Maggie Beer is in the kitchen of her Barossa Valley home, making coffee. She’s just approved a batch of hot cross buns with her team in the adjacent office – it is Maundy Thursday – and there is a bustle of activity outside as handymen work on the property and gardeners tend to the produce.
When we finally sit, Maggie sets two pieces of cake on the table – she will later pack one for me to take for my mum. “I’m just going to have a little bit of yours because I’m not a sweet tooth,” she grins cheekily, then sighs. It’s been a busy morning already and it’s only 10am.
In fact, it’s been an extremely busy year. Maggie has just flown back from Perth, where she’s been filming her new TV show Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, while juggling meetings with her foundation and government stakeholders in various other states, amid dealing with the day-to-day running of her business.
Maggie is always on the move, but 2024 seems to be her busiest year yet. She celebrates 10 years of the Maggie Beer Foundation, is releasing an updated version of her book Maggie’s Recipe for Life and is launching the new series, which is a culmination of her decade-long campaign to transform food in aged care homes. And all of this as she prepares to turn 80 next January!
She’s a self-described “farmer, cook, restaurateur, food producer and writer”,
