YOUR SERVING - Food Mitch Part 2 -151225

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. It's both today and we're talking with Mitch Spong,
who's the GM of Operations from the Royal Agricultural Society
of Tasmania and we're talking to Fine Food Awards. Now,
how did the awards go this year? Because we just
had a lot of people pick up gold medal, silver medals,
the works.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah. So we had over two hundred people at our
awards dinner, which links with the Wine Show, and that
was a really great night. We had a lot of
people there in the room and a lot of award
winners are there to accept their trophies.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
What's lovely is that people get to try some of
the products the one So whether it's the wine, whether
it's the food, it's always something delightful that you might
not have necessarily had the opportunity to come into contact
with before. You also get to recognize the people who
have excelled. Quite often, these are trophies that are sort
of kind of the best of the best, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Absolutely, So we do the judging through the year and
as those sections get charged, we announced what the champion
of each section is, so Champion Bred, Champion jam etc.
And then at the dinner we announced the four major
trophies which link all the different sections together.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So what are the four major trophies that everyone vies for.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
So we've got the Best in Exhibiting Show, which is
the Richard Langdon Trophy, We've got the Chairs Trophy, the
Best Tasmanian Exhibit and the Minister's Encouragement Award. Well let's
start at the top, the Richard Langdon Trophy. Yeah, who
took out the Richardlyon show yep, so that was for Woolworth,
So major company for their hands. So hopefully that Christmas
this year we can all eat the ham and see

(01:21):
the gold medal sticker on it.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
It really is quite impressive and I know a lot
of the time people think that depending on where you
go you're going to get certain quality, but it's all
blind tasting, so this isn't down to the fact that
it's a big produce. So they've managed to get the
quality right.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Up absolutely, So anytime judging is taking place, the judges
don't get to see any of the packaging. They have
no idea where it came from, so it's all completely anonymous.
So really good to see a major company like that
was producing such high quality product.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
The next one's the Chairs Trophy. What does the chairs
trophy the Chairman's Trophy represent.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
So the chair of the committee basically gets to choose
something that was judged throughout the year which might have
been a bit unique or something that didn't quite win
it a trophy in its section, but he really liked
the look of it. So it's completely up to him
with that one.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So that could be absolutely anything at all.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
It could be absolutely anything. So this year frais named
Marine farm one for their instant spicy muscle soup, but
next year it could be something completely different.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
I know frasin A and that area has some amazing
quality stuff that goes on. There are these people who
have been strong contenders in years past, or this year
just happens to be the year that they've really leapt ahead.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
They've entered many times before and we have a lot
of businesses from the East Coast enter every year, so
I guess it was just something that stood out for
the chair this year.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
We also had the best Tasmanian Exhibit, so that was
one by nice guy Eddie Gilato for their passion Fruit sawbet.
And we had the Minister's Encouragement Award which is won
by lack of chocolate years.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Now, first of all, we'll go with the passion fruit sawbet.
It is one of my all time favorite things. If
you get passion fruit done right in like an ice
cream or a sawbet, it is literally second to night.
It's one of the best things on the planet. Have
you managed to have a taste of it?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I have as pretty delicious if I'm honest.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah right, it really melts in your mouth. We've got
such a nice flavor, and particularly I guess if you
were to pair it up with lack of chocolate. I've
had several different lack of chocolates, and I know they
make really nice santas that are kind of molded that
you can have every Christmas, which is really good quality
and worth every cent, particular if you don't know what
to get someone for Christmas.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
So yeah, and both come from really good Tasmanian companies,
so both available for everyone to have this Christmas time.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
It seems like Tasmania has done quite well as far
as all the awards are concerned. But would you say
that Tasmania it is really where we'd be punching above
our weight.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
If you would definitely, yeah, probably over fifty percent of
our trophies a one by Tasmanian companies, which is great
to see given the amount of entries we get from
the mainland. We definitely punch above our weight, the same
as what we do in the Wan show.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Excellent, that's what I like to hear. All Right, we'll
come back. We'll talk a bit more about the Fine
Food Awards with Mitch Spong, the gm of Operations for
the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania.