The compilation of cookbooks containing private contributions has been a popular fundraising device for over a century. When the compilers of the first Barossa cookery book put out a collection of 500 local recipes to raise funds for the South Australian Soldiers' Fund in 1917, they could not have imagined the book would still be in print almost one hundred years later. Not only was the book re-printed for over a decade, a second edition with twice the number of recipes was published in 193-. The significance of the second edition was also that, unlike the first, the German names of recipes were included.

The Kookaburra cookery book was first published in 1911 as a fundraiser for the Lady Victoria Buxton Girls' Club. The Club was established in 1898, named for the wife of the governor of South Australia. Its aim was to provide evening classes and entertainment for working girls, hopefully preventing them from being lead astray. The cookbook was prepared to raise money for building extensions for the society at their home in Bowen Street.

Best known of the 'community' cookbooks was the Green and gold cookery book, also first produced as a fundraiser, for King's College school, in 1923. Again, recipes were gathered from a wide community of cooks, and the popularity of the book saw it remain in print until the present time. Such has been its appeal, the book has been published in the United States, Canada and Britain.

Maggie Beer is a Barossa Valley based chef, whose television shows and promotion of local ingrediants has brought national recognition to South Australian cuisine. Maggie Beer's recipes focus particualrly on gourmet style cooking, and she is the author of sevreal cook books. In 2010 she was named Senior Australian of the year.

Developing out of South Australia's traditional focus on the arts, and its strong multicultural focus, have come a number of festivals which include celebrations of food and cooking. The Sea and Vines festival has been held at McLaren Vale since 1992, combining the strong local wine-producing community with the nearby Fleurieu Peninsula fishing industry. Tasting Australia has been a biennial event in Adelaide since 1997, bringing together a huge number of South Australian culinary and viticultural producers and partakers.

'Kookaburra cookery book', Advertiser 8 December 1911, p. 15

Monteath, Peter (ed.), Germans : travellers, settlers and their descendants in South Australia, Kent Town, S. Aust. : Wakefield Press, 2011

Symons, Michael, One continuous picnic : a gastronomic history of Australia, 2nd ed., Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 2007