YOUR SERVING - Food Mitch Part 1 - 151225

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's seven h OFM and BO this morning. I'm lucky
enough to be joined by Mitch Spong, who is the
GM of Operations for the Fine Food Awards for the
Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Thanks for joining us, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Now how long have you been working with the Royal
Agricultural Society of Tasmania.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
About four years now across the whole company.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
And are you just a hardcore foody? Is that how
you got into this position to be able to work
with the Fine Food Awards?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Not really. I got roped in working on the Royal
Hobart Show first yep, and then now I work across
the Fine Food Awards, our wine show, the show, everything
that we do.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
So you graduated essentially then from dagwood Dogs and fairy
floss and now you're into the category where you get
to judge the fine food. It's not just from Tasmania.
You get entrants from everywhere.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Right from all across the country, everything from oysters to
bread raouls, through the soups everything in between.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Now, how long has this been happening for? I know
that most people would know it quite well. How long
has it been running for?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So? About thirty years. The Fine Food Awards has been
running for now and making entries from all across the
country ever since.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
So has that scene over that time a huge growth
in it? Did it start out as a massive event
and get bigger from there?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah? So it started off as a pretty small event
mainly focused around Tazzy and now it's grown into an
event with twenty eight different sections focusing on all different things.
Anything that is basically food, They can be entered into
the show as long as it's commercially available.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Does that mean you have to go through and taste?
Do you organize a panel of judges for this?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
So we bring a panel of judges in from all
across the country, the same as we do for our
wine show, and they all have an area of expertise.
So for the seafood section, we'll bring in people that
specialize in seafood. For bakery, will do bakers. Everything is
all specialized.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Have you ever thought about including categories of like highly
allergic section, so people who can't have corn or people
who can't have wheat and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Look, we could, but probably wouldn't be the best thing
from a WAHS point of.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
I mean, it is quite difficult, but there's so many
really good foods in Australia I think produces a great
level of quality. How does Tasmania stack up in everything?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Really well. Obviously Tazi's got its areas of expertise seafood,
dairy and things like that, so Tazzi always does really
well in those sections. But there's always entries in every
section across the board from Tazzy.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
The areas that Tasmania has really been gaining a lot
of ground on.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I think there's a lot of areas in Tazzi where
people are trying new things and being really different and alternative,
and they're really stacking up against things that are happening
on the mainland, which is really good, excellent.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now here's the other thing if you're interested in entering it.
Let's say you've got a food product that you're making.
Is that something that's open to everyone? Is it easy
to get involved in?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Absolutely so. As long as the product's commercially available, you
can enter. And all you have to do is go
to the Hobart Showground website and click on the Fine
Food Awards tab and then follow the prompts to enter.
It's pretty straightforward processes and we order open entries in
early twenty twenty five ready for next year's events.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
All right, So the Montenegro and bloke who lives down
the street that makes his own grap i can't enter
because it's not technically what's the word.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Legal Unfortunately, if it's not sold commercially can't enter. But
everyone who does do that can And we do our
judging for the Fine Foods across the whole year, so
then if something's in season at a certain time of
the year, we judge it then so that's its best time.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Fantastic, We might come back. We'll talk about a few
of the award winners and some of the amazing trophies
that have just been given out because the awards have
just been on. We're talking with Mitch Spong, the gm
of Operations for the Fine Food Awards and the Royal
Agricultural Society of Tasmania.