Celebrating an Australian Food Icon – It’s Valli Little Month in the Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club

The late Australian food icon Valli Little had a huge impact on how we cook and eat, and this month the cookbook club will be exploring her contribution to our plates

 

Once a year in the Lamb’s Ears Cookbook Club, we celebrate a truly influential cookbook author, and so this month we will be looking at an absolute Australian food icon, the late Valli Little, the food writer, recipe developer and founding food director of Australia’s delicious. Magazine. 

UK-born, Little was a classically trained private chef before she moved to Sydney, initially establishing a gourmet food store in the mid-1970s, before moving into publishing. She was there at the beginning of delicious. Magazine, formulating the bulk of the recipes in the popular (and much missed, on my part) food magazine, along with contributing heavily to its distinctive style.

Her recipes are noted for being inspiring, fresh and easy to follow – big on impact, but low on effort, a style that has become increasingly popular (again, I’m talking about me). Aside from the huge collection of her work on the delicious. website, this Australian food icon also wrote 12 cookbooks, so there is no shortage of resources for Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club members to mine for inspiration this month.

THE FOOD FOCUS FOR JULY

There are a lot of nuts about in the colder months – chestnuts, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts –  so in July our seasonal food focus will be on them. Nuts are healthy, a wonderful source of protein, hugely versatile when it comes to snacks, savoury dishes and sweet treats, and just plain delicious. I’m sure we can all think of heaps of ways to integrate a few more of them into our diet, so grab a handful and start sharing your favourite nut dishes.

BUT WHAT DID WE COOK IN JUNE?

We revelled in slow-cooked, rib-sticking dishes in June, exploring the wealth of comfort food in the new cookbook Tender, by Lucy Tweed. Here’s just a few contributions by our clever members – head to our Facebook group page to see more.

So what’s happening in the Lambs’ Ears Cookbook Club in August?

Shockingly, I recently realised that we were yet to have a baking cookbook feature in the cookbook club for 2026 – so I’ve wasted no time in correcting that little oversight!

In August we will be cooking from Emelia Jackson’s recent publication You Had me at Cake. Released back in March, this is a selection of simple, foolproof cake recipes from another Australian food icon – a baking icon. We last baked from Emelia’s excellent baking cookbooks back in June of last year when she was paired with “The Bakers Book” for a cornucopia of baked goods. We loved her then, and I have no doubt that we’ll love this one too.

But for now, let’s get on with celebrating Valli Little’s contribution to Australian food. This will be all the excuse I need to hunt out her Massaman roast chicken recipe, of which I have supremely fond memories.

IF YOU HAVEN’T JOINED THE LAMBS EARS COOKBOOK CLUB YET, YOU WILL FIND ALL THE DETAILS HERE.

HERE’S HOW 2026 IS SHAPING UP SO FAR

Our whole-year cookbook selection is any of  The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

July – any recipes by Valli Little
June – Tender by Lucy Tweed
May – Home Food by Elizabeth Hewson
April – Any ONE cookbook from your own collection
March – The Actually Delicious One Pot Cookbook by Poppy Cooks
February – Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt by Donna Hay
January – Salata by Michael Mantissas and Kristy Frawley

Please note, this post contains links to online Australian bookseller Booktopia. If you purchase via one of my links you will get a great price, and I will get a very small commission.

[mc4wp_form id="16750"]