ANNABEL CRABB: Meet the Ferrones.
Who set this table?
Julian. Julian.
Peter, Carol, Julian, Sienna and Olivia.
And we like to eat. Yeah, that's us.
(LAUGHTER)
This everyday Australian family has set out
on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure...
(LAUGHS)
..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 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...
Whoa! Oh, my God.
..the Ferrones ate their way through the 1990s.
I decided I would name it Jeff.
(GROANS OF DISGUST)
A decade where foods and flavours...
We did well. It's delicious.
..reflected our changing nation.
Here we are in a country which has embraced every other culture...
Except our own. ..except our own.
Skippy has got a lot to answer for. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
Now...
Oh!
Oh, my God!
Technology takes off in the new millennium.
Close your eyes and put out your hands.
You've waited many decades. No! Not fair!
(SCREAMS) Thank you!
A time of social consciousness...
Would you like to buy a cupcake for charity?
..getting back to food basics...
Wow. This is our hummus.
Stephanie Alexander is in my kitchen!
..punctuated by the odd experiment.
Croquembouche!
Molecular Gastronomy.
I did feel like a bit of a mad scientist.
The future is now, old man.
As they discover how our changing relationship with food...
Bit of a party in your mouth, actually.
..has shaped all our lives.
It's the dawn of a new millennium...
Here we go.
♪ Go! ♪
(ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL BY JET PLAYS)
The 2000s is a really big decade.
I know. It's weird that Julian's not here.
Uni calls. Yeah.
The Ferrones have survived the Y2K bug,
but not the return of wall-to-wall denim.
SIENNA: The clothes are pretty funky from this decade.
I know, they are.
For this family, the 2000s brought some fairly significant developments.
I'm born.
You ARE born. All three of you are born.
You know, becoming a mother was a big thing.
Also, there were some not-so-good things that happened -
9/11, the Bali bombings, the tsunami.
It'll be good to talk about that with the kids,
and, you know, make them understand how we were feeling,
how the world was feeling.
I love this bit.
I know. I'm excited.
PETER: Let's have a look. OLIVIA: Yes, please.
Here we go.
Whoa! Oh!
Oh, wow!
Oh, look at this.
Oh, my God!
SIENNA: So nice. OLIVIA: Cool!
The home has evolved noticeably from the minimalism of the 1990s.
I love this.
'Reuse, repair and recycle' was the slogan of the new age.
That looks so good! Oh, my God! Look at that wall!
Oh, I love that! OLIVIA: Whoa!
Your old schoolbags.
Oh, yes!
Whoa! (GASPS) Home Alone!
Yeah, DVDs!
Fast And The Furious.
They're up to like 438 now, aren't they, or something like that?
SIENNA: I wanna see the kitchen.
There's no doorway anymore. Oh, my lord!
Oh!
Oh, look at the open plan!
The wall to the outside is completely gone.
It's a final break with the airless, boxed-in, British aesthetic
we'd adopted for decades.
Oh, my God! I love this kitchen! It looks so good.
Pretty cool, isn't it?
I just love that we're all opened up again.
I know. It just draws you outside straightaway.
It's now one vast open space, flowing onto the balcony -
perfect for entertaining alfresco.
Can you just cast your mind back to the '50s?
When the kitchen was, like, here? I know.
Flashing back to the '50s,
that was small and poky and dark and quite suffocating,
to finally having that indoor-outdoor feel,
it's just so refreshing and so welcome.
That look familiar? Aw! It does!
This book taught me to cook.
We finally get to make sticky date pudding.
We do!
What's the food like? Ah, good.
Better food? Lots of fresh fruit and vegies.
Oh, that looks good.
And look, there's frozen food, but it's all frozen natural food...
Juices. And we've got another juicer.
Oh, yes! Oh, I am just loving this.
Further treats are in store.
(SIENNA GASPS) Look at...
Yes! I got a phone!
What did I get?
By the start of the 2000s,
more than 60% of us, including some teenagers,
were carrying a mobile phone.
I'm so happy that I finally got a phone.
I've been waiting so many decades to get one,
and I've had withdrawal symptoms.
How do you send texts on this?
Although handy, these devices were a lot dumber
than the smartphones of today.
You don't swipe it, you have to press the buttons.
I don't know how to get the picture.
Like, does it hold contacts and stuff?
Oh, it holds contacts and stuff. Yeah. But that's it.
Did all the basics.
Remember, phones were made to make phone calls.
The noughties brought an explosion in technology,
which reverberated into every corner of our lives.
All of a sudden, you could shop online,
while monitoring every single development
in the lives of your friends.
With all this new activity, we forgot to have babies.
Treasurer Peter Castello issued a command to the nation -
get breeding!
One for your husband and one for wife and one for the country.
Political change came too.
After 11 years in office, Prime Minister John Howard was ousted
for Labor's Kevin Rudd.
Today, Australia has looked to the future.
(CHEERING)
Climate consciousness went mainstream...
It's not true that you hurt the economy
if you become more efficient in reducing pollution.
But the decade's most sobering legacy...
WOMAN: Oh, my God!
..would be the chill wind of terrorism
that blew around the world,
changing our lives forever.
Hey, look what's here.
Oh, the manual. The manual.
For Australia, though, the noughties began triumphantly,
with the Olympics.
To celebrate the start of the decade,
and the best Games ever, Australian Olympic swimmer
Leisel Jones is coming over to visit.
Oh, cool! Cool!
In honour of Leisel's visit,
you're making two favourite foods of the decade -
beef sliders and pork belly bites...
Oh, yum! Yum!
Finally, good food! Yes!
The biggest trend in restaurants at the time was share plates,
and as a nation of committed home entertainers,
Australians took to the concept with gusto.
