A Dream Lunch for Steak-loving London Chefs

We took over Omnino Steakhouse in Leadenhall Street, London on Monday 15th May to introduce London to the joys of Aussie Beef matured in an Italian ageing machine and cooked by a group of Brazilian chefs. 60 invited guests got their fill of some of the best steaks in the world.

It’s the sort of thing we’re becoming known for at The Chefs’ Forum and you can expect an invite to a city near you soon because we’re taking the concept on the road.

Here’s what happened. The Aussie Beef Mates Meat Feast featured an incredible array of steaks from down under:

JBS Aberdeen Black (Angus)

AAco Westholme Wagyu

Stockyard Wagyu

All these steaks, except for the bavette, were matured in a state-of-the-art Stagionello® dry ageing machine to specific settings. The Stagionello allows chefs to preset maturation to a pre-programmed PH, humidity, temperature and ventilation during the ageing process. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t.

Evandro Bottecchia, Head of Sales at DCI Maintenance Ltd, who supplies Stagionello®, said:

“The Stagionello® machine is a unique system for processing food transformation that uses PH control for meat maturation. It is possible to mature meat in a safe and controlled environment for up to 360 days without the use of any additives throughout the process.

It was great to work with Stephen and team at Meat and Livestock Australia to film the ageing process over the last four weeks and the results on the day were simply delicious.

“It is the only device of its kind which has a cold-flavouring system that uses no heat or combustion. This conserves all the properties of the food and results in zero toxic residues.

“The Stagionello® uses a homogenous ventilation system that can result in a 14% loss of moisture during the curing process and comes with a training course and a scientific consultancy.”

The chefs also got to try a wet-aged version of each cut – The room was split as to which they preferred, but it was an excellent opportunity to showcase the latest technology in dry ageing, compared to the flavour achieved with wet ageing.

The steaks were cooked to perfection by the assembled Brazilian chefs who know a thing or two about how to cook meat. They also knocked up some pretty impressive sides:

Aussie Beef Mates Sides

Dessert

Wines were sponsored by Australian Winery, Brown Brothers

Stephen Edwards, UK Business Manager, Meat and Livestock Australia said:

“This was a great event and it really showed how incredible and versatile Aussie Beef really is. A huge thanks to The Chefs’ Forum for pulling it all together. One of the biggest attributes of Australian beef is its consistent eating quality due to our grading systems and pathways, the various cuts of steak were beautifully cooked by expert Brazilian chefs with some really delicious sides.

“We were also really impressed with the guest list that Catherine and the team assembled for us, they really do have great connections. Not only chefs from Michelin restaurants but also chefs from high-volume steak restaurants who really enjoyed what we have spent years building in Australia. First class. As the AUS/UK Free Trade Agreement comes in on June 1 this year we will see more variety of Aussie beef cuts finding its way to the high-quality foodservice UK market”

Chefs’ Forum Director Catherine Farinha said: “As a business, we are all about education. It was a pleasure to work with Aussie Beef and through our network we were able to assemble a dream team and really show off this incredible product. It went so well we are already working on taking the show on the road.”

Eduardo Barsotti, Owner of Omnino Steakhouse said

“It was a fantastic event and we really loved inviting the guest chefs into our kitchen to cook for 60 London chefs.  There was a real sense of community and the produce was of an amazing standard.  Omnino is a celebration of top-quality steak and our loyal customer base comes here expecting the very best.  We look forward to welcoming the visiting chefs back again soon.”

Photography by New Era.