Australian Bacon Awards and Bacon Week
and the decadence of a $120 bacon & egg roll
Australian Bacon Week (12–19 May) is the celebration of true, blue Aussie bacon. And with it comes the announcement of the winners of the National Bacon Awards for Excellence - and Australia’s most expensive bacon and egg roll.
It is often said that bacon is the meat that will tempt vegetarians to follow the carnivorous path back to sal(i)vation. And this is the week to do it.
But some two thirds of the bacon sold in Australia is made from imported, subsidised pork. That equates to over 2.9 million kilograms of foreign pig meat – $9.9 million worth – arriving in Australia every week destined for processing into smallgoods like bacon. Australian Bacon Week is an initiative to highlight the pink square PorkMark label – the only guaranteed way consumers can choose 100 per cent pure home grown Australian bacon.
Australia’s Best Bacon, as well as other national and state winners will be officially announced at a breakfast function in Sydney on Monday 13 May. Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge will host the event at his restaurant, 4Fourteen, which most recently was the Comeback Kitchen where he was the industry judge on Channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules.
Australia’s most decadent bacon and egg roll will be unveiled at that breakfast. During Australian Bacon Week Colin Fassnidge will be featuring what is arguably Australia’s most decadent bacon and egg roll on his menu at 4Fourteen and a more modest version at all three of his restaurants: 4Fourteen, 4inhand and Paddington Arms.
Exactly what’s in Australia’s the most expensive bacon and egg roll? It will boast the award-winning Australian bacon, duck egg cooked in truffle butter, roasted foie gras, 18-month cave-aged cheddar, shaved truffle, semi dried smoked gourmet truss tomato with a crème fraîche and caviar dressing, served on a brioche bun.
Australian Pork Limited (APL) is issuing a challenge to Australia’s chefs to create their own version of the most decadent bacon and egg roll to match the Fassnidge masterpiece.
First respondents to the challenge have been Boston and Grasshopper who will offer customers both a high priced and a more modest priced bacon and egg roll. Their premium rolls will include specialty locally made bacon, organic duck egg, Pino's lardo, house made black pudding, scallops, vanilla and fig on a 'Golden' brioche bun. Chefs Lauren Murdoch at The 3 Weeds and Paul Bishop at Bishop Sessa are already bending their minds to their Aussie bacon-lead creations.
Throughout Australian Bacon Week various butchers and supermarkets around the country will also be featuring PorkMark labeled Australian bacon.
Currently, there are 384 butchers and smallgoods producers licensed to champion the PorkMark on their products. Since the inception of Australian Bacon Week in 2010, the number of licensees nationwide has continued to grow, reflecting the growing push from the Australian public to identify and buy local Australian grown produce.
The National Bacon Awards for Excellence judging panel comprised fleishmeister Horst Schurger, who has a Master’s degree in Butchering and Smallgoods from the Master College in Mönchengladbach Germany and two chefs, Paul McDonald and Simon Bestley. Between them, McDonald and Bestley have broad international experience working in Michelin starred restaurants, cruise liners and premier teaching institutions.
For the media release and national winners, click here.
For a list of Bacon Week promotions, click here.
2013 National Bacon Awards for Excellence
Entries close 25 March 2013.
Judging will take place on 4-5 April 2013.
Competition Terms and Conditions are found here.
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2012 National Bacon Week
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Media Release - Wake up and Smell the Bacon - to view click here.
Announcing the winners of the country's best bacon rasher for 2012 Bacon Awards for Excellence... Congratulations Schulz Butchers of Angaston South Australia for winning Australia's Best Bacon!
79 organisations submitted 115 entries in the categories of full rasher and short cut bacon for the 2012 Australian PorkMark National Awards for Excellence.
The bacon was then assessed in both raw and cooked form by three eminent judges against various criteria such as appearance, aroma, curing, taste and shrinkage.
The judges for the Awards for Excellence are two chefs with broad international experience including working in Michelin starred restaurants, cruise liners and premier teaching institutions, and a Fleischmeister with a Masters degree in Butchering and Smallgoods from the Master College in Monchen Gladbach Germany.
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