Got this open space, my big benchtop.
It's rustic. It's family.
I guess it's bringing me back to my entertaining days.
At least this food's getting better.
Much better. The kids will be happy about...
The knives are getting better. Ooh.
Gee, onions haven't changed over the years. Oh, gee!
Why do you think I got you to do it? Yeah, I know.
Carol's recipes are from Sydney caterer Anneliese Perry.
The beef sliders are made with beef mince, Worcestershire sauce,
Dijon mustard, onion and pickles.
Did you taste that first, the way we did?
No. Or are you just going for it?
I'm just living life on the edge here with my sliders.
While beef still dominated the diet of the Australian carnivore,
pork was storming up the charts.
In the noughties, we ate nearly three times as much pork
as we did in the '60s.
What was the Olympics even like here?
Oh, it was just a buzz around Sydney.
Oh, it was amazing. Everyone was excited.
We went out almost every night. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. Check this out.
Wow! It's like our normal home, sort of.
It's just wooden. This phone's for you!
And you got a phone. Great.
Check that out. JULIAN: Ooh!
Don't touch it - it's really hot.
(PAN SIZZLES) Whoa.
Wow. Can't wait to get into that.
OLIVIA: Wait, wait, wait, let's take a picture of it.
Careful - it's hot. Oh, man, that smells really good.
Um, you can't Instagram it yet.
No.
At just 15 years of age,
and with the aid of neither Instagram nor Facebook,
Leisel Jones became a national darling,
the youngest member
of the Sydney 2000 Olympic swimming team.
Hello! Hi!
How are you? Nice to meet you! Leisel! Lovely to meet you.
She won two silver medals at the Sydney Games,
and then went on to receive seven more, including gold,
over her illustrious 12-year career.
I hope you're hungry. I am so hungry.
We're having a 2000s-inspired lunch, so sliders...
Oh, yum!
..and, um, I've just roasted a pork belly for three hours.
Delicious.
What was that like as a 15-year-old girl?
You know, Sienna's into hair and make-up and YouTube videos...
Yes! Yeah, we certainly didn't have anything like that.
Well, we didn't have any social media,
so that was a big thing for me.
Um, I think I would struggle now to be an athlete
because, yeah, we just didn't have to deal with Facebook,
we didn't have Instagram,
we didn't have any of that, particularly in 2000.
It would have been very different
because she didn't have to worry about social media
and the pressure she had from her friends
and what people say.
So, I didn't even have one of these. I didn't have a phone.
It would have been a lot harder if she was achieving this goal now
because there are just so many things influencing you.
To think about it now, like, the Olympics are so modern,
and, yeah, not to have social media, and...
Yeah, it's just very different.
But I don't feel like I missed out on anything.
It was just what I knew.
Like, and... I mean, my food was never as extravagant as this...
(LAUGHTER)
Uh, probably had Weet-Bix for lunch or something.
But I missed out on a bit of school and...
PETER: It would have been a lot of training.
Yeah. A lot of hours - it was up to six hours a day of training.
Oh, Wow.
SIENNA: To be so young and achieve such great goals,
that's amazing.
She followed her dream and her passion.
I can't even commit myself to doing homework sometimes.
Ready?
(CRACKLING CRUNCHES) Oh!
PETER: That worked. That sound!
How many bits each have we got? JULIAN: As many as you can.
A couple? Don't worry - we're not rationed.
We're not gonna run out... Oh, we're not rationed, are we?
PETER: We're not in the '50s anymore.
CAROL: These are really good. Are they?
JULIAN: These are pretty good, especially with the relish.
They're hard to eat like a lady, but, oh, well.
OLIVIA: So, did you ever race with Dawn Fraser?
I never race against her. She was in a different era to me.
36 years different.
She'd probably still beat me, though,
'cause she used to do freestyle and I did breaststroke,
so I was a bit slower.
Maybe she could challenge Dawn now?
Yeah, maybe. Maybe we could. We could have a race-off.
(LAUGHTER)
Early 2001, and the country is still buoyant from the Olympics.
Australia famously rode to prosperity on the sheep's back,
but in the 2000s, we switched to the booming commodities
of iron ore and coal.
Our urge to splurge was so powerful
that we adopted a whole new meal to eat out at restaurants.
I like this whole brunching movement.
I know. It's so good to go out and have a breakfast.
The brunch movement wasn't just about getting out of the house -
it was about having a delicious and beautifully presented cup of coffee.
Hello. Hello. Your drinks are ready.
Thank you. Thank you.
There you go. My name's Matt.
To explain the rise of the coffee snob,
Carol and Peter are joined
by renowned coffee expert and industry writer Matthew Gee.
Isn't this great, the coffee culture that we've got going?
Oh, look... Absolutely fantastic.
..Peter's passion, so you're talking his language.
In the 2000s,
Matthew and his brother David owned multiple cafes
and ran a successful barista school,
training a generation of coffee artistes.
I mean, around that time, you had the big coffee roasters,
the Segafredos, the Vittorias... Yeah.
..and those guys had been around for a while,
and a lot of other imported Italian coffee beans.
The problem is the coffee was roasted in Italy - it wasn't fresh.
Yes, and it's stale.
And so you had a core group of micro-roasters popping up.
And from there, the idea, I think,
that fresher coffee, roasted locally, tasted better,
and so the customers then took over and demanded better coffee.
Yeah. Fresher coffee.
The humble cup of instant coffee disappeared
into the rear-view mirror
as Australians plunged into the fragrant world
of lattes, espressos and long blacks.
Well, Australia was really leading the way in coffee in the 2000s,
and what we also saw in that time was the emergence of coffee art.
Oh, yeah. Yes.
The odd barista would serve a rosetta...
