This week M+K sits across the table with Maggie Beer AM, Food Author, Restaurateur and Food Manufacturer. She talks with us about supporting the aged care community through cooking, her passion for sustainable living and the routines that keep her grounded.
1. My cooking inspiration…
Is always the produce of the season. It’s all about maximising flavour by allowing produce to be the star.
2. A meal that reminds me of home…
It is immediately a roast chook with stuffing and the juices from the roasting. It has to be the best chook and for me, it was my daughter Saskia’s legacy that gave us such beautiful birds.
3. A life lesson cooking has taught me…
That detail is critical no matter how simple a process you’re undertaking and particularly with cooking. It’s often the small things not attended to, that will undo great plans.
4. When I want to be creative I…
Listen to music or spend time in my garden.
5. The most transformational book I’ve read is…
Angelo Pellegrini’s The Food Lover’s Garden set in America in the 1940s where he wrote of every plant he grew and provided an accompanying recipe. It set me on such a path.
6. The routines that keep me grounded are…
Many things! Walking every day, weeding my vegetables or deadheading my roses and listening to ABC Classic FM for a start, but cooking too, particularly if making pasta or kneading bread as they are very tactile…
7. I recently learnt…
How we breath more through our mouth as we age, not our nose. This causes the saliva to dry and our diaphragm/muscles to work less as the breathing is shallow. Everything is related, who would think the way we breathe affects our saliva, which affects the way in which eat! And this is so important in aged care.
8. Favourite random act of kindness…
Two years ago walking with two friends through a village in Portugal. It was so small, there were just a few houses and not even a bar or café and it was in the heat of the afternoon in the low 30s, but we were so hot and had left the rest of the group for the ‘easier’ walk that afternoon. Because of our chattering, a local woman heard us coming, picked a bunch of grapes and handed them to us with such a smile – with no thought of anything but being kind to us. It put such a spring in our step the last kilometres into the town where we were to stay.
9. To make a difference in my community I…
I am working on finding a better way for food in aged care and to give the cooks and chefs and people who work so very hard in this area (often with little support) the respect, as well as share the ideas, that will make a difference to those they care for.
10. Right now, I’m grateful for…
A slowing down because of Covid-19 and wondering how I can continue that into ‘normal’ life when it appears…
Maggie Beer is not just an Australian food icon, shes an essential ingredient in any discussion about food and flavour. In 1973, Maggie and her husband Colin, settled in the Barossa Valley, their intention being to simply breed game birds. However, the Pheasant Farm and vineyard soon transformed into the renowned Pheasant Farm restaurant, which went on to become part of Australian food history. In 1996, Maggie Beer Products was created, with the opening of the Production Kitchen in Tanunda and where an exciting and popular food brand was born. Today Maggie’s career spans farming, food production, television presenting and food writing. Her desire for every Australian to have a good food life leads her to work on many levels, with the hope of encouraging everyone, young, old and in between, to enjoy quality, seasonal cooking every day.
To connect visit:
Website: maggiebeer.com.au
Instagram: @maggie_beer
Facebook: OfficialMaggieBeer
Pinterest: Maggie_Beer
Twitter: @maggie_beer
