The undisputed matriarch of Australian cooking would have to be Stephanie Alexander. From her humble beginnings at Jamaica House restaurant in 1964 through to that temple of gastronomy, the eponymous Stephanie's Restaurant, along with all her books and television programs, have made her a legend amongst all Australians with an interest in food.

As with all famous people, Stephanie has her quirks and foibles, most notably the need to put her name to everything. Her name has been attached to everything from humble ingredients through to classic recipes, virtually renaming them in the process. I seem to recall at the height of the controversy over Melbourne chef Robin Wickens, when opinions were called for, Stephanie recounted a tale of when she saw another chef with a menu item of jellied consomme like the jellied rockpool that she felt was her creation and asked that he give her credit for it, which he apparently did. I wonder if she ever asked the Roux brothers for some credit in their version?

Why it's interesting at the moment is that Stephanie has published an article about a former chef, Janni Kyritsis, who has written a book called Wild Weed Pie. In the article she gives credit to Janni as a co-creator of the jellied rockpool dish. I suppose it's fair enough to claim a recipe for yourself if it was thought up in your own restaurant with the input of your employees, but is it fair to dispute in a major newspaper something that he claimed, namely that he hadn't worked with pig's ears prior to Bennelong, which was of absolutely no importance and then turn around and suggest that a dish he gives a recipe for had its beginnings in your restaurant, even though you say it was inspired by Elizabeth David? If Jannis included a recipe for salted duck roll, it was probably because he felt he created it.

If your concerns about these matters were so great, you should have taken up these quibbles privately with him.

It was very generous of Stephanie to write an article that was for the most part full of praise for her former chef and made his book sound like it would be a worthy addition to my bookshelf. But by her own account, Jannis helped Stephanie to where she is today, the article she wrote should have been all about him, not nitpicking so as to cast herself in a better light as a matriarch of the Australian scene - that's an honour she all ready has.

Edited to add: I was talking with my wife about this last night, when it occurred to me that Stephanie's rockpool dish has antecedents, namely the classic English dish of jellied eels. When I mentioned this my wife pointed out that in Europe, fish in jelly is a classic of many European countries. I don't doubt that Stephanie and Janni thought up their rockpool dish independently, but with Stephanie having lived and holidayed in Europe, is it possible that she unconsciously absorbed the seafood in jelly concept? It would be easy to imagine a food historian simply noting her rockpool dish, which is essentially seafood in jelly, as an adaption of these classics.