(With apologies to Marcel Proust). We asked our founding editor Jill Dupleix to test-drive the inaugural Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery questionnaire. There are only two rules – you have to tell the Truth, and do it with Love.

Jill Dupleix is a celebrated Australian food writer, restaurant critic, and cookbook author. She was also food editor for The Times in London for six years and is currently food editor of the Australian Financial Review magazine. She is the founding editor of Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery, and believes in the power of food to bring people together. And world peace.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? A Negroni in the bath.

What is your greatest fear? When I don’t think I’m good enough.

What is the purest thing you have ever tasted? Fresh milk warm from the cow, when I was a kid. Had to fight the farm cat for it.

What was your first experience with sustainable eating? My first experience would have been on the farm growing up, but my lightbulb moment came with artist and zero-waste activist Joost Bakker’s revolutionary Greenhouse in Melbourne in 2008; a living, breathing structure of 100 per cent recycled materials that was part garden, part restaurant and part school of life. The Greenhouse has gone (recycled, hopefully) but Joost continues to inspire me every day.

What is the best thing you can do with your hands? Eat.

What do you love most about what you do? Every day is different. Some days are all about writing, some are research, some are cooking and some are eating and reviewing. I love them all equally, like children.

Is there anything you don’t particularly care to eat? I truly hate freeze-dried raspberries.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever been taught? Stop and taste. Don’t just eat.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A table. Put food on me, spill wine, light candles, rest elbows, fight, laugh, cry.

When was the last time you ate out, and where? Tonight at Quay in Sydney. Ten courses of hand-harvested, handmade, hand-on-heart food from Peter Gilmore that included toasted crumpets with Terra Preta truffles.

Are there any mentors or food heroes you would like to thank? All the women in my life, from my grandmother and mother to my sisters and the strong women of Melbourne who were my role models for a life in food – Di Holuigue, Stephanie Alexander, Elizabeth Chong, Dure Dara, and so many more.

What are your favourite books or cookbooks? Truth Love & Clean Cutlery, of course. My fave cookbooks change all the time, from the latest by Yotam Ottolenghi to the Presbyterian Womens’ Missionary Union Cookbook first produced in 1904.

What do you make from scratch? Hummus. I love cooking things like chickpeas and beans from scratch, they’re so much better than canned. But if I’m in a hurry, canned it is.

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing what you are doing? I used to be a highly paid advertising copy writer before I became a lowly paid food writer, so probably that.

How do you like to spend your day off? I like a good picnic. In the park, on the balcony, on the beach. I can turn any known food type into a picnic, it’s my secret Ninja skill.

What is your current obsession, the thing you think about at 3am? Uluru in Central Australia. Did you know that its rock extends up to five or six kilometres below the ground, as well as 378 metres above it?

What are the qualities you most admire in others? The ones I don’t have – patience, humility, courage. I love people who just are who they are.

Can you tell us something we don’t know about you? No, because then you’d know it. But I do like my New Year’s Eve to end by dancing on the table to Kylie Minogue. Please don’t tell anyone.

Which three words best describe your cooking style? Fast, fresh, flavour.

If you could eat only one thing today, what would it be? Right now, it would be custard apple – looks like fish, tastes like creamed honey.

What do you see when you think of the cuisine of your own country? Moreton Bay Bugs, coastal succulents, finger limes. Freshness, saltiness and tangy acidity.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? You are f***ing kidding me.

Which talent would you most like to have? Some sort of musical ability would be nice.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I can be a bit bossy – it’s my way or the highway. I’d like to tone that down.

What do you think the food of the future will look like? I hope with all my heart that it still looks like food.

What is your number one sustainability tip or trick? Cook and eat the whole plant – it’s the stalks and stems that have more nutrients than the vegetable itself, because they have to be strong enough to grow it and sustain it.

Do you have a motto or mantra? I love Arthur Ashe’s “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” That’s all you need, really.

Photograph copyright © Lottie Hedley, from The Great Australian Cookbook.