Hello and welcome to a brand-new series of
Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery.
Now, you're taking your life in your hands, Julia.
I hope you know that. Oh, mate!
This series I'll be meeting amazing people with extraordinary stories.
We'll be going back to their first homes...
I never thought I'd get the opportunity
to come back into the room.
..schools...
You know, you get yard time in prison and we have yard here.
..universities... You had to come here.
..first work places...
I wrote that when I was 13. That is appalling journalism.
..favourite places...
As a place to grow up it's spectacular.
..and we may even let them show off their secret skills.
I'm a transsexual, guys, go easy.
Ooh.
I'm in Lakemba in Sydney's south-west
to meet Australia's favourite foodie.
It's not enough to call her a cook,
she is an author, restaurateur, food producer and educator.
She is everything we love about Australian food.
It's the wonderful Maggie Beer.
Maggie Beer. Julia!
How wonderful to see you here.
It's wonderful.
Now, look, we associate you with the Barossa Valley...
Yes.
..but you are a Sydney girl to begin with, is that right?
Mm-hm, it is.
Is it strange coming back to the city?
It is strange and just driving out here, it's so changed.
It's different.
It was more country when I was a girl here.
Right, OK. Yes, there wasn't much around.
Now, may I say, you have a car here
that is so close to my heart, it's not funny.
It is so like the first car.
I only ever learned to drive at 28.
That's right. I love it!
In Sydney.
It was automatic, which is why I had the confidence to drive it.
Well, we've got a driver today just to make things easy.
I'm really pleased 'cause Sydney has changed so much.
It has.
Alright, let's get in that car. OK!
♪ Jump in my car
♪ I want to take you home
♪ Jump in my car
♪ It's too far to walk on your own. ♪
The Senior Australian of the Year for 2010 is Maggie Beer!
Maggie Beer exploded into the national consciousness
when her tiny pheasant farm restaurant in the Barossa
won the Gourmet Traveller Remy Martin Award
for Best Restaurant in Australia in 1991.
Since then, she has been on a tireless mission to nurture,
inform and feed Australians with her recipes,
produce and television programs.
You're actually from the south-west of Sydney.
I imagine that it's changed a great deal.
It's just so much more spread, and the shops.
I mean, there was none of that here. Really?
I mean, Lakemba was the picture theatre,
milk bar, Chinese restaurant.
Did you go to the pictures much?
We went to Saturday afternoon pictures, my brothers and I,
and my dog Rover used to come and wait outside.
And was food important already at this stage?
My best memory is about the food and about Christmas.
It was always a feast.
Dad was the food person
and passionate about produce, but taught Mum.
And Mum did all the work. Mm.
And doing it so simply.
So my food is very simple.
Part of not being trained
is the fact that you find your own ways to do things
but also, you're not restricted.
Let's see if we can find where your childhood house was.
It wasn't called Wangee Road from this end.
It's Wangee Road right from the other end.
We've still got to get over Punchbowl Road.
Yes, we've got to get over Punchbowl Road and on Wangee,
and it's about the third house on the left.
And that was the back entrance and, of course, you could go
through there to the factory and it's just around the corner.
Ah. Here, here, here.
No. Yes.
It's all so changed. The big trees have gone.
There were two huge, big gum trees.
And it seems like two houses have been put on one block
and the trees have gone.
Oh, but it's nowhere. It's not here!
It's near, I don't think it's here.
So, we're going over to Ashfield to where your aunties lived.
Oh, Crimson Street.
And it's right down the bottom on the left-hand side.
Ah. Oh, my God.
This one.
The veranda is exactly as it was.
So, you lived in Lakemba and your parents' business went bankrupt.
Yeah. And you were 14.
Even though you didn't come here to live, this was a house
that was a great refuge, in a way.
This was my grandparents' house originally
and then my two maiden aunts.
They were so important in my life
and they were spinsters, we used to say.
Spinsters. Yes.
Were there no men around that might be interested?
No. They were six foot tall, imperious, you know?
Maybe they were gay. Who knows.
Yes. I didn't think of that. Maybe.
And so, it was just them.
Did you ever live here with your family?
