Australian chef, TV personality and aged care food champion Maggie Beer is recovering in hospital after suffering minor bone fractures due to a fall at home in South Australia’s Barossa Valley region.
The 79-year-old chef, who rose to fame in the 2000s as co-host of The Cook and the Chef with Simon Bryant, experienced the accident on Sunday.
A social media post provided followers with a quick update;
“Hello Friends,
It’s Maggie’s family here. Just writing to let you know that following a fall at her home, she’s unfortunately suffered a couple of minor bone fractures and related injuries.
Thankfully Col, her husband, was there and she is now in the excellent hands of her doctors who are confident she will make a full recovery.
It may just take a little while.
More than anything else, Maggie hates letting people down. But she has multiple events and public engagements coming up that she may have to miss.
She has asked us to apologise on her behalf to all those affected – and has asked for your patience as she recuperates.
Thank you for your understanding – The Beer Family”
While Maggie’s Farm Shop and The Farm Eatery are trademark tourist locations in Nuriootpa, South Australia, the popular TV personality has won plenty of love and support through stints on MasterChef Australia and The Great Australian Bake Off.
But it’s her most recent work that has resulted in a noted impact on the aged care sector after the Federal Government awarded $5 million in funding to the Maggie Beer Foundation to educate and train cooks and chefs in aged care.
The funding was provided by the Department of Health and Aged Care in response to the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which recognised the importance of food and nutrition for the overall wellbeing of older people.
Maggie’s work has been showcased in the ABC series, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, which covered the transformational food journey at an aged care home.
“The documentary, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, was definitely an experiment with the view of showing what is possible to make a difference and to understand how hard it is to bring about change when everyone works constantly without time to review their processes – I am proud to have been invited to be a part of the change, in food and nutrition, so needed in aged care,” Maggie shared on Facebook.
Maggie is expected to make a full recovery, although she may be out of the spotlight for a short while.
