Produce Awards
The 2019 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards celebrate Australia’s best producers and their innovation and work behind the country’s top ethical, sustainable and innovative ingredients. Here, we present the winners of this year’s competition.
Presenting the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award winners.
Maggie Beer is struggling with her apricot trees back in the Barossa: “The bore water is too salty. If we get rain, they will be okay,” she explains from her seat at the tasting table in Sydney. She and her nine fellow judges are about to embark on a marathon two days of tasting as they put their bodies on the line to unearth the country’s most forward-thinking producers. “It’s a science – the soil, the water, everything,” offers Shannon Bennett.
Due to taste more than 100 products in two consecutive days, the 10 people sitting around this table – with its compulsory ‘lazy Susan’ for Colin Fassnidge’s annual selfiespin – are some of the country’s food pioneers; experienced and dedicated purveyors of quality produce, produce they know is often challenging for their producers to deliver.
But while it’s serious business, it’s also jovial, the joy of excellent food bringing forth tales of the judges’ most memorable meals this year and the ingredients they covet – some swiping items from the table – alongside the usual bickering between Matt Moran and Alla Wolf-Tasker as she repeatedly calls for order and puts him in his place.
“I think this lot is from Byron Bay,” Peter Gilmore guesses. Nothing if not competitive, the practised palates try to guess the producer at every presentation of product. It’s something to behold, this raucous crew, as passionate about cheese as they are the latest in sustainable veal. They will go into a frenzy over the best seafood and Instagram-mad for a table of seasonal produce. And we blame them none.
There’s a hunger in the room as day two draws to a close – unsurprisingly, not for more food, but to get their teeth into the reason they are all here: the final and conclusive debate. The verdict? Seafood is getting stronger. Cheese is growing in the category and it’s better than ever before. The variety of vegetables is outstanding. And meats outside of the usual are finally beginning to shine.
They have made careers out of treating the best produce with the highest level of respect, and they are under no illusion that their suppliers, these producers the
delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards set out to celebrate and reward, are a major contributing factor to their own success. It has never been more important than now to know your producer. Congratulations to all of the incredible winners that follow.