Yes. ..or a heart,
and you'd still see that today.
And it really grew in that time.
The coffee scene wasn't the only part of our culinary landscape
that was getting a makeover in the 2000s.
After a few glorious decades of junk food at school,
Australian kids were brought to heel with a new healthy food movement.
Hi!
Hey, Rooster. How you doing? Good.
Oh, nice to see you looking so active!
While Olivia's parents enjoy their soy flat whites,
I'm here to introduce her to someone
who revolutionised the way kids learn about food.
I've got a very cool surprise for you coming up, just saying.
(GIGGLES)
Ooh, industrial. Yeah.
Do you remember how in the '80s... Yeah.
..I was giving you that talking-to at your school canteen
about junk food? (GIGGLES)
And remember the sort of junk food that they had
in school canteen in the '80s? Yeah.
One of the things that happened in the 1980s was
there was a lot of little treats being made,
the snack food industry was booming,
portion sizes got bigger,
but something that happened to the kids of Australia is
that they started getting fatter.
Oh.
Something like 10% of girls aged 7-15 were overweight.
In the 2000s, that's risen to 25%.
So, kids are getting fatter.
God, I am!
No, you seem to have avoided the trend, actually.
(GIGGLES) But it is a real pattern.
So there was a woman called Stephanie Alexander, right,
who was one of Australia's most famous chefs.
In the early 2000s,
she decided to change the way that kids felt about food
by starting kitchen gardens in schools.
That's actually at my school.
Really? Yeah.
Well, why do you think that's happened?
'Cause somebody had the brilliant idea.
And you are about to meet the lady who had the brilliant idea!
Are you just gonna go like.. (CLAPS) ..and she's gonna show up?
Well, you know my powers are very extreme,
so, yes, I might do that.
(KNOCK AT DOOR)
(BOTH LAUGH)
Hi! Hello there.
Stephanie Alexander is an iconic name in Australian cooking.
Close this.
Concerned in the 2000s with rising obesity,
Stephanie decided to get to the root of the problem -
children's diets.
Her groundbreaking kitchen garden program
started out in Victoria in 2001.
So, have you guys had anything to do with
actually filling these beds with soil and...
KIDS: Yes. Yeah?
The aim was to get kids eating healthier
by teaching how them to grow and cook their own vegetables.
We can see what some of these things are.
Alright, how good are you at identifying, Olivia?
Now, some of them are easy, but some of them aren't.
Radish. Alright!
One of Stephanie's special skills was introducing children
to new and interesting crops...
Custard Apple!
OK! Very good. Oh, good girl.
..and somehow convincing kids to eat them.
Ew! (GIGGLES)
I don't like it. This is called horseradish.
Having scored well on fruit and vegetable identification,
Olivia now gets a personal masterclass
in preparing a classic Stephanie Alexander dish
from the Kitchen Garden Program.
We are going to make some zucchini rosti,
otherwise known as fritters,
and you're gonna help us, I believe.
She's a great kitchenhand.
The recipe for zucchini rosti includes:
Fresh ingredients which children could grow themselves.
Have you done a lot of grating in your time?
Yes, I have. Alright.
That's it. And keep the angle.
So what was it in the 2000s that made you have an idea
about how to get kids eating more healthily, Stephanie?
Well, I just felt that what we were hearing was
a whole lot of people verbally wagging their fingers at children...
Right.
..saying, "Don't do this, don't do that,"
instead of saying, "Let's have fun in the kitchen."
Right, OK.
So I thought, let's try a program where the children can have fun
at the same time as eating really great things.
And what we found was that when the kids grew things in the garden,
the enthusiasm was incredible.
So that was sort of a bit of a revelation.
Now, this one is hard to grate.
Keep your fingers back. Well done.
Can you feel it? Can you smell those fumes?
Oh!
Ah, lovely!
Oh, my goodness! How are you? How are you, Annabel?
Stephanie Alexander's in your kitchen. Don't say I never...
Oh, my goodness! I've got garlic all over my hands.
Oh, my goodness gracious!
Stephanie Alexander is in my kitchen, in my home!
Like, she's definitely one of my food idols.
I learnt to cook with that.
My husband actually bought that for me when we were newlyweds.
And there's a recipe here, the sticky toffee pudding,
which has been made thousands of times in this house,
and, um, it's easy to find
because there's actually, on my version,
a red wine stain across it,
because I was making it one day and my husband spilt a bottle.
Well, I love it when people tell me things like that,
'cause it really means the book's being used.
Now, see how our fritters are looking delicious?
I want one now. Well, they're very, very hot now.
Am I plating up your food? Yes. that's alright.
Now I'm truly nervous. You'll get 10 out of 10.
Definitely. Oh, that looks delicious.
Can I have that spoon? You can.
This is really yum. What does it taste like?
Yeah? Mm.
So we should get some zucchini, perhaps, and make them again?
Mm-hm.
I'm surprised.
Olivia had four zucchini fritters when I struggle for her to have one.
Smile!
I should have one taken with your mum.
I did have so much fun with Stephanie Alexander,
because she was so nice,
and it was really fun learning about all the fresh food.
I need to zoom in.
Oh, well, not too zoomy -
think of my wrinkles.
Oh, that's good.
Everybody say 'zucchini'.
BOTH: Zucchini!
(SIRENS BLARE)
The world's dark journey into extremism and terror
began on a day that started out normally -
Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives
in the Twin Tower and Pentagon attacks in the United States.
I've never seen anything like it in my life.
The world would never be the same.
In 2002, the attacks continued -
this time, closer to home.
A huge bomb has ripped through two bars
packed with foreign tourists on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Among the 202 dead were 88 Australians.
