Australian Bacon Week: Media Launch, Sydney (7 March 2011)

Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Bayside Level 2
Darling Drive, Darling Harbour NSW 2000
http://www.pork.com.au

Waking up to Australian bacon

During Australian Bacon Week, 7 –13 March, hundreds of licensees around the country will be conducting in-store promotions which include bacon taste testing, price promotions as well as Australian bacon buy one get one free specials among other localised events.

Thanks to Stewart White from Whiteworks Public Relations for inviting me along to this Australian Pork media launch held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre with great views over Darling Habour and the city skyline. There are only a few things in life that will get me up early in the morning such as an International flight or a big road trip to avoid traffic and the possibility of some free bacon seems to be on this small list — although I do know it’s a normal time for the rest of the working world to be getting up. Today the 8 am event was for the much loved and adored bacon — and more importantly for the 100% Australian variety. Apparently there are currently 293 butchers and smallgoods producers licensed to display the PorkMark on their products. Since the inception of Australian Bacon Week in 2010, the number of licensees nationwide has more than doubled which I'm sure will all help to educate the public.

To help fill the early morning stomachs a few bacon inspired canapés were served up with orange juice and surprisingly decent coffee — although a simple bacon and egg roll would have sufficed for me like the one in the poster. The savoury English style bacon and pumpkin scone with chive mascarpone had small pieces of bacon throughout which were only slightly noticeable. I couldn’t quite taste the bacon in the Bacon and hazelnut focaccia with rosemary tapenade but it was freshly made and quite tasty. For a fuller tasting bacon experience the Pistachio and cognac chipolata wrapped in green bacon was cooked in the function room which attracted other conference attendees to accidently walk in from adjoining functions — probably due to the distinctive alluring bacon smell. 'Green' bacon actually means fresh bacon rather than being green in colour, which I actually thought it might have been — silly me. I would have loved a bit of tomato relish dipping sauce with it. I thought the Mini bacon and quail egg flan with goats curd and green olive pesto was also good and just the right size to enjoy a couple or more — an all-in-one bacon and egg tasting experience.

A couple of the NSW State level winners for the Full Rasher category were present to receive their awards. John Stojkovic from Pronto Smallgoods and Butchery in Carramar received 3rd place and Jason Rooke from Coota Valley Meats in Engadine received 2nd place. I wish we had the opportunity to sample the winning bacons somehow, simply cooked up and served in all their natural tastiness — maybe next year. At the end of the event all attendees received a goodie cooler bag of some of the National winning Schulz Smokehouse Bacon from Barossa Fine Foods — a weekend breakfast treat is now in hand.

OVERALL WINNER
Australia’s Best Bacon: Barossa Fine Foods, Schulz Butchers – Elizabeth West SA

National winners - Full Rasher
1st - Metcalf Quality Meats, Evans Head NSW
2nd - Coota Valley Meats, Engadine NSW
3rd - Pronto Smallgoods and Butchery, Carramar NSW

National winners - Low Fat
1st - Barossa Fine Foods, Schulz Butchers, Elizabeth West SA
2nd - Stamfords of Brentwood, Brentwood WA
3rd - Kanmantoo Bacon Company, Kanmantoo SA

For a complete list of 2011 winners click here.

Other National Bacon Week Launch events:
• 7 March 2011 – Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
• 15 March 2010 – Pendolino media launch

English style bacon and pumpkin scone with chive mascarpone

Bacon and hazelnut focaccia with rosemary tapenade

Pistachio and cognac chipolata wrapped in green bacon

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Mini bacon and quail egg flan with goats curd and green olive pesto

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Orange juice

Cappuccino and Mocha — both decently made with little bitterness, didn't need to add any sugar

Hot chocolate — nice flavour and not too sweet

Coffee and cooking station

Alyce and Stewart getting a sneaky photo of the bacon cooking

Andrew Spencer, Stuart White and Martin Carr getting ready for announcement of Australia's Best Bacon

Speech time

Martin Carr, Australian PorkMark program

Andrew Spencer, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Pork

NSW State Awards: John Stojkovic (left) from Pronto Smallgoods and Butchery receives 3rd place Full Rasher; Jason Rooke (right) from Coota Valley Meats receives 2nd Place Full Rasher