No, we didn't live here but I would come every week
and have dinner with Aunty Glad and Aunty Rita,
and they were very bad cooks.
This was the safest place I knew ever.
They were like rocks in my life.
And this house was like a...
It was just always the comfort and I used to,
look, I used to be in here and I used to poke my head out here!
It's all the same. This is the same.
Ready for television like that. Ready to perform!
But can we go in? Yes, we can go in.
This was Aunty Glad's room.
And that big lovely, oaky wardrobe
was in that corner here.
Her bed was along here
so she used to use this as kind of a bed table.
And she used to walk around sprouting poetry
at the top of her lungs!
(GASPS)
This was Aunty Rita's room.
And the wardrobe with Phantom comics.
Phantom comics?!
She used to hide them from Aunty Glad
because Aunty Glad was very, you know, cerebral.
And poetry...
And big piles of Phantom comics in there.
Were you allowed to read them? Yes.
(QUIETLY) And there was whisky. There was whisky.
I didn't touch the whisky, of course.
No, of course not. I wouldn't imagine.
This was into the dining room.
We had a beautiful, round...
"We." It was mine, too.
A beautiful, round, timber table
that we used to play cards at.
And this is where we ate and the kitchen was through there.
Ah, God!
So when you ate together here...
Aww. You've got such an amazing memory, Maggie, of how things were.
And it was so sunny and that was where that beautiful,
beautiful cupboard that seemed to be setback in the wall
and here was a sideboard.
Ah, such lovely things.
Such lovely things.
The kitchen was half this size and one sink only.
None of this two-sink flashness.
And that was... that was there.
It was a very special place.
It was special to Mum but my aunts being, well,
particularly Aunty Glad, as I say, being so special to me.
My Aunty Glad was like a second mum.
She really was like a second mum.
Your dad Ronald sounds like quite an extraordinary man.
Tell me about him.
Well, he was a dreamer and an ideas person.
And incredibly, um, musical.
Came... such a musical family. Amazing.
Everywhere we went everyone wanted Ron to sing.
But he was very dashing.
He was very dashing, so as a young man,
and only had one leg.
Yes. Now, how did he lose his leg?
At the age of seven he was selling papers on the tram
and he got pushed off.
And at seven he lost his leg.
But, you know, it was just part and parcel of life after that.
And when you say your dad was a dreamer, what do you mean?
Did he have ideas but it was hard to make them happen, or...?
Well, he had ideas and he made them happen
but he didn't have the...
Well, I would suspect that he didn't have the business sense
because I remember all the bills on the floor.
He was unable and I'm unable to look at such things.
I really... in 15 years of the restaurant
I could never give anyone a bill.
I had to... I just, I can't deal with money.
Your parents had this business out in Lakemba
and they went bankrupt, and you were 14.
Yes.
What sort of affect did that have on you?
Well, it was...
You know, if I...
I have got a good memory
but I don't have a memory of it being anything but,
"Let's get on with it."
They went into catering at, first of all it was a golf club
and then RSL clubs.
See, food was so important to us every day of our life.
You know, ether we were in the poor stage or the going-well stage,
it was always fantastic.
They were very hard working, but particularly my mum.
You know, Dad was the ideas person.
Tell me about her, yeah. Oh, Mum...
I remember in this house one day Aunty Glad saying to me,
"You know, you have what your Mum has - the joy in everyday."
And I was in the hallway
and what a comp...
What a beautiful complement. It was just...
And Mum was... I mean, Mum had a hard life.
But it was a hard life.
It was hard for Mum and for Dad, but for Mum particularly.
And... But she could always find something to be positive about.
And I remember Dad was so far ahead of his time
that he would have aged fillets of beef, you know, hanging.
Wow, no-one did that. No-one did that.
And of course people would send it back and he'd be offended
and, you know, all of this.
So Mum would do curried sausages.
And they were happy. Of course. And they were happy.
You've got to be smart. Yeah.
Do you think you still have that joy
that your mum seemed to have on a daily basis?
Yeah. Yes, I think that's my luckiest thing.
Shall we go to the high school?
Yes. it wasn't the best time in my life.
Well, you've had other good times. (LAUGHS)
Wiley Park Girls High School.
