throwback to the '50s,
stepped in as an answer.
We don't use any preservatives, any pesticides, any added sugars.
OK. And no sulphur and no sulphates.
Oh, I love that.
I'll have a bag, please. Of course.
Thank you. Oh, thank you.
I think people were sick of processed foods and preservatives
and things in their foods,
and we want to know where our foods come from
and rather than a supermarket shelf,
we want to know that it's fresh and it's healthy.
Oh, smells nice and fresh.
That's from my farm. Oh, wow. You grow these?
Yeah, we grew this one. Yes.
We love fresh food, we love cooking.
Happy to say that things have improved dramatically.
While Carol hand picks the ingredients for today's lunch,
Peter is making another component from scratch.
With a brand-new breadmaker.
1.5 cups of wholemeal flour.
So this is the decade that these breadmakers became popular.
And it seems to be the '90s,
we're getting back to some real basics of,
you know, bread that Mum would have stayed at home
and she would have taken ages to make.
And now breadmakers sped up the process of people wanting something
that was wholesome.
I can see we're using technology to go backwards.
And the best part?
The aroma.
Ask any real estate agent of the time -
that fresh-baked bread smell can really sway a buyer.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, smells good in here. Look what I made.
That's... very artistic.
(LAUGHS) It is.
Got some really good stuff from the market today, so...
..I might start preparing everything.
For the final lunch of the decade,
the Ferrones are making bruschetta three ways,
from the 1999 Australian Women's Weekly.
Hello. Hey.
Have you come to help? Nope.
Oh, I love the smell of fresh basil.
Get a whiff of that.
OLIVIA: I'll get it.
Look who's here!
Hello. Hello!
Hey, Annabel.
Oh, my gosh. It smells delicious in here.
That is an interesting thing you've walked in with.
It's the end of the century.
The millennium bug is approaching.
Nobody knows what's going to happen.
I brought some candles just in case everything blows up.
On December 31, 1999, the world was preparing for the end.
The millennium bug, as it was famously known,
got people scared that as the calendar ticks over to the year 2000,
computers would think that it was 1900.
There'd be a catastrophic technological meltdown
and we'd enter a post-apocalyptic state
from which we would never recover.
The fear set the world into a frenzy.
People were in a complete freak-out about it.
I remember on that night,
I was on duty at the Y2K crisis centre as a reporter,
standing by in case the entire country exploded.
It was broadcast, wasn't it? Yeah.
And it ticked over and nothing happened.
Nothing happened. It was a fizzle.
So has it been nice to get in touch with some organic food?
Oh, absolutely, especially after the last couple of decades,
it's all been about packaged foods, TV dinners.
At the beginning of the '90s
there was something like 150,000 hectares of farming land in Australia
devoted to organic farming,
and by the end of the '90s it was 7 million hectares.
Oh, wow.
That's how fast it caught on.
So what about you, Carol? How have you found this decade?
It was really great for us
having the kids live through the '90s with us because, you know,
we often say to them, "Well, you know,
"before you were born we did this."
So it was really good having them relive it with us.
Yeah.
Our experience of food in the '90s has been fantastic.
Going out, trying different restaurants, different cuisines,
you know.
I must say, the Indigenous food was different to what we're used to.
So should we dig in?
That looks so incredible.
It really was a time of experimentation in food
and having the kids along for the ride, I'm grateful for that.
Oh, this is really good.
Colourful food that is coloured naturally is kind of a nice thing
to see after all these decades, isn't it?
Oh, yeah. Food the way it should be.
So much better than our fondue.
(LAUGHS) I love the '90s.
See, they're back to feeding each other food again, guys.
What do you think? At least it's not grapes.
I think that presents a choking hazard.
(LAUGHS) So did that wedding video.
PETER: Yes.
OK. Are we ready to kiss goodbye to this entire century?
ALL: We are.
Adventures lie ahead in the 2000s.
Grab a candle, everybody.
You never know, the end of the century, the world could still end.
Alright. Done. We're out.
Bye, century.
Bye, house.
You'll never have to wear a shell tracksuit again.
Think about it. (ALL CHEER)
See you later.
OLIVIA: Alligators!
Next time...
Oh! Oh, my God!
..it's the new millennium.
So cool!
Close your eyes and put out your hands.
You've waited many decades.
(BOTH SCREAM)
A time of getting back to basics...
Oh, look at that.
Oh, my goodness gracious.
..having fun with food...
(GASPS)
Croquembouche.
Molecular gastronomy.
I did feel like a bit of a mad scientist.
The future is now, old man.
You can look after the nerdy stuff and I'll look after the tasty stuff.
..and the willingness to give...
Would you like to buy a cupcake for charity?
..in a decade of need.
Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Makes you feel really good inside when you do something
that helps people in need.
High five.