ICCA Chefs Tour Australia with Red Meat Industry Leaders

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) hosted five chefs from the USA on a tour featuring Australia’s leading beef and lamb ranches, processors and some of the country/continent’s top restaurants. It might sound exhausting traveling half way around the world (30 hours door-to-door); then leaving for the airport at 4:30 the next morning to board yet another plane; landing and immediately boarding a bus to a feed lot and ending the day with another 3.5 hour bus ride to another destination for dinner.  Trust me it was worth every minute! Stephen Bulgarelli, Senior Director of Global Innovation for Chili’s International and Rick Wolff, Director of Culinary Standards/Corporate Chef for HMS Host were invited along with three chefs from independent restaurants. Bill and Yvonne Kim owner-operators of three Korean influenced casual restaurants in Chicago: San Francisco chef and Moroccan cuisine expert Mourad Lahlou from Aziza and Dirk Flanigan, former executive chef of The Gage and Henri in Chicago, who plans to open the first of several Italian restaurants there in the next year were joined by Plate Editor Chandra Ram and Elissa Garling, Business Development Manager – Foodservice for MLA to learn from Australia’s Red Meat industry leaders.

From the first day we witnessed the extreme level of commitment the farmers, ranchers and processors have to ensure the best quality products leave their country for the enjoyment of red meat consumers throughout the world. Day one featured a tour of the Australian Agriculture Company in Emerald, the country’s largest producer of Wagyu beef, where we first witnessed the care they have for the animal’s stress level.  They do not have national requirements for these animals to have shade, but they do it to produce a higher grade product. They also are one of the most sustainable companies I have ever seen in this industry.  They grow a significant percentage of the grain that they feed the herd and they process it every day so that it is as fresh as possible.  This helps the daily take rate increasing the animal’s body weight and eventually that leads to better marbling. “What I thought was fantastic was the amount of personal care that goes into the cattle and lamb, and to see the smaller farms was really nice. The quality of the Wagyu we has was phenomenal, stated Stephen Bulgarelli, Senior Director Global Culinary Innovation for Chili’s International. The next day was a unique experience as we loaded four-wheel drives to trek across the country to Marlborough to visit five families of ranchers who produce some of Australia’s famous grass-fed beef. The 45-minute drive after we left the paved road was stunning with kangaroos and Wallabies in the wild only to find out that that entire expanse was owned by Ray & Leah Vella the farmers hosting us.  Some owned hundreds of thousands of acres and two brothers had to use helicopters to visit each other’s farms or check fences daily.  We learned that this particular area of Australia works for grass-fed cattle because of the growing condition and the types of grass that will thrive there.  The one that offers the best nutrition is actually native to North America called buffalo grass. We toured two processing facilities, Teys Beef Processing plant in Beenleigh, Queensland and JBS in Brooklyn, Victoria.  JBS is a beef and Lamb processing facility; all were state-of-the-art facilities who took time to show us each and every aspect of the processing facility.  One of the fine dining chefs on our trip was interested in getting closer to the kill floor, so they escorted all who were interested to get within a few feet of the activity and answered every question we had about their system.  The facilities are clean, technologically advanced and extremely efficient.  In fact we were all intrigued by the technology including a machine that ties the lamb roll. One of the amazing statistics they shared with us was the fact that they can ship frozen or fresh product to Los Angeles cheaper than they can by ground to most cities within Australia. Other facts that were fascinating surrounded their Wagyu beef.  The care and attention given to these animals in order to yield the top quality grade is a combination of science and love for the animal. When I asked one farmer what the average cost of feed was for his Grade 9 Sher Wagyu Sirloin we tasted at a dinner at Chateau Yering, Nich Sher stated, “The average cost of feed for our top end Wagyu is approximately $1500.00 per animal to achieve the quality we want to achieve.” That dinner featured perhaps the best beef I have ever tasted in my life. Chef Matthew Macartney first used sous vide to hold the six ounce portion to the perfect 135 degree temperature and then flash seared it before serving it to us with a Perigord Truffle Jus and roasted baby vegetables. The highlight of that region was earlier in the day when we visited the most amazing ranch that farmed sheep, cattle and grapes. The Yeringberg Winery and Stables were built in 1887 and the fourth generation family living there today has kept the traditions alive including award winning wines and quality lamb that is menued throughout the famous Yarra Valley and major cities in Australia. Farmer David de Pury put us in their “ute” (Australian for utility vehicle) and drove us across their multi-use property where we witnessed their Border Collie herd sheep, watched a frustrated bull jump a fence and even tasted the grapes as we walked through their vineyard. The winery is in the basement of the original building with a balance between new equipment and relics form the past.  Their wine was fantastic and during the rest of our trip we noticed it on many of the menus in the fine dining restaurants we visited. The highlights of the trip included some of the chefs we met along the way and how we were treated by everyone.  Australia is one of the best trips anyone can take as an American.  There is no language barrier, they truly appreciate tourists and the restaurants are amazingly good. Their names of beef cuts and cooking styles do vary somewhat from what we are accustomed to, but in a good way. In Brisbane we had the most amazing lunch at Pony Dining.  It was more than just a meal, with a lamb butchery demonstration by MLA butcher Doug Piper and a creative menu by Chef Damien Heads.  We enjoyed whole lamb cooked on a wood burning spit in the middle of the restaurant. No this is not an old historic property, this is a state-of-the-art restaurant in the middle of the financial district. One night in Melbourne we were treated to a progressive dinner with chefs from through that region many of whom are Australian TV celebrities. For lunch one day there we were treated to a Lamb Master Class by Chef Shane Delia, one of the best know celebrity chefs on the continent and an expert on Middle Eastern Cooking. This was an advance trip to see how well our members would be open to the educational opportunities offer by the Australian Meat & Livestock producers.  In my opinion, it was one of the best educational tours I have ever been on in a foreign country.  I can’t wait to go back and continue my education. – Kevin Ryan, ICCA Executive Director Click here for a brief video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GT7zSlqWEw