Goodie bag sample: Australia's Best Bacon 1st Place National Winner - Schulz Smokehouse Bacon from Barossa Fine Foods, Schulz Butchers

Nice balcony view of Darling Harbour and city skyline

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Home cooking: Australia's best bacon with Tetsuya's creamed corn scrambled eggs (20 Mar 2010)

Schulte's Meat Tavern
4424 Warrego Hwy, Plainland QLD 4341

Australia's Best Bacon & Chef

I've really been looking forward to cooking up my Schulte's Meat Tavern Bacon Rashers which I received at the Bacon Week Launch this week — they were judged as Australian's best bacon. In honor of cooking up the best bacon I thought of combining it with one of Australia's best chef recipes. I recently read about the Tetsuya's Electrolux Masterclass on The Stone Soup and how he demonstrated using creamed corn with scrambled eggs. I totally forgot about including ricotta and Parmesan but nevertheless I was happy with the tasty result. I used Popes Vegetarian Free Range Eggs with Golden Circle Creamed Corn. There were still some corn kernels present in the mix but they gave a bit of a nice texture to the bite. I used two tablespoons with four eggs.

Other pork products sampled:

• Prosciutto - San José Smallgoods

• Guanciale - Campisi's Continental Butchery

• Rosemary pancetta - Montecatini Speciality Smallgoods

• Bacon Rashers - Schulte's Meat Tavern

Schulte's Meat Tavern Bacon Rashers ready for grilling

Golden Circle Creamed Corn and Popes Free Range eggs

Popes Vegetarian Free Range Eggs $4.99 800g (Royal Randwick Fruitmarket)



Creamed corn scrambled eggs with crispy bacon, Chef Leong :-)

Pendolino: Australia's Best Bacon Awards - Bringing home the bacon, Sydney (15 Mar 2010)

Shop 100, Level 2, The Strand Arcade
412-414 George Street, Sydney 2000
http://www.pendolino.com.au

You had me at 'bacon'

Tonight's tasting table looked very much like a custom officers worst nightmare at Sydney Airport but they would have had nothing to fear as all the pork products were completely produced in Australia. The dimly lit Olive Oil room at Pendolino was the chosen venue for announcing the winners of Australia’s best bacon, in the nation’s first ever Bacon Week, 15 – 21 March. The pork industry producer’s body, Australian Pork Limited (APL), launched the initiative to highlight the pink square Australian PorkMark – the only guaranteed way you can choose 100 per cent home grown and manufactured bacon. This initiative came about because Australia’s pork industry continues to face huge challenges from the massive amounts of frozen pork landing in Australia from highly subsidised agricultural countries like Denmark, Canada and the United States. In fact 70 per cent of bacon, ham and smallgoods products bought in Australia are made from overseas subsidised pork.

APL CEO Andrew Spencer says: “Traditional Australian grocery labeling laws are vague. Commonly used terms such as ‘Made in Australia’ can be used on products that can contain imported meat. This becomes very confusing for consumers. The pink Australian PorkMark is your guarantee of Australian origin. “To date we have one hundred and twenty one butchers and smallgoods manufacturers Australia wide that are licensed to display the PorkMark logo on their products, which are the finest smallgoods available in Australia.

The Awards For Excellence bacon competition was open to butchers and smallgoods processors who make bacon from 100 per cent Australian pork. There were 62 different bacons from 45 manufacturers around the country that were tasted and judged, in two categories, full rasher and low fat - the most consumed types of bacon. Each entry was judged on the curing process, aroma, texture, taste and shrinkage when cooked. The essential criteria in this competition was that the pork had to be sourced from Australian grown pig meat.

