Fame’s reward for
IN a rare escape from their own kitchens, five of Tasmania’s top chefs are preparing to poke, prod, taste and judge some of the state’s top produce this week.
Franklin’s Analiese Gregory, Aloft’s Christian Ryan and Glenn Byrnes, A Tiny Place’s Philippe Leban and The Agrarian Kitchen’s Rodney Dunn will sample the best from dairy, earth, paddock and sea as part of the National Delicious Produce Awards.
Dairy contenders will include Mount Cygnet Dairy and Tongola Cheese, and earth and paddock producers will include Tunnel Hill Mushrooms, the Wellington Apiary, York Town Organics, Big River Highland Beef, Huon Valley Berkshires, Pounsley Park Quail Eggs and Springfield Deer Farm. Seafood entrants include Ashmores Southern Fish Markets and The Oyster Province.
“The award finalists from each state end up dominating restaurant menus around the country for the next year,” Delicious editor-in-chief Kerrie McCallum says.
“That cheese you are eating, or the kangaroo, or the chicken or the goose, the chef has probably discovered from our awards.
“That’s where the trend starts bubbling away. You see a particular ingredient, or chicken eaten a certain way. It becomes a talking point. And then those trends start to trickle down to the main- stream. It may not happen straight away but what happens in restaurants does make it to home tables.”
Products such as the vacuum-packed mussels from Kinkawooka in Port Lincoln first came to national attention in the delicious awards. Now they are a common sight in restaurants and fish shops in many states.
The same applies to the cheeses from Holy Goat in Victoria or the beef of Blackmore wagyu or Mayura Station.
Restaurateur and chef Matt Moran, a judge and ambassador for the Delicious awards, believes they give producers a well-deserved showcase.
“Australian food culture is where it is now because of these producers,” he says. “Food brands are so much more important now and, by naming certain producers, once they become known in the marketplace, people seek them out. They know there is a stamp of quality attached to that brand.”
The awards also have the benefit of lifting the standard nationally, McCallum says.
“Our judges are the crème de la crème of the industry. If they judge a product to be a winner then that is the benchmark. That is what all the producers strive for.”
She also believes the awards have helped put topics such as the sourcing and ethics of food on the agenda.
“Home cooks are learning that minimal intervention is great and you only need a few pieces of good produce to make a great meal,” she says. “That talking point of where your food came from, the story behind it, eating local, eating sustainable, those things are ... not just a niche conversation any more.”
Moran agrees. “People want to know what they are putting in their mouths now,” he says. “They want to know how it has been bred, handled, raised and how ethical it is. People care about food more and their knowledge has increased so much. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Moran has seen how the awards have helped producers build the scale of their business and get a better return for their hard work.
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