What is the alchemy of food and love? Award-winning journalist and author Kate Legge's evocative reflections take us to the heart of this mystery. The pull of a child to cook alongside their mother. The picnic produced on a first date that parades the possibilities of a romantic partner. The sugar-hit cake left on a porch to welcome you into a neighbourhood under siege.

These indelible meals and shared recipes-scribbled in biro on the back of a school sports carnival program (Janet's date loaf) or copied out in cursive script on lined paper (Deb's chicken pie)-are staples of Kate's kitchen table, tried and true, never-fail, simple fare. They have survived long years and all seasons, much as the friendships that underpin them have navigated arguments, distance and forgiveness. All forged on the hearth, stirred with love.

Delicious is a tribute to the girlfriends, mothers, sisters-in-law, colleagues, friends and family who nourished her soul, shared their culinary secrets and wound up trading other intimacies.