07/05/2026
Elsie Steicke and her husband Henry owned and ran the popular ‘Steicke’s Café’ on Tanunda's main street during the 1930's and 1940's. The cafe offered pies, pasties and freshly made sandwiches all made daily by Henry, but they also served a three course sit-down hot lunch, prepared by Elsie every day in a kitchen that had no hot water and no electricity.
Undaunted by the working conditions, Elsie also ran a catering service for weddings and parties where tiered and elaborately decorated celebration cakes were her specialty. Thick fondant icing with intricate piping work demanded real mastery, but she had to bake the cakes first using an old family recipe for fruit cake then cook them in a wood oven - notorious for their unreliable temperature control. Despite her lack of professional training she was a skilled hospitality chef, without question.
Steicke's cafe, on the corner of Murray and Bushman streets in Tanunda, closed in the 1940's but the building continues its legacy as a popular contemporary restaurant.
Elsie was a contributor to The Barossa Cookery Book, and her story is included in several of the library's History Festival events. Her biography features in the new publication Rolling Up Their Sleeves, which along with The Barossa Cookery Book, are available in our local history and general borrowing collections.
For more information about our local History Festival events visit: https://festival.history.sa.gov.au/
For more local history information visit the library, or contact us on:
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