MAGGIE’S HARVEST
Maggie Beer
Published by Lantern, H/B $125

Maggie Beer and her friend Stephanie Alexander have become the female face of contemporary Australian cooking and would be recognised anywhere in Australia by their devoted fans. Both women have their roots firmly in produce focused food and have fought vigorously to preserve traditions and educated children.
Maggie’s Harvest does not deviate from Maggie’s generous, seasonal home style cooking for which she has become an Australian icon recognised as a symbol of Australian culinary excellence all over the world. In a sense it is a collection of other people’s ideas but when Marco Pierre White stated in White Heat that nothing new had been written about food in 200 years we are inclined to concurr.
The text is endearing to her followers who adore the straight forwardness of her cooking. In this book Maggie shares anecdotal stories about her dining experiences with her friends and her family and it is truly the sum of her life’s work in the world of food and wine.

Shamefully this beaut book landed on the desk to shamefully remained unopened until a friend visiting from overseas picked it up and kept reading with rapturous exclamations. It has to be said there have been a lot of really terrible books written about Australian Bush Tucker. When the book was finally prized from her, mainly with the intention of ridiculing her for her lack of taste it was impossible not to admit she was right. The pictures are as Australian as Vegimite and the recipes as modern as today. It’s a gorgeous book full of lovely Australian images and the food is mostly quickly and easily prepared in a wok (Australia’s favourite cooking pot).
A great book to buy overseas visitors who love to cook, and even better book to send an Aussie living somewhere else with the deliberate intention of making them miserably homesick, but just maybe you’ll end up keeping it for yourself. We just love it especially the Barn Damper!