In the Australia where Joan Sutherland grew up, meals were not divided into starter-main-dessert but organized around tea and its breaks: morning tea, "smoko" (a sweet mid-morning break for workers), the hearty afternoon tea with cakes, and the grand Sunday festive table. On this framework was grafted the discipline of the profession: on performance days, the diva ate lightly, avoided alcohol and spices, and saved sweets to celebrate the curtain's fall. A cuisine of British migrants adapted to the Australian sun, generous in sugar, eggs, and golden syrup.

This amber cane syrup, a British legacy that became an Australian emblem, perfumes biscuits and cakes with a sweet caramel taste. It was found in every Australian kitchen of the 20th century: it is the sweet note that connects Joan Sutherland's childhood table to the batches taken on tour.