From temp jobs to cooking icon: Maggie Beer's life in pictures
Maggie Beer was just seven when she was taught how to choose the right fruit and vegetables at the market.
Today, Beer is a household name, loved by both cooks and non-cooks.
She's popularised the relatable approach to home cooking for TV viewers, has released scores of cookbooks and her food products continue to help elevate charcuterie boards nationwide.
Her path to success and celebrity has been a rocky one, with much learned and lost along the way.
Read on to take a look at the life of Australia's own home cook.
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Born Margaret Ackerman, Beer grew up in a family home attached to a factory in Sydney's Western suburbs.
During the 1950s, her father Ronald manufactured aluminum pots and pans in Lakemba.
His wife, Doreen, helped sell them every Saturday at Paddy's Markets.
It was here stall vendors taught Maggie and her two brothers how to choose the right fruit and veggies.
In the late 1950s, a credit squeeze tipped the Ackermans into bankruptcy. They lost everything.
Beer was taken out of school and steered into the workforce.
By age 19, she was travelling the world, shifting from temp job to job.
In her mid twenties, she met a bloke called Colin (pictured with Beer and their children) in the Victorian ski fields.
Beer and Colin embarked on a whirlwind romance. After just 16 weeks together they wed.
They lived in Sydney for a few years for Beer's high-flying jobs, before Colin could no longer ignore the pull for his native South Australia, and a quieter life.
By the 1970s, the couple packed up and moved to the Barossa. Beer had plans to study winemaking and Colin was set to take up pheasant farming.
However, when Beer fell pregnant with her eldest daughter, Saskia, she ended up cooking pheasants to boost sales.
Despite having no formal training in the kitchen, Beer relied on instinct inherited from her paternal grandmother.
Two years after Saskia was born, the couple welcomed Elli. Both children are pictured here.
Beer and Colin lived with their young family on a property still known today as The Pheasant Farm.
"I so often talk about cooking from scratch and that's how my cooking developed yet first the farm happened," Beer said.
"Colin building the pheasant runs; then the dam built in 1976 that for years looked like a moonscape of mud until the hundreds of trees we planted finally grew through the clay all the while working at breeding the pheasants and selling them to restaurants. I can assure you it wasn't an easy time."
On the property, the couple also built Beer's first and only restaurant.
Working in the restaurant stirred up difficult childhood memories for Beer.
"The Pheasant Farm days of the restaurant... I could never pass a bill over to a customer even though I knew they had to pay," she told the ABC's Conversations podcast in 2022.
"That's one thing that sits with me."
This particular memory stemmed from her father battling through financial ruin.
"I remember the floor littered with bills that were not opened," she said.
"I remember that so strongly and I have had a difficulty all my life with bills and money."
A photo of part of Beer's vast family property as it is today.
Despite emotional scars of her youth, Beer has summed up her move to South Australia with a few choice words.
She said it's been the "luck of my life" coming to the Barossa.
"Learning of the rhythm of the seasons and beginning with our own produce and the growers in our backyard; the Barossa has been my secret long-term ingredient," she said.
"Its strong food culture, developed organically over time, is etched into the hearts and minds of all the people that make up this community, my community. For this I owe thanks to so many and share this achievement with them."
As well as starting her organic food journey in the state, South Australia was also the launchpad of Beer's TV career.
In 2006, the first episode of The Cook and the Chef aired on the ABC.
Beer was the cook in the mix, while top Adelaide chef Simon Bryant took the reins of chef.
It proved a successful partnership, with the show running for 150 episodes over four seasons.
The show was designed around celebrating the joy of cooking.
The final episode aired in 2009.
"The demands of filming on my family and business have led me to the difficult decision to leave the show," Beers said in a statement at the time.
"It's been a privilege for me to have been able to share my passion for food with Simon and our audience. It always gives me joy when I feel I have inspired people to explore the wonderful produce that Australia has to offer."
It forged a friendship between the pair that remains today.
Off camera, Beer turned her focus back to the recipes at the heart of her cooking.
During the course of her career, Beer has written more than 10 books.
She also has a line of gourmet food products, including her famous verjuice, quince paste and traditional tomato sauce, and branded homeware goods.
