Maggie Beer, South Australia�s most loved culinary icon is now exporting her culinary farm products to the US for the first time ever. Food lovers will now be able to purchase her famous Verjuice and some of her top jams and pastes throughout North America. Maggie will exhibit her wares at the New York Fancy Food Show, June 27-29, 2004 at Booth #2772.
�We�re thrilled to be included in the US culinary market. South Australia is a mecca for food and wine lovers alike and by sharing our products with Americans we�re essentially sharing a part of our country and our culture, too,� says Maggie Beer of the product launch.
Maggie, who has become an expert in the cooking and preparation of game, started a food career over 25 years ago and hasn�t looked back since. In 1978 her husband Colin was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study game bird breeding in Europe and America. This was the impetus for the establishment of her Pheasant Farm Restaurant in the charming town of Tanunda, in the heart of South Australian wine country, the Barossa Valley. The restaurant, which was a showcase for Colin�s game birds, won a string of awards culminating in the 1991 Remy Martin Cognac/Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year, the highest award given in the industry in Australia.
In 1984 Maggie began to distribute her signature Pheasant Farm Pate. She also began making Verjuice commercially that year. In 1996 she built an accredited export kitchen and the company�s list of products now stands at 9 refrigerated products and 21 dry goods products.
Some of the pastes that are now distributed in the US include Quince Paste, Blood Plum, Fig Paste and Cabernet Paste and all match perfectly with good quality cheeses. The renowned Verjuice is also available.
Maggie has written three books drawing on her own philosophy of quality product and the pleasures of the table � Maggie�s Farm, Maggie�s Orchard and Maggie�s Table, published in September 2001, is devoted to her love of food and the Barossa. It won the Best Regional Cook Book in English and then against all other languages in the Gourmand World Cook Book Awards at Perigord in France in December 2001. Maggie has consummated a fascination with verjuice and complied it into the book Cooking with Verjuice, published in Australia by Penguin in 2001,
Grubstreet UK 2001 and now in paperback. With Stephanie Alexander she wrote Stephanie and Maggie�s Tuscan Cookbook, chronicling their Italian cooking school experiences, which has been translated into 5 languages and has been published in America.
The following products will be available in the U.S.:
Quince Paste (retail price: $ 4.00) One of the first pastes Maggie created was quince because of the trees she first found growing wild near the Pheasant Farm Restaurant. Their wonderful perfume and flavor go beautifully with Mediterranean-inspired dishes.
Blood Plum Paste (retail price: $ 4.00) Blood plums are the basis for another favorite Beer paste. The blood plum�s sharp, intense flavor seemed a natural because of its affinity to game birds.
Fig Paste (retail price: $4.00) Fig paste is exceptionally special in that the fig growers make a tremendous commitment to Maggie each fig season. They pick through their trees every second day to ensure that these fragile fruit are picked at the height of ripeness. By preserving them fresh, they later make an excellent accompaniment to cheese, the filling for the center of a dark bitter chocolate truffle or as an additive to stuffings for poultry or lamb.
Cabernet Paste (retail price: $4.00) Maggie considers her Cabernet Paste to be the crown jewel of the collection. In addition to their other endeavors, the Beers have been grape growers in the Barossa Valley for over thirty years. They developed a method for extricating the seed from the grape and are now making an exquisite paste that�s full of intense varietal flavors. It pairs beautifully with a piquant blue cheese.
Verjuice 375ml (retail price $ 9.00) Made from grapes grown in the Barossa Valley, Maggie Beer�s Verjuice has become renowned in Australian culinary circles. Used a deglazing agent, in numerous sauces and mustards, this product that was created during medieval times is enjoying a Renaissance of sorts now both here and abroad. Serious and novice chefs alike will marvel at the way it enhances everything it�s used for.
Burnt Fig Jam and Others (retail price $9.50) Another of Maggie�s icon products is her Burnt Fig Jam. It started when Maggie, a young girl, watched her dear mother accidentally burn the jam only to find it gave this product a wonderful caramelized flavor that Maggie has reproduced for years. The jam range is now complete with the addition of Strawberry, Apricot, Blood Plum and a Seville Marmalade that simply has no peer.
For more information about Maggie Beer�s Export Kitchen call The Cheese Works at 800.962.1220 or visit www.maggiebeer.com.au. For other information about Maggie Beer and South Australia, contact the South Australian Tourism Commission at 888.768.8428 or visit www.southoz.com on the web. Maggie Beer will also be exhibiting at the Fancy Food Show, New York from 27 � 29 June 2004. Visit her at booth #2772.
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Media Contact: Trisha Cole +1 323.656.2224 trisha@wagstaffworldwide.com