People don’t think they’re being ageist: celebrity cook Maggie Beer

Maggie Beer is speaking from her home in the Barossa, where it’s very cold but the sun is shining brightly. “We still have autumn colours so my pomegranate hedge and wisteria are that golden colour, the pear tree that’s as tall as an oak I’m looking out on is 160 years old – it’s just starting to lose some of its leaves, but there’s gold all around.”

A self-confessed eternal optimist, Beer has been part of our lives for decades now, talking about the importance of fresh food and the joy of cooking, all while exuding a charm and warmth that make you feel like you know her.

Cook, restaurateur, author and advocate, she is a regular on MasterChef and was a judge on The Great Australian Bake Off, alongside chef Matt Moran for five seasons. Pairing her with Simon Bryant, head chef at the Hilton in Adelaide, in the long-running ABC program The Cook and the Chef was inspired.

Beer outside her Barossa Valley home in 2014.Credit: David Mariuz

We have her to thank for offerings such as quince paste, pheasant and verjuice, all of which were particular passions inspired by her farm produce. She credits growing up with hard-working parents in western Sydney with instilling her strong work ethic, and the move to the Barossa Valley with husband Colin with forging her lifelong love of food.

Together, they established a pheasant farm in 1979, opening a farm store and then an acclaimed restaurant, which they ran for 15 years. The store continues to this day and her farm now has accommodation, as well as a cafe. “It was the Barossa that showed me the rhythm of the seasons, surrounded me with a wealth of produce on my doorstep, grown in our Mediterranean climate and gave me my first-ever sense of community and belonging,” she says.

As she prepares to turn 80, Beer is working “harder than I’ve ever worked in my life”. Hellbent on looking after the most vulnerable in our society, she has set her sights on aged care, particularly the food served to residents. Airing on the ABC next month, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission explores what’s going right, what’s going wrong and everything in between.

The catalyst was being made Senior Australian of the Year in 2010. “One of the 900 requests I had was to speak to a thousand CEOs of aged care. So I did a whole pile of research to present a keynote speech, and I was passionate and naive, but I became aware of things that just were not acceptable to me, as someone who knows food has such an immense influence on life and wellbeing. It all started from there,” she says.

In 2014, she set up the not-for-profit Maggie Beer Foundation “to extend and enrich the lives of older Australians by promoting healthy and tasty food”, funded by the Australian government’s Department of Health and Aged Care.

The 2019 Royal Commission into Aged Care revealed some shocking stories about what happens in the places we send our older citizens. The food budget at some centres was a paltry $7 a day – not for one meal but an entire day.

Beer with Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston on MasterChef in 2017.

How did we get to a point where that seemed acceptable? “Ageism has got something to do with it, not revering our older people,” Beer says. “It’s so entrenched, so insidious that people don’t think they’re being ageist when they are.”

Has she experienced it firsthand? “No! I wouldn’t let anyone …” she says with a laugh. “I don’t feel old. I’m not frightened of ageing at all. I have so much to do. I have so much energy. But I also have worked on that by living a good life in terms of food and exercise and involvement and belonging, you know? So, I’ve been lucky in that way. Perhaps people [have been ageist] behind my back, but not to me.”

When she started touring facilities designed for older people, Beer saw “some wonderful things and some terrible things”. She hopes that through the series, what is working will be revealed and what needs to be improved clearly detailed. Interestingly, she saw as many good for-profit places as not-for-profit; quality was not dependent on whether the enterprise was commercial.

There’s a lack of real understanding about the impact that beautiful food and a quality diet can make, she says. “Because there are many people for whom food hasn’t been an important part of their life, so they don’t get it as easily, what beautiful, simple food can do for wellbeing.”

Another compounding factor was the lack of expectation from those in care. “The residents are so accepting, of being grateful for everything, anything they have. That was a shock to me,” Beer says. “They are at an age where they’ve had, often, very tough lives. And they haven’t had great expectations of being looked after ... they don’t feel they are worth the trouble – and that’s just not true.”

“I would love to see aged care being a wellbeing model, not a medical model. That’s a big transition,” she says. It sounds revolutionary, I say. To her mind, it’s obvious – and imperative.

Beer with chef Simon Bryant on the set of their TV show The Cook and the Chef.Credit: ABC

For Beer, that intrinsic relationship between good food and wellbeing has long been clear. The science is now catching up with her instincts. Studies of the microbiome show there is a correlation between what we eat and how we feel. At the University of Flinders, which partners with the Maggie Beer Foundation, ongoing studies are looking at serotonin – the happy hormone that affects our mood and behaviour – which is typically classified as a neurotransmitter, but is also a regulator of normal gut function. “Diet in general has a huge impact on brain health and, of course, diabetes does lead to a predisposition to dementia,” she says.