Now, apparently, you were the first intake - your year - of this school.
Yes, 1957.
I think there was much excitement about that.
Mm.
Now, can you find your headmistress on that wall?
The very first one, Ms Bell.
I remember her well.
It was first year and we'd just had our first exams
and she came into the class in front of everyone and she said,
"Ackermann," because there were 13 Margarets in the class.
And you were Ackermann before you were Beer, yes.
Yes. "Ackermann, what do you mean you've got 49 for history?
"Next term I want 94." So I did.
I'll never forget it.
Well, you've done well, Ms Beer, You've done well.
What was your favourite subject? Did you have one?
Ah, yes, astronomy.
We had this amazing teacher and how I wish I could remember her name
because I reckon everyone in that class was over 90%.
She was such an inspiring teacher.
And the typing room.
That's one thing... There was a typing room?
I did typing and, um, sewing.
And typing was the best thing
because I learnt to touch type with an apron over the typing letters.
Not even looking. Yeah, not even looking.
And I still type about 100 words a minute.
And that's the only reason I can write
'cause my brain goes really quickly and my fingers can sort of fly.
Oh, school yard!
Schoolyard where you have to try and make friends.
Oh, no, I spent more time sitting on that bench there reading a book.
Just you? Just me.
And so, would you sit here and look at the other kids and think,
"I'm alright on my own"?
'Cause sometimes you can be alright on your own.
You do need times on your own.
Yeah, I do need a lot of time on my own.
But, no, I was lonely.
You know, that's part of coping too, isn't it?
Mm.
Now... Ha!
..home economics, Maggie Beer!
This was the tier.
How do you like this room? Wow.
This is a proper student kitchen.
I have never seen anything quite as elaborate as this.
Did you have home economics when you were here?
No, no.
I might have been given the choice but I wouldn't have done it
because I cooked at home.
At school there was no idea that you would cook for a living?
Oh, no. No, that...
It took me 20 years of searching to find what I wanted to do.
I really did search for those 20 years
and it was right in front of my nose.
It was just part of my life -
you know, from the age of about seven I cooked.
Tick, I know that. Yeah.
I cooked chicken livers and I remember my father saying,
"Stop picking! There'll be none for us," you know.
I'd been a picker all my life.
I think I go more than taste.
I pick as I taste as I cook. As you go, good.
Alright, let's keep moving along. OK.
She didn't need this kitchen.
This is just the size of the room
and I wasn't that quiet in the classroom, apparently.
But I don't remember that - that's people telling me that.
I hate it when that happens, don't you?
Yes. 'Cause you think you know yourself.
When your parents' business went under you were 14,
and you didn't stay at school.
No, but the headmistress Ms Bell
and my teachers sat down and had my parents come in
to convince them that I stay on at school
and there'd be some sort of scholarship available to me.
And my parents said no.
And it was my Dad.
But it was of the times, you've got to remember that.
My Dad said, "She's a girl.
"She'll only get married so she should go and be a secretary."
And what was the first job?
Gell Guide Manufacturing -
the makers of chenille bedspreads in Bankstown.
Fantastic.
It was a huge, huge place and they gave me a job as receptionist.
I don't think they knew I was 14... Oh.
..but I was a very quick learner.
So, do you think you had to grow up quite quickly, in a way?
Oh, I grew up quickly.
I've always thought that gave me the grit
for what I've gone onto in life.
But in a way maybe that grit, that resilience of going,
"Well, what are you going to do? You've got to keep going"?
Yes. The luck of my life was meeting Colin
and going to live in the Valley.
But we did that for so many years in terms of...
You know, perseverance was a very strong part of us
and we never thought of giving up.
Even the hard, hard years.
And that came from being the daughter
of small business people and going through that.
As Colin was from small business people from Mallala.
So, it was in our blood and gave us the right thing.
It gives you the right thing to do. Yeah.
Look, this show is called Home Delivery,
and I've promised to deliver you home.
Shall we go to the Barossa Valley? Please!
Please.
By some incredible magic, Maggie, we've just left Sydney
and bang, we're here in the Barossa Valley and it is gorgeous.