For some reason I really thought I was going to get to try some good old fashioned crispy fried bacon but alas there was none to be seen tonight. But it was very enlightening to see how many different types of pork products there were on the market and I tasted them all, twice. My memorable highlights were the Lardo (Cured Pork Backfat) pictured above from Pino's Dolce Vita (Sydney) which was amazingly melt-in-your-mouth and buttery — definitely not good for the arteries. The Pure Pork Salami from Borgo Smallgoods (Brisbane) and the Jamon from San Jose Smallgoods (Adelaide) with it's nice depth of flavour and softness also stood out for me. The prosciutto from Culatello Quattro Stelle (Sydney) was tasty and buttery soft. I could appreciate the nice flavours in the Weiswurst from Euro Master (Sydney) as well. I now have a goodie bag of all of them to try again including the winner of full rasher bacon from Schultes Meat Tavern (QLD) which I'm sure I'll appreciate this weekend for breakfast with scrambled eggs. I really enjoyed the wine choices from Piggs Peake of Super Tusker Sangiovese and Pork Barrel Viognier — a few more years on the Sangiovese would have rounded off the tannin nicely.

Winners are grinners

Over All
1st - Schultes Meat Tavern, Plainland QLD

2nd - Coota Valley Meats, Engadine NSW

3rd - Skara Smallgoods, Nairne SA

Full Rasher
1st - Schultes Meat Tavern, Plainland QLD

2nd - Coota Valley Meats, Engadine NSW

3rd - Skara Smallgoods, Nairne SA

Low Fat
1st - Willhome Farm Fresh Meats, Swan Hill Vic

2nd - Kanmantoo Bacon Company, Kanmantoo SA

3rd - Lucas Quality Meats, Bronte NSW

Other visits to Pendolino:

• 15 March 2010 - Bacon Week Launch

• 15 July 2009 - Vincisgrassi, Cotoletta alla milanese

Other National Bacon Week Launch events:
• 7 March 2011 – Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
• 15 March 2010 – Pendolino media launch

A big thanks to Stewart White from Whiteworks Public Relations for inviting me along to the launch.

Pork products sampled

Guanciale Campisi Butchery Sydney Cured Pork Cheek

Lardo Pino's Dolce Vita Sydney Cured Pork Backfat

Pure Pork Salami Borgo Smallgoods Brisbane

Weiswurst Euro Master Sydney White Sausage

Danish Salami Roberts Meats Hunter Valley Smoked Salami

Chorizo Barossa Farm Produce SA Berkshire Pork Sausage

Tartufo Quattro Stelle Sydney Lean Pure Pork Salami with shaved truffle

Coppa B RE & Sons Perth Cured Pork Neck

Smoked Round Ham Skara Smallgoods SA Full Muscled Boneless Leg Ham

Jamon San Jose Smallgoods Adelaide Spanish style serrano jamon

Prosciutto Fabbris Melbourne Fabbris' Signature Product

Culatello Quattro Stelle Sydney 'Little bum' the most prized part of the prosciutto

Lachs Schinken BB Products Sydney Dry-cured, air-dried boneless pork loin.

Pancetta Princi Perth Traditional Italian cured bacon

Non-Pork products

Piggs Peake Pork Barrel Viognier 2009, Piggs Peake Super Tusker Sangiovese 2008

Olives

Vegetable sticks

Cirtus dressing made with Agrumato oil

Olive oil

Pendolino

Outside view of balcony

Olive Oil Room

Tasting table

Restaurant dining room

Balcony view of The Strand Arcade

Spaghetti carbonara

Australian Pork

Martin Carr, Australian Pork

Andrew Spencer, Australian Pork

Friendly pork lovers

Natascha Moy (Food in Focus) and Kylie Roberts (Australian Pork)

Goodie Bag

How did they fit this all into that little bag I'll never know

WINNER

Bacon Rashers from Schulte's Meat Tavern, Plainland QLD

Princi Smallgoods Rolled Pancetta Mild

Quattro Stelle Culatello & Tartufo Salami

Fabbris Prosciutto

Campisi's Continental Butchery Guanciale

San José Smallgoods Premium Prosciutto

Robert's Meats Danish Salami

B. RE. & Sons Coppa Fermented

Skara Boneless Round Ham

Pinos Dolce Vita Lardo di Colonnata

BB Products Lachs Schinken

Borgo Smallgoods Pure Pork Sausage, Prosciutto Borgo

Euro Master Smallgoods: Weisswurst, Swiss Bratwurst, German/Swiss Cheese Sausage, Chabay/Czabia 'spicy' farm style

The Black Pig Hand made charcuterie

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