When a passion for porridge pays off

She’s a researcher in epidemiology and public health who mostly looks at alcohol and the brain as well as dementia. But for Rachel Visontay, it’s food that’s the real passion. 

“It’s fair to say that it runs through my veins,” Visontay told The AJN. 

Visontay can trace her love of food back to her grandparents, who had a delicatessen in Sydney’s Kings Cross. 

“My overriding memory from childhood is of sitting in the back of my Mum’s station wagon while she criss-crossed Sydney in pursuit of industrial tubs of Persian feta, fresh bagels, hunks of Parmigiano, artisanal hummus, smoked wagyu beef, and enormous quantities of smoked salmon,” she explained. “With that kind of background, there’s no way I was going to end up being someone who didn’t take cooking and eating very seriously.” 

So seriously, in fact, that she mills her own flour for bread and pasta, grows vegetables with Adamama, and last year even hosted an olive oil-themed party for Chanukah.