I love a bit of cheese - this usually is the discussion around my musical tastes, my choice of dessert and most of my wardrobe.... cheese, cheese, cheese.
But then I have the luxury of a couple of glasses of fizz, whilst people I have never heard of get awards... and I clap like I am at the golf. Alla Wolf Tasker - the perfect MC given her passion for regional food and the artisan approach to making stuff. She is the chef/owner of the Lakehouse in Daylesford, and was awarded an AM for her services to food. Rightly deserved as well.
I wondered if I would be excited for categories of 'dairy' that were deserving of awards. I wasn't sure but then, I am a tart for an award show so in the spirit of it being Australia's Cheese Oscars, I got amongst it.
Sadly the winners were drawn from the usual bunch. The major players in the industry were rewarded for having the monopolies they have - National Foods, Fonterra and Bulla. But there were some nice surprises and I think the most gracious of the recipients was one of the two Grand Champion Fatty Poobah awards.
Gundowring Finest Ice cream is a small family operated business attached to a dairy farm in NE Victoria. They run a dairy farm and there are a few interested family members making ice cream. The Licorice ice cream was the winner and I think this is fantastic news given the lack of recognition for small producers. Snaps to them - they are deserving to say the least.
As for the cheese winner of the fatty Poobah awards for Grand Champion - this is like the gold logie with no Bert Newton - it went to Tasmania's Heritage Brand for their Red Square washed rind cheese. Stinky, gooey and all things cheesy goodness, but I would have awarded the trophy elsewhere. With no disrespect to the winners, I think we produce extraordinary cheese in tiny places with amazing results.... Maybe I am being parochial because I am from Victoria, who produce 75% of the nations dairy products.
Anyways, a great afternoon, some reasonable Aussie fizz, some lovely people and I am looking forward even more now to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival where I can bump into even more lovely folk and wax lyrical about all things food.
In the meantime, The Wicked Brie is exceptional, Yarra Valley Dairy's Persian Fetta sublime, and Doonybrook's Pastorello to be sought out immediately.
Bring on the cheese, or as Peter Russel Clark once said, 'Where's the Cheese?'
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