Fired-up with Aussie Beef Mate Luciana Berry!
Luciana and Catherine with Roger Kelsey (Secretary of the London Meat Traders Association)
Last weekend, Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire is hosted the UK’s largest BBQ and cooking festival, “Smoke & Fire – and The Chefs’ Forum’s Founder, Catherine Farinha was there on the main stage promoting Aussie Beef with ‘Aussie Beef Mate’ Luciana and the fabulous Shauna and Sam from Hang Fire BBQ.
Aussie Beef Mates are official ambassadors of Australian Beef around the world and Luciana has definitely earned her stripes in serving Aussie beef to guests at her high-profile private catering events for the rich and famous.
Luciana said
“I absolutely adore Aussie beef and wouldn’t use anything else. I blind-taste-tested it at the World Steak Awards and identified it as being the front runner among many different entrants and it went on to win a global accolade. The marbling is spot on, and the texture so silky that everyone always thinks it is fillet and not rump – I have had to show people the empty packaging to prove they are eating rump cap or picanha!”
TV Fire Chef Shauna played MC to the demo stage throughout the festival and her wife and fire stage partner Sam was on hand to support the demo chefs and entertain the ‘fire-foodie’ audience with her fabulous and fearless BBQ skills. Big K Products kindly sponsored the charcoal for the event and Luciana really enjoyed cooking on 100% Quebracho Restaurant Grade Charcoal.
Alex Kleanthous from Big K said
“We were the official fuel sponsor of the entire festival, but it was great to see The Chefs’ Forum represented at the show, complimenting our charcoal with the finest Aussie picanha, cooked by such a prolific chef as Luciana. We had fellow Chefs’ Forum Members Daren Liew and Sue Stoneman on our Big K stand rocking the coals and creating fabulous recipes; from skewers to cakes, mushrooms and Tomahawk steaks – We look forward to further collaboration in the future!”
In between judging the world butchery awards on the butchery stage, Luciana took to the fire stage with Catherine, Shauna and Sam to showcase Aussie picanha from AAco, the biggest Agricultural company in Australia, that owns 1% of the entire country, which is about the size of Belgium. The producer is Westholme Wagyu and this very special beef has a marble score of 4/5.
Luciana wowed the audience with her fabulous butchery skills, firstly trimming the picanha, then sealing it on the grill.
The picanha was then cut into steaks and returned to the grill, while Shauna jumped in to monitor the picanha, while Luciana rustled-up a delicious Feijão Tropeiro or Cowboy Bean side dish in an iron pan over live fire to accompany. Luciana was also selling this dish from her busy Brazilian BBQ stand and it went down a storm with the punters.
While all of the live-fire theatre was in full flow, Catherine took the opportunity to talk about the provenance of the Aussie beef and gave the audience the backstory, most importantly the meaning of Wagyu being Japanese cow!
The picanha is wet-aged for about 80 days and the Aussies are using Japanese breeds of cow and genetics. These animals have very goof traits of marbling and are grain fed for 250 days, spending most of their life running free in the fields.
They are finished in a feed lot, which is like a field with a shutter and they are fed lots of water and a special type of muesli, as specialist nutritionists dictate.
Catherine said
“It’s always fun to get on stage and promote our lovely Chefs’ Forum sponsors, Meat & Livestock Australia and was thrilled to be working with Luciana again – We make a great double act. Her Brazilian take on traditional BBQ is spectacular and she mixed it up perfectly in creating a beautiful Aussie picanha and ‘Feijão tropeiro’ or cowboy beans, a Brazilian bean dish typical of the Southeast region, made of beans, toasted manioc or casava flour and dried meat. It was a privilege to meet BBQ rockstars Shauna and Sam and I’m looking forward do doing this all again at the Maldon Smoke and Fire Festival on the 17th & 18th August!”
To find out more about Aussie beef, visit: www.aussiebeefandlamb.co.uk
Tickets to the Maldon Smoke & Fire Festival next month are available HERE.
