Celebrity cook whisk up special treat for Adventist residents

Accompanied by Bond University's Professor Liz Isenring and Gold Coast dietician Dr Cherie Hugo, Maggie visited the Victoria Point facility to promote better nutrition and health for older Australians and gave a cooking demonstration of a healthy and delicious snack.

A member of the Lantern Project* and having launched the Maggie Beer Foundation last year, which aims to overhaul the culinary culture of Australia's aged care facilities, Maggie used the opportunity to speak about the things she said were important to her "and should be important to everyone".

"That is, beautiful, fresh food, in-season, cooked with a whole lot of love," she said.

"It's about simplicity and about flavour.

"Nutrition is a given.

"We need the right nutrition, without a doubt, but if you get beautiful food with flavour, then you're going to have the nutrition so long as you're thinking about the food.

"I just want everyone in aged care all over Australia to have a beautiful meal every day."

Clearly passionate about her aims, Maggie said she had visited "some amazing" aged care facilities in Australia.

"What we have to do is celebrate the great ones and use them as benchmarks for others to follow," she said.

"It all depends on whether the CEO or head understands the difference it makes."

A Barossa Valley local, Maggie said engaging with good nutrition was "vital at all stages of life".

"Without good nutrition, you don't have physical strength, but you need physical strength to keep active and involved in life," she said.

"To me, food is the centre of the table and it's the centre of life."

Maggie said she became interested in food in aged care when she was named Senior Australian of the Year in 2010 and began visiting a range of facilities.

"I've visited many places, and I saw great things and terrible things," she said.

"My belief is so strong that everyone deserves to have beautiful food every day, and I realised that this journey that was going to be for the rest of my life had been in front of me all the time, because food has been the thing I've been most connected to since a child."

During her cooking demonstration, Maggie prepared a pumpkin, brie, tomato, kale and basil frittata and told her audience that nutrition could be optimised by selecting foods that were in season.

Recipe: Pumpkin, brie, tomato, kale and basil frittata, topped with hommus or pesto

"My garden at home is so full of tomatoes and eggplants right now," she said.

"It's all about what is seasonally available."

Referring to dietician Cherie, Maggie said "we all learn from each other".

"I'm just a cook who believes in good food being so good for us," she said.

"I'm about instinct, not science, but we can come together because one feeds the other."

As she cracked open one egg after another, Maggie brought a laugh from the audience when she looked sideways at Cherie and said "You see, I'm all about butter" and added that was because she was "all about flavour and all about what is natural".

She said simplicity was another important ingredient in "doing food well".

"I've chosen all these foods today because the pumpkins are just coming into season," she said.

"The tomatoes are still in season.

"We've got kale it's full of antioxidants and is so good for you, but it also tastes fantastic.

"I'm not that interested in things that are good for you, but don't taste good."

Speaking about the other ingredients in the recipe, Maggie said sundried tomatoes were an excellent source of vitamin C while cheese was an excellent source of protein.

"Good food is all about the ingredients you use, not how fancy your technique is," she said.

"Colours are also very important.

"You absolutely eat with your eyes - it's all part and parcel of the meal."

As the frittata Maggie had prepared was brought from the oven and its warm aromas filled the room, the celebrity cook herself sliced the dish and, as she served it with dollops of hummus and pesto "because they are so very good for you and taste delicious", she asked the resident who liked to eat and "who used to like to cook?"

Hands across the room were slowly raised and Maggie told the crowd it had been a delight to cook for them that day and said she hoped they enjoyed eating the dish with as much pleasure as she had found in preparing it.