Lunch with an Australian Culinary Icon

Our next stop in the Barossa was a visit to Maggie Beers’ Farmouse. Maggie is like the Australian Julia Child / Martha Stewart / Evan Kleiman all rolled into one. She’s warm, engaging, talented and a little scatterbrained. She and her assistant cooked a squid dish, roast chicken (which she called “chook”), pumpkin and salad. Dessert was “rough puff” pastry with frangipane and plum. Since we were pressed for time, Evan and some others joined Maggie in the kitchen. We dined on the verandah overlooking a pond with Maggie’s olive grove in the distance. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours…