Take a peek inside the second fridge of 3 Australians

A second fridge tells of a home that is frequented by guests, intent upon the careful preservation of fresh produce, and guided by the ethos that food is a language of love.

A second fridge or freezer can come in handy. Source: Getty / Getty Images

What are the reasons for owning a second or even third fridge? Is it a matter of needing to feed more people or to continue an inherited familial practice of preserving food, or does it offer a sense of security if an apocalypse should happen? SBS Food finds out.

Audrey Chee, Victoria 

Home cook and life coach Audrey Chee's second fridge stands in her family's garage, quietly humming as her youngest son plays the drums. Upon opening the fridge section, you may wonder why she has it, since it is almost completely empty. But this is deliberate, she says, as it fills up as soon as she has people over for gatherings.

However, the freezer section holds cherished condiments, pastes and sauces that her Malaysian mother makes for her during visits from Petaling Jaya. Multiple packets of chicken curry and rendang paste are lovingly prepared and stacked in the freezer before she flies back to Malaysia so that her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren can still have a taste of her cooking when they are apart. This is a common occurrence in Southeast Asian immigrant households, especially when one's parents don't live in the same country.

Audrey Chee's fridge is ready for filling when she hosts large gatherings. Credit: Supplied

Alongside the sauces and pastes, the spare freezer houses items Chee "will not use daily", such as lemongrass, pre-cut durian, and bags of fish balls and seafood tofu that she may use to cook a quick meal of noodles on the fly.

If she's just done a big shop at a specialty Asian grocer, some of that also goes into the freezer. These stores can be further to get to, so stocking up on ingredients and freezing them saves Chee from too much back and forth.

Aysha Abdallah, Victoria 

When the main fridge broke down, childcare educator and food blogger Aysha Abdallah says her family's second fridge, which is in a spare room adjacent to the kitchen, saved her from having to discard perishable items.

Aysha Abdallah loves her second fridge. Credit: Supplied

Most Lebanese families she knows own a second fridge or freezer.

"I think it's because we do a lot of home cooking, and we cook with a big variety of foods and ingredients, we don't only stick to a few vegetables, and vegetables take up room in the fridge," she says.

Some vegetables go into Abdallah's spare chest freezer in the garage, where a quarter of the space is dedicated to storing mallow leaves, which are only available in summer. Abdallah uses these to make a chicken soup served on a bed of rice during the colder months. The rest of the freezer houses bottles of lemon juice, other fresh vegetables, extra bags of marinades, and extra portions of backup food for when she doesn't have time to cook.

It's because we do a lot of home cooking.

Being a part of big families all her life (she's the eldest of 10 children and has five of her own), the extra refrigerator space has always been a necessity. Abdallah recalls that when she was still a child, her mother would shop in bulk on paycheck day, and store the groceries to feed 12 people in their main fridge and spare freezer. While Abdallah doesn't have 12 people to feed, she is the one hosting most of the family functions, being the eldest sister and sibling.

"We're a family of 10 siblings, so there's always a birthday to celebrate," she says.

Maria Gullaci, Victoria

"What Italian doesn’t have a second fridge?" jokes Maria Gullaci, a clinical facilitator for learning and development. Gullaci received her second freezer, a small chest that sits in their garage, from her mother when she started raising her own children over 30 years ago. It has since been joined by a second refrigerator.

Maria Gullaci appreciates extra freezer space. Credit: Supplied

Gullaci remembers having a second freezer and fridge growing up. Spending her childhood on a cattle farm with a bountiful garden, she was brought up harvesting fresh produce, preserving, pickling, blanching and freezing the excess, and storing these in the spare fridge and freezer. She has "always wanted to replicate those experiences" for her own children, and owning an extra fridge and freezer allowed her to do so.

It brings me joy.

When her mother and mother-in-law would share their zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, and capsicums, or if she bought meat in bulk, she had somewhere to store them. This meant she was able to cook regularly with fresh produce for her young family then and for her grandchildren today.

Having a second freezer stocked with homemade meatballs, lasagna, sauces, bread rolls, meat and vegetables, means Galluci can invite her sister over after church, for instance, and prepare a meal for her. And having fridge number two gives her the freedom to host parties without stressing about whether she has room to store an extra leg of lamb or birthday cake.

"I'm very grateful that I am able to have a second fridge," she says. "When I go out there to the garage because I can't fit extra groceries in my kitchen fridge, it means I've gone out and bought extra groceries because the family's coming over. And it brings me joy."

 

Love the story? Follow the author here: @s.seraphina. Photographs provided by Audrey Chee, Maria Gullaci and Aysha Abdallah.