From Budapest to Sydney: The family inside Evi’s Hungarian recipe book

Published: 29 March 2019

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Evi Balint and her husband fled Hungary in 1938. After her death, her granddaughter found Evi's treasured cookbook. This podcast weaves family interviews, recipes and the music of Evi’s 1950s radio

PODCAST: Cooking for assimilation (ABC)

Evi Balint was Hungarian and Jewish. She and her husband fled Europe with their baby son Michael in late 1938 as Hitler’s army marched into Vienna.

After her death in Sydney at age 83, her granddaughter Ruth found her treasured recipe book.

Evi’s cookbook opened up more than just a list of family favourites, Evi had kept in it some of her most precious memories.

The family's arrival in Australia marked a time when migrants were regarded with suspicion.

Cooking for Assimilation weaves family interviews, recipes and the music of Evi’s 1950's kitchen radio with archival material drawn from Australia’s film heritage. It's an intimate portrait of one woman’s migration story against the backdrop of Australia’s rocky transition to becoming a multicultural nation.

Photo: Evi with her boys (supplied/ABC)