Black Pepper Mud Crab by Rosheen Kaul & Allie Webb

THE CHEF
Rosheen Kaul is a cookbook author, food columnist and head chef at Etta in Melbourne’s Brunswick East. Born in Singapore to Kashmiri-Peranakan-Chinese parents, the menu at Etta is as culturally diverse as she is, cooking and writing through the lens of a growing up Asian-Australian. Her first cookbook Chinese-ish – with co-author and illustrator Joanna Hu – was published in July of this year.

THE ARTIST
Sydney-based artist Allie Webb is widely celebrated for her unique approach to traditional artmaking, treating timeless subjects to graphic representation. Her established practice has informed the aesthetic identities of countless culinary establishments across the city.
Her lively print scenes tend to be set around a dining table, an altar of routine and ritual, highly charged with social subtext. Webb’s obsession with the culture of dining out is made tangible in every bustling composition. Her ability to capture such depth in her subject matter lends a richly visceral quality to each piece.
Webb has found great inspiration in the experiments of the Cubists - painters who were keen to deconstruct the act of looking by any means necessary. Her works distill elements to their most basic forms, often relying on little more than a silhouette to generate pictorial interest in her prints and drawings. Her tableaux are a celebration of character and personality. A still life with a langoustine, say, an awkward conversation between lovers or a busy streetscape all conjure a particular essence of a moment in time rather than its minor details.