Leading Australian Cook / Food Author

In the verdant fields of the Barossa valley Maggie and husband Colin have carved out a niche market for gourmet food and wine. From their beginnings in 1973, Maggie now runs Maggie Beer’s Farm House, a 7-day-a-week outlet selling her full product range, including wines from the couple’s 25 years of grape growing. Her products sell on the national and international market and Maggie has become renowned for her work in facilitating the exchange of ideas and information between food growers, producers and consumers.

Celebrity “Country Cook" Maggie Beer is a leading Australian chef. Best known for being half of the TV duo “The Cook and The Chef", she is also a winemaker, a gourmet food producer and exporter, restaurateur and an award-winning author.

Originally from Sydney, Maggie & husband Colin moved to South Australia’s Barossa Valley in 1973

and began farming pheasants on their new property near Nuriootpa. They opened a famed pheasant farm restaurant, which marked the start of a career that now spans farming, export, food production, and food writing.

The restaurant closed in 1993 after 15 successful years, as Maggie focused on production of their expanding gourmet food production, starting with the signature Pheasant farm pate.

In 1997 Maggie’s next venture, Maggie Beer’s export kitchen, opened in Tanunda. The range of products soon expanded, and now numbers over twenty, including meat and vegetarian pates, olive oil, verjuice, preserves condiments and deserts.  This export kitchen exports its products to Japan, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US, all markets that have come to them.

The pheasant farm was never far from Maggie and Colin’s hearts however, and in 1999, they returned to both the site and the original concept of the farm shop, re-opening the premises as Maggie Beer’s farm shop.

The farm shop now opens every day, and has their full product line available for tastings and sales.

The farm shop also offers light lunches, coffee and wine sales from Beer Brothers and pheasant farm wines, labels that mark Colin and Maggie’s 25 years as grape growers.

Maggie doesn’t cook by recipe, and describes herself as an instinctive cook “I cook by feel and react to the produce I have to work with, although I do use the traditions of regional Mediterranean countries because I live in a Mediterranean climate here in the Barossa".

Maggie has published five books, including ‘Maggie’s Farm’, ‘Maggie’s Orchard’, and ‘Maggie’s table’.

Maggie’s outstanding reputation and services to the Australian public was acknowledged at the 2012 Australian Day Honours. Here, she was deservedly appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

Maggie’s brilliant cooking, and wine making abilities perfectly compliment her business acumen. Her many messages and abilities are more than capable of captivating any audience.

Presentation Topics Include

• Cooking
• Food and Produce
• Wine
• Establishing a Business
• Media
• Food Journalism