Maggie Beer will be in Canberra later this month to speak about how good nutrition can reduce the risk of dementia and her campaign to improve food in aged care facilities.

Less a celebrity chef and more a national institution, Beer will bring to the table her years of promoting fresh, simple, nourishing food at the business breakfast for  Alzheimer's Australia ACT.

She and dietician Ngaire Hobbins will present their views on nutrition and mental wellbeing across all age groups at the Gather 'Round the Table event on August 29 from 7am to 9am at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Tickets are available at https://act.fightdementia.org.au/

Beer has formed the Maggie Beer Foundation to  "bring about life-altering change to the well-being of the elderly by having access to food full of flavour and nutrients" . She advocates simple food not a million miles from the Mediterranean diet with its focus on vegetables of every hue, oily fish, legumes, wholegrains, herbs and good fats.

The foundation promotes breakthroughs in research and shares policy ideas with aged care providers, preferring to shine a light on those doing the right thing rather than those failing their residents. 

"There are lots of good places, and they are the ones we should talk about. There are lots of bad places too. But the way to change things is to talk about the good places and show how others can be too," she said.

Beer said the foundation particularly focused on helping dementia patients have access to good food - full of flavour and nutrients - but also food that was not intimidating.

"There needs to be small bites of food they can pick up so they're not embarrassed if they can't remember how to use a knife and fork. There needs to be food that are small bites but carry such a punch of nutrition and pleasure. They need cues on when to eat from the smells of food. So, it's often the small things," she said.

"It needs to be fresh and home-cooked. Home-cooked food is so important because it evokes memories."

She is not deterred about being up against an industry where mass-produced, efficient food might be easier and cheaper to provide.

"They'll be people like that and we hope to turn them around eventually," she said.

"But the ones we work with now, are the ones who want to change and just want ideas and stimulation and training to be able to change.

"There are not many people that we come across, and perhaps we are dealing with those who put their hand up because they want to do better, but most people want to do better if they've given the 'how' and that's really important to me."

Beer said it was being named Senior Australian of the Year in 2010 which led her down the path to forming the foundation, rather than any personal, family experience with dementia.

"One of the 900 requests that year was to present a keynote speech to 1000 CEOS of aged care," she said.

"Of course I did research and I found great and terrible [facilities]. It took a few years to realise what I could do because I thought I'd be able to convince the government to do something.

"Then I realise I had to be responsible for doing anything I could and that was the birth of the foundation."

Teaming up with Professor Ralph Martins, a leading alzheimer's researcher, Beer is launching in October a new cookbook, Maggie's Recipe for Life, providing recipes for optimum brain health.

The proceeds from Maggie's Recipe for Life will be shared between the Maggie Beer Foundation and the Lions Alzheimer's Research Foundation. 

"It's for everybody, food for everyone to protect our brains from dementia," she said.

So what should we go home tonight and cook?

"I guess at the moment it's pretty cold and there's fantastic root vegetables about. Sweet potato and parsnips and turnips, as well as pumpkin, roasted and then tossed with fresh herbs from the garden and extra virgin olive oil," she said.

"And then maybe some lentils you've cooked in some stock and toss the lentils to make it a warm salad.

"If it was for lunch, it could be a piece or rye bread or sourdough bread with a tin of sardines and a squeeze of lemon and some grated beetroot.

"This is about every coloured vegetable, it's about the Mediterranean diet, it's about oily fish - sardines, tuna, salmon. It's simple, basic, beautiful food. No processed food.

"Limit the amount of sugar. But don't deny. Have beautiful bread. Have butter. It's basic food packed with flavour and packed with choice. The more variety you have in your diet, the better."

And Maggie is not about banning dessert, especially for an older generation who grew up with it.

"But what you can do is give [older people] desserts fortified with milk powder so you make a custard out of eggs and cream and milk powder and then you cook fruit with honey and it's beautiful," she said.

"So everything you cook, particularly for the aged, you think, 'How can I give the maximum nutrition and maximum flavour and maximum pleasure side by side?'. That's the essence."

And when she's in Canberra, she does look forward to catching up with old friend and local cooking legend, Janet Jeffs. Jeffs came to cook for Beer and kick-started what would become the famed Pheasant Farm Restaurant in the Barossa Valley.

"Janet Jeffs is very special to me," Beer said.

"Janet really taught me a lot about cooking in a restaurant because I started one without any experience and Janet came and worked for me for a couple of years and that was seminal in my education."