The Masterchef graduate and cookbook author grew up in Georgia as the Soviet Union was crumbling, gorging on plums in her grandfather's garden. During this time the young, voracious Alice couldn't keep her food down at kindy. And it took years to work out why.

Cookbook author and TV presenter, Alice Zaslavsky grew up in Georgia as the Soviet Union was crumbling.

She would gorge herself on plums in her grandfather's garden, and her voracious spirit was celebrated and encouraged by her parents and grandparents.

In 1989, a Georgian independence protest was violently quashed by Soviet soldiers, in the street where she went to kindergarten.

Alice repressed the fear of that time, through her Jewish family's emigration to Australia.

Alice eventually became a teacher — the fourth generation in her family — and ended up on Masterchef in 2012, as a way to encourage her students to study her elective at school.

She has passed on her love of Georgian food to her daughter, through lashings of rye bread and sunflower oil.

This episode of Conversations touches on origin stories, family stories, life story, family dynamics, personal stories, reflection, Georgia, USSR, former Soviet Union, Tbilisi, Jewish, immigration, cookbooks, cooking and cooking with family.