BeanScene Magazine

By Christine Grimard

Maggie Beer is a morning coffee sort of person. “In its purest form – a perfectly brewed espresso, or if the barista is exceptional, then a ristretto,” she says without hesitation when asked how she takes her coffee.

As the irrepressible driving force behind the Maggie Beer phenomenon, she is an exceptionally busy person and doesn’t distinguish much between work and leisure. The two intertwine. She simply loves what she does and bemoans the lack of hours in the day to put into action the ideas she generates.

Her day starts early and that first espresso has to hit the spot. Considering everything that Maggie has on her plate (no pun intended) a routine start to the day is a necessary step in managing her workload. Since wrapping up production on the award-winning ABC series The Cook and The Chef, which she co-hosted with the Adelaide Hilton’s Head Chef, Simon Bryant, she has also recently released her seventh book, Maggie’s Kitchen. Then there’s her Farmshop restaurant and the top quality products she constantly devises for her namesake line of gourmet food.

“I love what I do so much,” she says. “Life and work – it’s all about good food. Given that I love what I do and have more ideas than I have time in life to fulfill them, my passion in life and in work is simply to create a bit more balance with time.” And, she never tires of exploring what she calls “the rhythm of the seasons” whether it is what can be grown or is available in the wild.

Maggie is surrounded by culinary inspiration in the Barrossa Valley. She first moved there in 1973 with her husband, Colin, where they began pheasant breeding and grape growing. It was the kick start to a long and award-winning career in food at a time when Australia’s foodie scene was still in its infancy.

Maggie is a native of Sydney, having grown up in the western suburbs where her parents ran a manufacturing business. She left school at an early age and worked in an astonishing range of jobs while travelling – from a department store lift driver in New Zealand to a personal assistant to a geophysicist in Libya, before returning to Australia in 1968. In 1970, she met her husband Colin. He had been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study game bird breeding in Europe and the United States, so the young couple headed off on that adventure. On their return, they headed for the Barossa Valley and began the pheasant breeding and grape growing enterprise. The establishment of Pheasant Farm was to propel Maggie to the top of the culinary pile. The Pheasant Farm Restaurant went on to win the Restaurant of the Year in 1991 and Maggie had already become a household name. In 1993, Maggie and Colin decided to focus on her growing range of gourmet food products. The Pheasant Farm paté, quince paste and verjuice had proven highly popular. Now, they took an even bigger step and opened a state-of-the-art kitchen facility in Tanunda to expand the range to its current 20 preservative-free products, including gourmet ice cream and to enter the export market. And, enter it they did with products going to Japan, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States. But, their hearts were still at the original Pheasant Farm location and in 1999 they moved back there and reopened the Farmshop. Here you will find all the products available for sampling, enjoy a top coffee while enjoying the view or delight in the all day picnic fare. The years of hard work to get to that point saw Maggie awarded the Telstra Businesswoman of the Year title in 1997 and in 2001, she was presented with the Food Media Club’s Industry Peer Award.

Somewhere in between all of that, Maggie has found time to write seven books. For one of them, she collaborated with Stephanie Alexander to chronicle their Italian food experiences with a Tuscan cookbook that has been translated into five languages. Her sixth book, Maggie’s Harvest, was placed second against books from 27 countries for the best cookbook cover in the world in 2007.  It was a natural progression that she would find herself on television sharing a wealth of culinary knowledge. Last year, she was honoured on Australia Day as Senior Australian of the Year. The award recognised her dogged determination to educate people about seasonal food and to help Australians make informed food choices.

“Living in the Valley has certainly taught me a great deal about the rhythm of the seasons, how to delight in fruit and vegetables picked ripe and at their best,” she says. “There is nothing more engaging for a cook than to work closely with the freshest of fresh produce. It continues to be my inspiration and starting point for any new product that comes into the range.”

But, it has taken more than just great produce to make her a household name. There have been the challenges of running a competitive business and managing the time required to fit in a diverse range of activities.  “We’ve certainly come up against our fair share of ‘speed bumps’ in setting up our business and continuing our commitment to improve it on every level, year after year,” Maggie says.

As for the start of her love affair with coffee, it began with a visit overseas that sparked her taste buds and set her preference. “When I first discovered real coffee was on my first visit to Italy,” she says. “From then on nothing but the best would do.” She has continued to pursue what she describes as “perfectly roasted coffee, of full flavour and preferably grown in a single estate environment.” It is, she says, “so like wine.”

“You find the character of the region is distinguishable from the moment you smell the coffee brewing.”

While these days selective coffee drinkers like Maggie have their fair share of choice in South Australia, it was a far different story when she first moved to the Barrossa. Back then, she says, there wasn’t much of a coffee scene to speak of. Now, like her coffee-loving peers, Maggie continues to be a leader of the country’s swelling culinary culture and the high quality coffee that’s grown alongside it.

“Over the past 30 years I’ve seen the most exciting growth in food in Australia, much of it driven by our multicultural society and the advent of more accessible travel,” she says. “That has opened our horizons, and made our coffee all the better for it.”

Maggie notes that South Australia has a strong Italian community, which has influenced certain cafés and restaurants, but sadly not all. She does express admiration for the Cibo chain as an impressive business venture that has helped set the standard for others.

As for her favourite coffee spot, Maggie humbly admits it’s her own Farmshop.

“I know it sounds boastful, but you have to know I don’t get out much,” she says. Instead, she has her own coffee attached to the Farmshop. “I can be sure every time I can have my coffee just as I love it. Continual training is the key and always looking for detail. I was pretty chuffed when our coffee received the thumbs up from my dear friend, (Italian chef, author and television personality) Antonio Carluccio, when he came to visit.” She also likes to cook with coffee. A favourite dessert remains affogato “that combination o fstrong, hot coffee over the sweetness of a good vanilla bean ice cream can even tempt my sweet tooth, when at other times I would pass on dessert.”

The question arises as to Maggie’s views on the MasterChef phenomenon and even her own avid fan base for her television show and books. She sees the educational component as a key factor. “Through our restaurant culture we have been becoming more educated eaters, but we are now going that extra step and people are learning so much more about cooking and gaining confidence to have a go.

“The next step with all this happening – and with the advent of farmers’ markets – is finding a deeper understanding of food both in terms of the seasons, how food has been farmed and sustainability.” Asked if she has a personal food passion, Maggie simply says: “Ice cream!”