Beautiful food gives pleasure as well as nutrition to keep the body as strong as it can be; Beer sees these basic things as stepping stones that help empower residents. Alongside that, she says residents want – and need – to be doing jobs that will contribute to their community and give them focus and make them feel good about themselves. That’s all intrinsic to her vision. “It’s a holistic way of looking at aged care where there are gardens to be part of, where there are things happening within the home. It’s giving people a good life to the end of life.”

My dad used to refer to aged care homes as God’s waiting room. Visiting such places, residents often seem to be sitting around with little or nothing to do all day. Beer says this is changing but more needs to be done. “You see the delight, the joy of the residents who take on tasks and feel meaningful, and it breaks up the day, it breaks up the boredom and the loneliness.”

Creative solutions are required, she says, and it’s not just beholden to the government – all of us need to take responsibility. In the Netherlands, one idea being trialled is free rent for uni students at aged care homes, in exchange for spending 30 hours a month with the senior residents.

Beer is a big fan of these sorts of initiatives and points to a trial in NSW that addresses both housing affordability and the loneliness epidemic. The Older Women’s Network NSW advocates for specialised aged care venues aimed at women near retirement age who don’t have their own homes.

As individuals, you can make a difference, she says. If you have time on your hands, you can visit people in aged care: some residents rarely see anyone other than staff. “Everyone can make a difference. It’s finding what’s right for the right person at the right time of life,” she says. “It’s got to start with government and society understanding and supporting that this is a critical issue. You’ve got to start with that. And then you’ve got to say what needs to be done is training, education, leadership and communication.”

TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO MAGGIE BEER

1. Worst habit? I’m chaotic in the kitchen and the messiest cook ever … not sure I’ll ever change, and in 55 years together the deal has always been:  I cook and Colin cleans up – a deal I’ve never wanted to break.
2. Greatest fear? Losing physicality and mental acuity into old age.
3. The line that stayed with you? From my Aunty Glad when I was just a teenager: “Your mother found joy in every day, even when life wasn’t easy…”
4. Biggest regret? Having worked so hard to become an overnight success after 20 years, we worked every weekend of our daughters’ lives until we closed the Pheasant Farm Restaurant at the height of its fame, the day before our youngest daughter Elli’s 18th birthday.
5. Favourite book? A book I was given almost 20 years ago; the slimmest volume ever and of all the books I love, it’s the one that jumps immediately off the page. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by French writer Muriel Barberry and translated by Alison Anderson ... a book I’ve shared with many.
6. The artwork or song you wish was yours? Two bob each way – as a song, Summertime, whether sung as jazz or opera, it always stops me in my tracks, and art I wish was mine, any landscape by Elizabeth Cummings or any painting by Daniel Boyd.
7. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? I don’t ever think of going back in time … so let’s go for the ridiculous: to ride on a shooting star through the night sky!

Beer insists it’s only achievable with the entire team on board. “We can make massive change if we empower the staff by giving them the education, the skill and the respect – and the access to the residents and the residents lives, so they see how meaningful a difference that they can make and what satisfaction that gives to a person.”

Encouragingly, the documentary reveals what she describes as “low-hanging fruit” – good examples of things that can be done “with little or no budget and thinking outside of the square”.

In another lifetime, given the choice, Beer would have been a musician. As a child, she adored singing and music; she was told she had a good ear. Growing up with parents who struggled financially, that simply wasn’t an option. That ambition would be realised much, much later – she started playing piano at 55.

Beer has no shortage of other interests. “I have a little choir and I love to sing, I’m a reader, I love art. I have a very full life with my family, friends and the things that give me joy,” she says. “I don’t have enough time. Next year, when I’m 80, I’m going to sort of go back to four days first, then three days and then yes, over the year come back to one day.”

Of course, she always makes time for cooking. Not so many big gigs these days, she says, although last month she prepared lunch for 150 for Queensland Opera and another for Tasting Australia with her younger daughter in Victoria Square a fortnight before we speak.

“Physically, it is challenging for me to be standing in the one position for hours on end, but I love it so much,” Beer says. “I love to cook – I’m always thinking, right, what am I going to cook when the family comes round? What am I going to cook tonight? It’s my life.”

Maggie Beer’s Big Mission is on ABC TV and ABC iview on July 9 at 8.30pm.

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