JOHN HOWARD: The people who did this wanted to inflict the maximum amount
of injury, chaos, terror and devastation.
OK, this'll be pretty cool.
The 2000s were pretty scary -
the planes flying into the World Trade Center, Bali bombings.
It was such a time that people...
..I think they retreated into their shell a little bit.
Cool little project I've got going.
I don't blame them. It's pretty scary.
It can be anywhere and anything can happen to you.
With the world becoming a more frightening place,
Australian television bowled up endless lifestyle programs
encouraging us to stay at home and renovate.
At a little angle like that...
Record numbers of renovators bought hardware,
and the sound of hammers and saws
pervaded the nation's backyards.
For a handyman like Peter,
who helped build his own home in the 2000s,
it was a golden time of creativity.
I'm going to do a little, um, recycling an old windowpane,
turn it into a little blackboard just to write notes.
And, you know, it's going to really suit the house
that whole, you know, industrial, recycled decor.
Upscaling we call it now, but back then it was just recycling old crap!
I sort of feel like everything has gone and come
in waves and circles.
I think some hooks here will work.
I found that with the food as well,
that we sort of go really fresh and natural,
then we move to processed and fresh and natural.
And it's an evolution of backwards and forwards.
Reinvention wasn't restricted to backyards, though.
Ah, look at that.
Serious change was under way
in the humblest of all dining destinations...
..the suburban food court.
In the '80s and '90s,
food courts were a down-at-heel source of fast food from bain-maries.
But in the 2000s,
they blossomed into a culinary destination.
You could even sit down.
Salads and sushi appeared among the fried goodies -
we were determined to eat healthily.
MAN: Hello there. Have a look. Hello.
Um, could I please have two of the tempura prawn hand rolls?
Two rolls? Yeah.
And two of the chicken schnitzel as well.
Yeah.
Sushi first appeared on a conveyor belt in Australia
during the mid-'90s,
and people queued in curiosity
for these freshly made, elegant, small plates of food.
Thank you. Have a nice day.
Thank you. There you go.
Young people like Julian ate nearly nine million pieces of sushi a year
by the end of the noughties.
Impressive.
But keep in mind, they also ate 15 million doughnuts.
CAROL: You know what was big in the early 2000s?
What was big in the early 2000s?
Wheatgrass shots. Ugh!
You've got to have one. Great.
We'll do shots together. Sure.
Mother and son. Great.
The juice bar hit Australia in the early 2000s
and it hit hard.
Some chains expanded at the rate of a store a week.
Australians were prepared to pay out millions for exotic juice mixes,
and the weirdest one of them all was the wheatgrass shot
which, rather ambitiously, claimed a kilo of green vegetables...
Oh, wow! ..in every serve.
Thank you. MAN: No worries.
God, I need that. Oh, wow!
The wheatgrass has to be tried to be believed.
It smells like lawn clippings
and it tastes infinitely worse.
Mm. Eugh!
(LAUGHS)
Boxing Day 2004 broke with yet another wake-up call,
this time from Mother Nature.
NEWS REPORTER: It was like a bomb exploding, a weapon.
Houses were just taken by the water.
Most people standing around here just vanished.
The most deadly tsunami in history
ripped through 14 countries in South-east Asia,
killing almost a quarter of a million people.
The hardest-hit country was our neighbour, Indonesia.
Australia's also getting in early with much-needed aid.
This tragedy, so close to home, struck at the heart
of everyday Australians
and we came together to offer assistance.
Charities, businesses and individuals all donated.
In less than a month,
we had collectively raised $100 million -
roughly $5 for every Australian.
And the fundraising continued.
SIENNA: Isn't it nice that we can make cupcakes?
And it's for a good cause. Yeah.
Today, Sienna and Olivia are going to do
what many young Australians did at the time -
raise money through a cake stall.
The money will go to Care Australia,
which played a significant part in the tsunami relief effort.
Wow! Oh, my gosh - look at all the sprinkles.
They're making cupcakes to sell in their local neighbourhood
from a kitchen cupboard stand-by,
the packet cake mix that was born after World War II.
Can you do the butter, Liv? Uh-huh!
So all they need to add is eggs, milk and margarine.
Perfect - there's no shells.
(MIXER WHIRRS)
You're annoying.
The cupcake was hailed the dessert of the noughties
following a 30-second cameo
in one of the most popular television series of the decade -
Sex And The City.
Soon these sweet creations were everywhere -
in our offices, weddings and kids' parties...
Olivia.
Getting the crunchy parts. I don't care.
..and in our homes.
The best part of making cupcakes was definitely decorating them
because I ate half of the decorations, but that's OK.
Oh, my gosh! It looks amazing.
Look!
Cupcakes, $2 - raising money for Boxing Day...
How are you ladies going? Oh, my goodness!
Do you like? Look, Mum.
They look so good. And I made two.
"Cupcakes, $2 - raising money for Boxing Day Tsunami."
How many have you made?
Um, around thirty-something, I think?
Wow! So you should get, what, about $60?
Yeah. OK.
Ooh, it's a warm day. It is.
Liv, can you have the jar?
Let's go.
Right...
I'm glad I didn't leave this for Carol.
She would've killed me.
Fortunately for Carol, by the mid-2000s,
she doesn't even need to ask Peter to lend a hand.
With 53% of all working-age women now employed,
men were spending more time on traditionally female roles
like cleaning and cooking.
I don't think it would really be fair
for women to, sort of, come home if they're working longer hours
and have to do the majority of the housework.
So I think it's pretty fair for men to, you know, step up and help out.
There'd be no way I'd be doing this in the '50s though.
OLIVIA: Hi! Would you like a cupcake?
Ooh! Did you make them?
SIENNA: Yeah. It's for the Boxing Day Tsunami.