But how did you find yourself here?
Ah, beautiful accidents.
I've had a lot of them in my life
but really the best of them was meeting Colin.
Yes.
I had just thrown in my job, went to Mount Buller
and there I met Colin.
And then 16 weeks later we married.
Wow. I love that kind of fast work!
And he is from nearby.
But here from the first moment we came, I belonged.
Look at that over there.
That's divine! I know.
Look, we are so lucky.
Was there a plan? No! No plan.
The vision was all about the produce and the farming,
it wasn't about business.
Look at us brazenly walking through possibly snake-ridden grass.
They're more frightened of us.
I know, you say that.
But I feel protected by you, Maggie.
I feel like no snake will come towards us.
Look at the golden pheasant.
I mean, golden pheasant's beautiful.
The ring-necked pheasant, the Reeves'.
The guinea foul is having a dirt bath - they love to do that.
Maggie, why pheasants?
Well, that was Colin's... Colin's vision.
It was just an idea for him
to be able to come back to the country
'cause he didn't like city life.
And did you know what to do with them?
Like, how did he know? No.
He had to just find out by experience
and then he won a Churchill Fellowship.
Oh, right!
And we went to Europe and studied game bird breeding.
And so then we came back and started the farm shop.
This is amazing!
(GASPS)
It's always full of flowers and people and produce.
Oh, well, I know this place, Maggie Beer.
This, of course, is where The Cook And The Chef was filmed
and, of course, it is, well, it used to be your own home.
Well, this one big room was several.
That corner around that post was our bedroom.
This was the girl's room here. There was bunk beds.
So this was an L-shaped living room and for 10 years.
And when did you decide, "Let's not just have a normal family life,
"why don't I open a restaurant right next door to where I live?"
Ah. Well, we opened the farm shop first and lived in a caravan.
Did you? I mean, she does it hard.
She does...
And then the farm shop morphed into the restaurant,
while this was built.
I used to charge $1 extra for the raw pheasant, to cook it,
to cut it up and for people to have a picnic on the side of the dam.
Sort of a high-class takeaway kind of thing.
So I was never very good at money.
And so we decided, audaciously, when you think about it -
no training to cook or restaurants or whatever -
we just added a bit of building on
while this was all happening and we became a restaurant.
It was a huge success and then you win an award.
Well, that was the biggest surprise of all.
In 1991 we won Gourmet Traveller Remy Martin
Restaurant of the Year for Australia.
What happened though when we won it all hell broke lose.
Helicopters in the ram paddock, people bribing for tables.
We had to take on more staff, full at every moment.
And, of course, I'm obsessive and I burnt myself out.
But I didn't see it.
You don't seem obsessive to me. You don't give that vibe.
But it's funny, I don't see the obsessive...
Well, I just... Well, I am a control freak, I guess.
I wouldn't leave the stoves, right. Oh, OK, right.
I wouldn't leave the stoves because I was controlling...
You know, pheasant isn't easy to cook and I knew it in my bones
and everything else I did by feel and instinct, not by training.
If Colin hadn't have come in one day and say,
"It's the restaurant or me," I would still be cooking.
And that's why he closed it?
And that's why we closed it.
And, yeah, that was it.
Gee, 'cause you've not had much to do since then.
I mean, you've really been sitting back
and just looking at the lake.
But it took me a year to recover, that's how burnt out I was.
And I didn't recognise it. Right.
It took a year and I slept for almost a year, think.
One thing happened, then another and another and another
and then it just all...
Took off. ..took off.
What's so great about what you do, Maggie, is that you really do
educate people about food.
Was that a driving thing or did that come by accident, in a way?
Absolutely by accident.
Because I'm chaos in a kitchen and because I haven't been trained,
I actually think people can see me and relate to the fact,
"Oh, my gosh, she's not all precious. You know, she just does."
And it comes out, I just know...
Mm. ..that I can share some of that
And there's a really great feeling about that.
I bet, I bet. Alright, let's go into town.
So, where are we now, Maggie?
Well, this is Tanunda and this is our
Tanunda Soldiers Settlers Hall but it's also our regional gallery.
And a very special surprise in here.
