Emeritus Professor Daniel Reynaud and Emanuela "Emi" Reynaud have won the 2026 Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Award for their book The Anzac Table, which explores the role food played in the lives of Australian and New Zealand soldiers during the First World War. The award, which forms part of the annual NSW History Awards, was announced during History Week at a ceremony at the State Library of NSW on Monday, 7 September.
Announcing the award, the judges said: "This book is an excellent single-volume treatment of a scarcely considered but critical facet of military campaigns, and opens the aperture ever further on our understanding of the AIF. Grounded in thorough archival research and richly illustrated, this well-structured and easily read book achieves the rare feat of being both authoritative and accessible to a wide readership. This book will be a valuable reference work on World War 1 for the historian, museum professional and interested reader."
The award, worth $10,000, is one of six categories in the NSW History Awards, administered by the State Library of NSW in association with Create NSW, with support from the History Council of NSW and the Anzac Memorial Building Trustees. This year's awards drew 208 entries, assessed by 14 judges, with a total prize pool of $85,000 across all categories.
The Anzac Table, published by Hardie Grant, is believed to be the first book to examine the food experiences of Anzac soldiers in depth, drawing on more than 1,200 diaries, letters and memoirs. It traces the origins of the "Anzac diet," unpicks popular myths and examines how food shaped soldiers' wellbeing, identity and sense of community under the pressures of war.
The book grew out of Daniel's earlier research into Anzac spirituality, during which he kept noticing a recurring theme in the soldiers' own writing. "There was no particular moment, just a growing awareness," he says. "Having worked with soldier diaries in the course of researching books on Anzac spirituality, I couldn't help noticing side themes. In particular, the soldiers often wrote about food. Being married to a foodie and hospitality professional, I quickly realised there was scope for a book, given the sheer volume of comments I'd already read." He and Emi went through those diaries and letters together, collecting the comments on food. "We were both surprised to find that soldier food was a topic that was virtually untouched by scholarship," Daniel says. "This was amazing, given how essential nutrition is to the fighting fitness of an army."
Emi wasn't so sure a book was on the cards at first. "As we started reading through the soldiers' memoirs, I thought we would be writing an article for one of the history journals about the way food was experienced in the AIF. I just didn't think there was enough for a book. I kept asking Daniel if he was convinced that there was a book in it," she says. "As we dug deeper, I realised how broad their food journey was and the depth of information on the topic of food. We ended up with a 350-page book. That's a pretty long article!"
The pair's different backgrounds shaped the finished book. Daniel brought his grounding in military history, having already read the diaries and letters of about 1,000 soldiers for his research into Anzac religion and spirituality. This previous research informed how The Anzac Table would be organised around recruiting, army camps, transport ships and life at the front. Emi, who ran her own catering business for years before moving into hospitality education in secondary schools, brought a practitioner's eye to the logistics of feeding an army. She traced the training syllabus used at army cooking schools and measured how inadequate it was in producing properly trained cooks. She also examined the limited, unvaried menus, poor nutrition, and inconsistent hygiene and safety standards that resulted. "Lucky the soldiers also bought extra food, ate with French civilians, stole fruit and vegetables from gardens and ate out in restaurants and cafes," she says. Daniel credits her expertise directly: "The book is much richer in its understanding of wartime food because of Emi's expertise in the area."
Both hope the book will change how people, and especially students, understand the Anzac legend. "As a high school teacher, I dream of our next generation being more informed on the harsh realities and the soldiers' stories, so honestly told, to enrich the knowledge of another area of the Anzac legend that has not been told otherwise," Emi says. Daniel, who has taught the world wars for two decades, sees the book as a corrective to popular ideas about wartime service. "Food is part of the Anzac legend, especially the myth that they lived on bully beef and Anzac biscuits. But both of these need serious qualification if we are to understand the real experience of the Anzacs," he says. "Demythologising is one of the aims of this book."
The Anzac Table took out the award ahead of two other shortlisted titles: Australia's Coastal War: When World War Two reached our shores by Tom Lewis, and New Feller Master: Beyond the Trenches Australia's Neglected WWI Story by Michael Piggott (both Big Sky Publishing).
Sources:
- [NSW History Awards 2026 winners announced | Books+Publishing](https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2026/09/08/339833/nsw-history-awards-2026-winners-announced/)
- [The Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize 2026](https://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/event/anzac-memorial-trustees-military-history-prize-2026)
- [Shortlists announced for 2026 NSW History Awards | Australian Arts Review](https://artsreview.com.au/shortlists-announced-for-2026-nsw-history-awards/)
- [Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize | State Library of New South Wales](https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/nsw-history-awards/anzac-memorial-trustees-military-history-prize)
- [The Anzac Table by Daniel Reynaud and Emanuela Reynaud - Avondale University](https://www.avondale.edu.au/news/heritage/the-anzac-table-by-daniel-reynaud-and-emanuela-reynaud/)
- Dr Lynnette Lounsbury