So we're raising money for the Care Australia program.
In their local town centre,
Sienna and Olivia are doing a brisk cupcake trade.
You can have all that. Oh, really? Thank you so much!
I'm definitely surprised
that people would trust two girls on a street
and give them money and take their food.
But I'm glad that they are, because it's for a really good cause.
Thank you.
They were selling pretty fast,
and some people were even donating money without buying a cupcake.
Just one, but there's $4. Oh, thank you.
Thank you!
I think we're done, Liv.
We've sold heaps, and we've been here for not that long, actually.
Does that mean I can eat one? (SIGHS)
Fine. Come on.
I feel like it makes you feel really good inside
when you do something that helps people in need.
The girls raised $66.25.
High five!
All of this money went direct to Care Australia.
We did so well. Mm-hm.
♪ One, two, three!
♪ My baby don't mess around
♪ Because she loves me so and this I know for sho'
♪ Uh!
♪ Hey ya! ♪
What is this?
Nearly six decades into his journey, Julian has only cooked once,
but today a new cuisine will inspire him to don an apron,
and get experimental in the kitchen.
What have you got? A mystery package.
A mystery package?
Hopefully, it's not some...
Bio-chemical weapons. ..biochemical warfare.
Oh, my. Oh, it's a...
Oh, this is... Oh!
It's a mystery...
Molecular Gastronomy.
Oh, cool. Classic.
Oh, we've got Heston Blumenthal's book.
Molecular gastronomy brought the lab into the kitchen,
in a blend of physics and chemistry
that transformed the taste and texture of food.
It's a chemistry set, but instead of stuff blowing up,
you get to eat it.
When you've gotta use a syringe to your create food,
it's a bit of a worry.
The future is now, old man.
Thanks to international celebrity chefs,
like Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal,
molecular gastronomy became a global restaurant trend
in the 2000s,
and home cooks who were geek-curious
could buy starter kits from specialty shops.
OK, so we're on dinner duty. Yep.
We're going to be doing beef and rocket.
I do like rocket, so that's good.
We've got to incorporate a couple of molecular gastronomy techniques.
That's what we're going to do - parmesan foam, balsamic vinegar.
OK, cool, let's do it.
Julian hasn't so much as boiled an egg since 1977,
but today he's making balsamic vinegar caviar.
Agar-agar...
The recipe, which came with the kit, includes:
A gram of agar-agar.
It's 50% uncertainty.
There we go.
That's a gram.
(SPOON CLATTERS)
(LAUGHS)
Let's start again.
There are worst things to spill in chemistry though.
More comfortable with traditional ingredients,
Peter will cook the steak and onions.
It's a good paring -
he can look after the nerdy stuff, and I'll look after the tasty stuff.
Amateur chemistry.
I think this became really popular 'cause it is a lot of fun -
well, at least for me 'cause I am into science
and all that sort of stuff.
Time for your injections.
First of all, it was new,
and the foods would have been very exotic.
And, you know, never before seen, so there's the novelty factor there.
There we go.
Plus, you know, with kits coming out,
you can do it at home and you can sort of do it yourself.
Oh, perfect! Perfect?
Uh...
You've gotta be careful, though,
to do only, like, little bits at a time.
Oh, wow! You know what I'm gonna try, Dad?
What are you gonna try?
I am going to use this surgical tubing
and I am gonna see if I can make some bigger ones.
Oh, yeah, this is way easier. Is that easier?
They're coming bigger, though. They look more like pearls.
Yeah, getting some variation in size.
I did feel like a bit of a mad scientist, you know,
cooking up some concoction.
Or an alchemist, you know?
An alchemist in his laboratory.
Don't forget that pan is extremely hot.
This has been a lot of fun,
definitely one of the most fun experiences I have had,
that's for sure, during this whole experiment.
We'll try and impress the girls.
OLIVIA: Hi! PETER: Hey!
Shall I start on the parmesan? Yeah, go for it.
Now for science experiment number two -
the parmesan foam.
This is a mixture of xanthan gum, parmesan cheese and water.
Ugh!
Are you suppose to do it fast or slow?
Did we put enough gum in it? I think so.
What happened to good, old normal parmesan cheese?
It was quite fun to watch Julian in the kitchen really get into it
and, as a father, it makes you proud
to see your kids - Julian in this case - try and do his best.
Let's see how it is. SIENNA: I'm starving.
CAROL: It looks amazing.
It's good. I like it.
Mmm!
You know what? I dig the caviar.
A bit of a party in your mouth, actually.
I think the foam could have been a little bit better.
Yeah.
I like the, uh, caviar. The caviar turned out really well.
I was pretty pleased with the end results
of my molecular gastronomy meal.
The balsamic vinegar caviar, that came out really well
and I really liked that.
So I'll have to keep that in mind for next time
because, you know, I'm hoping to bring it into 2018.
We've gotta do that again. Definitely.
We might get you into the kitchen and cooking then.
Mm. Definitely.
ANNABEL: It's 2006.
And it seems like the natural world is turning on its human inhabitants.
Due to prevailing El Nino conditions,
south-eastern Australia is caught in the worst drought on record.
REPORTER: Drive in any direction around here
and chances are you'll find stubble that was last year's crops,
never harvested because they came to nothing
after a drought like no other.
The Millennium Drought, as it became known,
placed extreme pressure on farmers and agricultural production.
Without the water, we are doomed.
The drought also hurt in the cities,
where urban water supplies dropped to record lows.
Let's go pop this on the garden.
Governments introduced tough water restrictions
to ensure we didn't waste a drop.
I lived through this, we lived through this time,
and it's quite fresh in our minds, really.
We remember the restrictions with water -
you could only water your plants late at night,
it you were only supposed to have short showers.