(ORGAN PLAYS)
(GASPS)
Look at this!
Yes. Amazing.
It's so beautiful. So beautiful.
You wait till he really pounds it out.
(ORGAN CRESCENDO) Hello. Now he's starting.
It's like we're getting married.
That was extraordinary, Maggie, to hear that sound in this small space.
How did this organ get here?
Well, it was from the Adelaide Town Hall and it was given to us.
It was a 20-year project. To restore it?
To restore it with all of the Barossa
and the Historical Organ Trust.
People from all around the world come to play this.
This is significant.
And the sound, it just...
Now, when I see you listening to music, something happens.
Ah, music is so important to me.
That was the best thing about my childhood was the music.
Now, tell me about your choir. You sing with a choir.
Ah, yes. Well, I have a choir of friends.
17 of us and we meet every Wednesday night at home.
It's the joy of our lives in terms of having that, you know
that piece in the sand that you know every Wednesday night is singing.
How old were you when you started singing?
It was just before I was 60.
Just before my 60th birthday.
And why had you not sung before?
Oh, well, my dad had this beautiful voice and his brothers
and sisters, but my mum, my beautiful, beautiful mum
had the worst voice in the world.
And, you know, that discorded voice and they would say,
"Doreen, stop singing."
And my brothers and I sort of were in that camp.
We never... we never sang, um, because of that but bugger that.
Everyone should sing. Everyone should sing!
Everyone should sing. Everyone can.
Where have you brought us to now, Maggie Beer?
Well, Mengler's Hill looking over the patchwork of the valley.
It's such a beautiful place.
It only took you 20 years to be an overnight success,
but what do you think your dad
would make of what you've done with your life?
Oh, I think Dad, from the food perspective,
given that that was his passion, he'd be proud.
He'd be thrilled and proud,
but my mum was here to see the beginnings of it
and she worked so hard with us in those early days.
Did she really? Yes.
And we used to fight about who was right in the kitchen.
And it was wonderful to have her right here.
Even though, you know, she didn't see what was to become
but she saw what was the heart of it.
Yeah, how it started. Yeah.
You said you've been a control freak, but that can be a good thing?
Oh, well, I'm not apologising for being a control freak.
I'm always on that continuous journey to do things better.
Yeah, I just, I need to feel in control because,
I guess it's because my name is attached to it all, too.
But without that, I would still be the same.
Any regrets?
I guess, all the regrets are only about the fact that
I didn't give my children enough time.
But I gave them something else, which was, you know,
strength of character and drive, but I didn't give them enough time.
We didn't have enough time 'cause we worked so hard
and we worked every weekend of their lives, but they worked with us, too,
even as youngsters, you know, to be together.
Tell me about the Maggie Beer Foundation.
Ah.
Well, having been made Senior Australian of the Year...
You were! She was. Senior, the old girl.
And so I thought, "I've got to do something here."
So it took a few years more to set up the foundation
and get an amazing group of people around me
but all about bringing beautiful, simple, home cooking into aged care.
So, all those smells can be,
you know, those evocative smells we talk of
and are so important as memory clues of good memory clues.
And it is possible but you've got to care enough to do it
and that's what the foundation is about.
It's a big change but it's a great thing to be aspiring towards.
There are really good ones, too, but we need to use them
as benchmarks and we need to give the knowledge and the skill
to those who really want to do better.
What are you most proud of?
Oh...
Trick question.
Oh, gosh
Um, most proud of?
I think the foundation is amazing, to give back.
Because I have been so lucky.
Um, I think I am most proud of the love of my family.
I'm going to say a word to you that you might not like now.
Are you ready?
Retirement. Discuss.
Why? Why? One word answer.
If you could talk to that 14-year-old Maggie
that had to leave school and work in a textile factory for a year
to prove her metal, as your parents said,
what would you say to her?
That life will open up.
Life will be good.
And make the most of
every... everything that you do, yes.
(EXHALES) Maggie it's just been so great
spending the last two days with you.
You're amazing, so thank you.
You just really are genuinely full of joy
and there's just not enough of it, so...
She's the real deal, everybody. She's the joy, for sure.
Now, let's get that bloody glass of wine!
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation