Born in Scotland in 1924, Margaret’s parents emigrated to Australia when she was 3 years old. She began as a cooking teacher at the Overseas Corporation in 1947 and was later promoted to sales manager. Gaining a reputation as a Home Economist, Margaret began to appear in ads in the late 1950s in magazines such as The Women’s Weekly.
Her series of cooking liftouts for Woman’s Day magazine were extremely well received in the 1960s. Her book, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook, was published in 1968 and was an instant success. By 1978 it had sold more than two-thirds of a million copies.
Margaret helped to popularise Chinese cuisine in Australia, providing Italian and ‘Chinese style’ recipes for readers. Margaret’s encouragement of Chinese cuisine was recognised as a contributor to the development and popularity of Sydney’s Chinatown district where ‘few non-Chinese ventured before the 1950s’.
In 1983, Margaret was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and in 1998, she was added to the list of 100 Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia. The Bulletin named her in their list of ‘The 100 most influential Australians’ in 2006, describing her as someone who ‘changed the way Australians ate at home’.