I remember you had to wash up on the grass
so at least you did two things that once -
you sort of washed your car and watered your lawn.
Hey. Hey.
Good job.
Thanks.
You know, I remember that time.
You couldn't really water the garden.
Wash up on the grass. Yeah.
People would shower...
Remember, you would shower with a bucket in the shower
to catch the water to water... To water the garden.
I feel quite guilty because I remember complaining
that, you know, my grass was dying off because I couldn't water it,
or my car was dirty,
and, you know, there were families, farming families,
that were really struggling.
See ya.
And, you know, something we take for granted.
Even though we did have water restrictions,
there was still water coming out of my taps.
The consequences of the drought didn't stop at water restrictions.
It drove food and electricity costs higher,
leaving the poorest 22% of Australians hungry.
REPORTER: Every day the queues for basics like food grow longer.
REPORTER: Finding food and shelter is a gruelling daily ritual.
WOMAN: Every day I wake up to think, "What's going to happen today?"
Luckily enough, there is places out there that do help.
Hi. I'm Carol.
I'm here to work with Grant from Community Care at Padstow.
Food Bank started in 1992.
Its aim was to redistribute surplus food
from major supermarket chains
directly to welfare agencies,
cutting out waste
and sending resources where they were needed -
onto the tables of needy families.
Hello. Hi. Good morning.
Grant? Yes, that's me.
Carol. Lovely to meet you. Hi.
Community Care's Grant Heslop has been working with Food Bank
since the 2000s.
We try and help those in the community
who are under financial strain and stress.
So it's not just homeless people?
No, no, it can be everyday families.
And sometimes it's people... loss of job or medical issues.
It can happen to just any family Yeah.
Sadly.
I think we've got some potatoes on our list.
I think three. Is that right? Yeah, that's right.
In 2006, Food Bank provided more than 12,000 tonnes of food -
equivalent to 22 million meals.
One example was a young mum,
three kids, really just struggling,
and we've been able to help her over the years.
But particularly at that time,
you know, it was being able to provide simple things like food.
It just gives people that confidence
that there might be a better future on the horizon.
So when I think back to the mid-2000s,
I actually remember thinking there were a lot of families
that were struggling
but, you know, I always thought it was just the farms,
and I can't even imagine being in that situation.
Some of those families possibly were once like yourself,
but circumstances have happened
that they've needed the help of places like Food Bank
or Community Care in Padstow. Yeah.
It's good to be reminded of that. Yeah, it is.
Thank you. I appreciate your time. No worries.
Great to have spent the day with you.
Thank you. Thanks, Grant. Thank you. Bye-bye.
(SNIFFS)
(SIGHS)
I can't imagine, you know, not being able to feed my kids.
It actually upsets me thinking about it.
You know, everyone should be able to have a decent meal every day.
(SNIFFS)
You know, my kids complain because...
..you know, they don't like what I've cooked for dinner, and...
..you know, there's families
that can't even put a plate of food on the table.
It's four decades since Carol hosted a Tupperware party.
WOMAN: Oh, wow.
Tonight, she's staging a more modern style of gathering
that really took off in the noughties.
Ah, book clubs.
So, I can see here that book clubs became a big thing in the 2000s,
and I can actually relate to that,
because I remember when my children were small,
you'd get to this point where you'd think,
"God, I've spent the whole week just with little kids -
"I need time out with my friends."
So, you know, a book club was a great way to do that.
Inspired by Oprah Winfrey
and the ABC'S Jennifer Byrne...
Hello. I'm Jennifer Byrne. And welcome to another Book Club.
..suburban women flocked to cafes, bars and homes.
And, tonight, Carol is book club host.
She's cooking Middle Eastern food, which is designed to share.
What are we making?
Some hummus and some falafel,
which are two of my favourites, which will be fun.
The Middle Eastern favourite, falafel, made it's way
into Stephanie Alexander's beloved Cook's Companion.
This version features:
This journey of all these spices,
starting with really basic food in the '50s,
I'm really impressed
with how sophisticated the Australian diet is,
and we're quite open and accepting of different cuisines.
After 40 years of consistent migration
from countries in the Middle East...
That smells like falafel.
..Middle Eastern food had now become a common part
of the Australian diet.
♪ Hey-yo, do you like it like that... ♪
By the end of the decade,
we had a world of food options to choose from,
and we took full advantage,
spending 25% of our household incomes on takeaway or eating out.
Smell some good food in the air already.
Mm-hm. Hm.
Like Carol, Peter and the kids
will be sharing Middle Eastern plates tonight, outside.
Alfresco dining. You'd never do that in 1970.
You wouldn't even do that in 1980. No.
I remember growing up, like, going out at the end of the '80s,
trying to find somewhere to sit and eat outside, it was just so foreign.
Yeah. Thank you.
Oh, wow. Oh, yours looks good.
This is so good.
If this was 2018, we'd be taking selfies and sending them to Mum.
Yeah. "Look where we are."
Carol has invited her friends Gina and Anita over for book club.
On the agenda tonight is the decade's controversial bestseller, The Slap.
Smells great, Carol.
I've been cooking up a storm! (LAUGHS)
So, yeah, like, I thought,
in honour of this period that we're in, the 2000s,
I'd cook us a Middle Eastern little feast.
Nice.
And also in the 2000s, another thing that came out was screw-top wine!
Oh! The saviour! Which is awesome.
(ALL LAUGH)
'Cause I don't know how to use a bottle opener!
(LAUGHS) I know, right.
See, now we don't need men around to open the bottles for us.
Don't forget our books - we need to legitimise why we're here.
The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas,
is set in suburban Melbourne in the 2000s.
It's an account of the shock waves
sent through a close-knit group of friends,
when one father slaps the misbehaving child of another family.
