A competition, ‘Tan-Nanna Ħelu Manna’ (Nanna’s Sweet Cooking), is being held at the William Angliss Institute, Melbourne, on Sunday 18 September, promising to give onlookers a taste of a range of Maltese specialities including but not limited to stuffat tal-qarnit (octopus stew), stuffat tal-fenek (rabbit stew), qaragħbali mimli (stuffed zucchini) and patata l-forn (baked potatoes).

Competitors include kitchen aficionados from Altona, Werribee, Keilor, Brighton, Sandringham and Perth – though there is a huge population of Maltese migrants in Australia, traditional Maltese cuisine is often not found outside the home down under.

The Australian Maltese Enterprise Exchange – more commonly referred to as Maussies – is hoping to bring some famous Maltese dishes out of the kitchen and into the public domain at this Maltese cook-off.

Organiser Sandra Mooney said the reason Maltese food is not widely known outside the Maltese community is that many Maltese migrants tried hard to assimilate into the Australian culture.

“When our parents came from Malta they dropped a lot of their Maltese culture and tried to blend into the Aussie culture,” she said.

The group is hoping that this competition will not only put Maltese cuisine under the spotlight but teach the next generation of Maltese-Aussies the family’s secret recipes.

“Maltese cuisine is unique because they (Malta) were conquered by so many different countries,” Mrs Mooney said.

“You’ll see a lot of recipes that other cultures do – but the twists are different and they’re even done differently in each family. There are many different versions of one recipe – but they were never published like the Italians and the Greeks do.

“We have to preserve these recipes for our children’s children.”