5 Minutes With Australian Icon Maggie Beer
The indefatigable cook, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist (and bona fide national treasure) got her first valuable business lesson working in a bedspread factory.
My first job, at 14, was as a receptionist for Jeldi Manufacturing in Bankstown, western Sydney. They made chenille bedspreads and dressing gowns. My parents made me promise that I’d stay for a year so I wasn’t considered a fly-by-night. I was so bored. The company promised me more responsibility but they weren’t good to their word so I left 12 months after starting. It taught me to put things in writing – and bring management to account.
My first lesson in good leadership was in 1970 when I became a citizenship law clerk with the United States Consulate General. Erna Beckett was the consul and she taught me about continuous improvement and that critiquing was not criticism. It’s stayed with me.
The first test of my leadership came when we opened Pheasant Farm Restaurant in the Barossa Valley in 1979. I’d never been taught to cook formally, let alone run a restaurant. How would I deal with apprentices and run the kitchen? So taking what I’d learnt from Erna, my team and I would discuss everything that happened that day and see what we could do better. They were young people who could take a critique as a personal attack so I put into practice what was done for me and they grew from it.
The first time I felt like a failure was when we closed the restaurant in 1993. We were at the height of our fame but because I’m a control freak, it totally burnt me out. For the next year, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was driven by a passion for food and cooking so when I lost it, I went into a terrible dive. Even though I had the best team by then, my failure was not being able to delegate.
The first time I questioned what I was doing was when I became CEO of Maggie Beer Products, after my husband stepped back to focus on the farming side. I wasn’t a good CEO because I was all about ideas and training but very slack on procedures and process. I’d met a woman called Chantale Millard at a function years before and when I heard that she was coming back to South Australia, I pounced and brought her in to take over from me.
The first time I realised my purpose was in 2010, after I gave a speech about food in aged care to CEOs in the sector. It wasn’t well received. As Senior Australian of the Year, I’d visited many aged care homes – some good, some terrible – and community Meals On Wheels. I couldn’t bear to see the ones where food was just fuel, not a passionate endeavour. I felt I could make a difference by showing how it could be done. That speech was the trigger for what became the not-for-profit Maggie Beer Foundation.
My first truly proud moment was receiving an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University in Sydney. Having left school at 14, I felt I’d failed by not going to university. I now have three honorary doctorates but the first one, in 2013, was, “I can’t believe this!”
Defining moment
“In 2023, Celia Tait at Artemis Media asked if I’d do a series on food in aged care for ABC TV. I’d already been doing masterclasses around the country for 11 years, bringing cooks and chefs from the sector together, but the chance to demonstrate what was possible to a wider audience was an amazing gift. Maggie Beer’s Big Mission showed how we could bring about change.”