So, I'm going to ask the obvious,
and then we can get into more detail.
That whole Slap thing -
if someone slapped my kid, I would lose my shit.
Hm.
But, don't you read it and go,
"Oh, my God, you deserve it"?
Your kid wouldn't be doing that... No, no.
I feel like the mum should've slapped him.
There were some consequences to deal with there.
They we're disciplining their child,
weren't raising their child properly.
Yep. Oh, this is very nice!
You see... They say don't judge a book by it's cover.
Yeah, that's a pretty harsh cover! I know.
But the book actually is about so much more than that.
I think the author did a great job
in just bringing up so many different issues,
definitely in those first 40 pages.
Hello. How are you? Good evening.
Hi. Look what we got for you.
Peter and the children are dining at Efendy, which was opened in 2007
by Turkish-Australian chef, Somer Sivrioglu.
Do you mind if I join you? No. Please do.
Somer's modern twist on traditional Turkish fare
has changed Australian perceptions of Turkish dining.
So, have you always been in Australia, or...?
I came here in '95 to study,
and I decided to open up my own restaurant
because I was... really a lot of good representations
of every other multicultural food, except the Turkish food.
The Turkish food has always been limited to late-night kebabs.
So, we wanted to open up a Turkish restaurant
that is... you know, that is traditional in values,
but with a modern presentation. Yeah.
So, tell me about the early days
of trying to educate people on your food.
Yeah, it was quite difficult when we first opened up,
but it took two years for me to understand
that really what the customers want, is they want more authenticity.
Because, as Australians, we love travelling.
Yes.
And this is the cheapest form
of travelling with three kids, isn't it?
Like, you know, take them to a Turkish restaurant
and you can have a bit of the cultural experience.
And that's what people wanted.
Oh, man, that meat is fantastic.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, wow!
Listening to Somer's stories were absolutely amazing.
I definitely think that all the immigration
is a really good influence on food.
Every different culture just put in their own spices and ingredients.
And you can definitely see the progression over the years.
And I love it. It's so good.
OLIVIA: I want Mum to be jealous.
I'm sure she'll make us bring her back here one night.
JULIAN: Oh, yeah. (LAUGHTER)
CAROL: In the '80s women still did everything, and it was this...
Back at the house, the discussion has moved away from the book
and onto women's changing roles in employment and society.
In 2007, 45% of all women in the workplace were working part-time.
The 2000s I really think was a time
when women really did evaluate the whole career versus family.
Well, they're equal. Yeah.
Like, I work, you work. Yeah.
And if I do the dishes, you need to do the dishes.
Exactly.
And you know, I'm thinking women started to realise later on,
and especially now, in the 2000s, you know what, it's OK to be home.
Yeah. It's OK. That's it.
We get to show our children that, yes, you can stay at home
and look after the children, you can go to work.
You know, they see their dad helping out around the home.
It's a great balance.
So, book club tonight went really well.
My friends really enjoyed themselves.
They really enjoyed having time away from their kids and husbands,
and, you know, became a bit of a therapy session,
but that's always good.
I think women need that from time to time.
Cheers to good friends, and cheers to book club!
Cheers to book club. Cheers.
2008 - a year that promised hope, and lots of change.
It's a brand-new day!
The United States had it's first black president,
who campaigned on the audacity of hope -
Barack Obama.
And those who tell us that we can't,
we will respond with that timeless creed
that sums up the spirit of a people -
yes, we can.
In Australia, only three months into his prime ministership,
Kevin Rudd delivered a national apology to the Stolen Generations -
words that Indigenous Australians had been waiting decades to hear.
As Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry.
On behalf of the government of Australia, I am sorry.
And I offer you this apology without qualification.
The forced removal of as many as one in three
Aboriginal and Islander children
started in the early 1900s and continued into the 1970s.
One day my mum said,
"Tomorrow you kids are going for a ride on the train."
And we were that excited, and we woke up that morning
and we had new clothes to wear.
We were just jumping up for delight and squealing.
So, we got on the train
and we were just happy to be able to go for a ride.
When the train pulled out of the station, I thought,
"Where's my mum? Where's my aunties?"
And I was looking along the platform and just seeing all these faces.
And then I saw my mum.
She had on her favourite blue dress
and my mum was crying.
And I just pressed my face against that window
and I just watched her for as long as I could
until her dress faded into a little blue dot.
And, um, I just cried and cried.
That was the day I was taken away from Coonamble.
Unbelievable.
Yeah.
The mothers probably thought that they were doing a good thing.
Not all of them.
I just can't imagine not knowing.
Like, you wouldn't even know if your child was alive.
And were these kids not asking for their families and...?
Well, they probably were.
You know, really, an apology...
It's a step forward. I know.
It was acknowledged.
He acknowledged the fact of what happened, and that it was wrong.
This one really hit me hard.
You know, hearing those people's stories -
that woman who was remembering every single detail
of when she was sent away by train.
You know, she was only five years old.
And it's such an emotional thing.
Like, I can't even imagine how those women could go on.
It's the end of the decade,
and the Ferrone children are getting closer to the technology
and lifestyle they left behind in 2018.
88% of 17-year-olds with access to the internet
were now using it for social networking.
(PHONE BEEPS)
76% of 14-year-olds, like Sienna, now had a mobile,
but they liked to use it for texting, rather than actually phoning anyone.
I think because in 2018,
our phones are so complex and do so many things,
it was super easy to use the little phone.
I think I definitely started to feel like my normal self.
So, there must be a recipe in the manual.
In the kitchen,
Carol's cooking journey is about to scale new heights.
(GASPS)
Croquembouche! Oh, my God.
By the end of the decade,
inspired by reality cooking shows and online food blogs,
home cooks were attempting recipes normally reserved for elite chefs.
There's a lot of steps to this.
And a chocolate fountain? Oh, my goodness.
OK. Butter, water, milk, sugar, salt, flour, eggs.
Carol's recipe for the profiterole tower
comes from Lorraine Elliott of the Not Quite Nigella food blog.
She needs to make choux pastry,
followed by a pastry cream,
and a rich, sticky caramel
to hold it all together.
Hey. Hello!
What's going on here?
I have to cook a damn croquembouche.
Oh, cool. (SARCASTICALLY) Yeah, cool.
I'm going to have a coffee.
2009 recipes may have become more complex for the modern cook,
but choux pastry is actually
straight out of the '50s housewife's repertoire.
Try and keep them all evenly sized.
Well, I'm pretty excited to finally have a coffee machine in the house -
something that sort of resembles the coffee that I'm used to -
so I'm very grateful for that.
OK, these can go in the oven.
Food in the 2000s has been fantastic,
from sliders to Turkish, and the molecular gastronomy.
Oh, wow. Oh, that's for the caramel. To stick it all together.
It seems to me that food in the 2000s
became a really important part of our lives.
Ah! Look at my balls.
Voila! Nice balls. They look good.
This looks so good. Oh, my God!
Can you believe we're almost at the present?
What's been your most favourite thing about the 2000s?
Ooh, probably getting a phone, actually.
Now you can communicate with all your friends.
Yeah, now I can have a social life.
Yeah, I was definitely excited to get a phone,
but I'm really disappointed that I didn't get the updated one,
so mine doesn't even have a camera yet -
I can't take photos of anything.
Hello!
Hello? Hello?
I noticed a few changes in the family.
Can you take that out of your ears?
All the technology that is pretty much how it is in 2018.
I'm talking to you. OK, jeez!
(KNOCK AT DOOR) I'll get it.
ANNABEL: Ooh, no!
Look.
Are you people making what I think you're making?
Hello!
Oh, my God, you look amazing! Thank you.
This feels like a teenage party - "You look amazing!"
How are you, Annabel? I'm well.
Always a pleasure. So good to see you.
I've brought something so great for you people.
OTHERS: Ooh!
Just want you to close your eyes and put out your hands.
You've waited many decades.
(SCREAMS)
Thank you! (LAUGHS)
Not fair!
I have a phone with a camera!
Oh, well, the croquembouche! Come on.
Well, you know...
I don't even remember how to use these.
They don't have a selfie camera yet.
There's no selfie camera? Not on this one.
It's so good, actually, that this should arrive right now,
'cause it was the end of the 2000s
that people really starting taking pictures of their food in a big way
and putting them on social media for all their friends.
Look at you. You really are back in the kitchen, aren't you, Peter?
I am. I sure am.
So have you guys had a nice time in this decade?
Oh, yeah. You need a little down the bottom.
What's been the best part of it?
Well, actually, Dad and I did a molecular gastronomy meal.
We did balsamic vinegar caviar and parmesan foam.
I love that you've gone
from absolutely not lifting a finger in the '50s,
and then you've snapped straight into being Heston Blumenthal.
I really enjoyed the molecular gastronomy,
or avant-garde cuisine, as some prefer to call it.
I'm a huge nerd so playing around
with the chemical aspect of it is a lot of fun.
But there's also the second factor in it, I guess, which is,
you know, learning to cook, and making a meal,
which is something I've been interested in
for quite some time now.
We watched a documentary on the Stolen Generations.
Oh, the apology, right. Yeah, that was...
That hit me hard, that one.
You know, being a mother, obviously,
I can't imagine how it was OK for 60 years
for children to be taken away from their families.
And the Australian people allowed that.
I think the people often accepted it as a distant thing
that was happening somewhere else.
But I think one of the things that the apology did
was to bring those stories to the public eye in a human way.
That's what happened to this mother and this child.
Yeah, it's a pretty, um, tough realisation to make, huh?
Yeah.
This decade was a very emotional experience for me personally.
From, you know, unfortunately, natural disasters to drought,
the Foodbank and the Stolen Generation.
You think it's a good thing that in the mid 2000s
these issues were brought to light.
Here's to the 2000s.
Yes, cheers to the 2000s. Absolutely.
A fun decade and you're getting very close to home now.
Yeah. We are. That makes me sad.
Well, you never know. You've always got the future.
(ALL LAUGH)
I'm really excited for the future.
I think it's going to be so super cool.
This might not happen but I want a flying car.
You can tell me about it later. No way! You'll find out yourselves.
Well done, guys. Thank you.
Great time travelling.
Thank you. Thank you.
I'm actually really sad to say goodbye
and, of course, there's a bit of trepidation about the future.
You know? I don't know what to expect.
So, um, we'll see what happens.
This is dinner, right? Hm.
Good job.
Next time...
ALL: Wow!
..the Ferrones forge ahead...
Oh, my God! What?
I'm standing in the ocean.
..into the future.
A time where our dinner plates become...
It's a gummy meal.
..unrecognisable.
There's ants is in it!
A piece of chicken is about 23% protein,
but a cricket is up to 65%.
(GAGS)
As environmental sustainability...
Take more care about what we're eating and try and use
everything we possibly can.
..becomes everything.
You either pollinate or perish.
Oh, goodness. Just stay still.
I'm suddenly itchy all over.
Don't make them angry.
And ancient foods lead the way...
There's all these amazing traditional foods
used by Aboriginal people for medicine, food, survival.
..as the Ferrones' time travel adventure comes to an end.
Everything that we've been through -
the challenges, the hardships, the successes -
I'm so grateful we did it together.
To the past, the present and the future!