Beef It Up with Shane Bailey
When it comes to award-winning food festivals with celebrity chefs and showstopping dishes, Helen Flanagan regards Shane Bailey as a cut above the rest.
From Noosa Boathouse to Rockhampton, the cheek to the rump, and all the tasty bits in-between, Shane Bailey’s serious culinary passions include beef. Not surprising since he has been involved with Beef Australia since 2014 and the Capricorn Food and Wine Festival since its inception a decade ago.
Adding to his role as Executive Chef at Noosa Boathouse, his appointment as Executive Chef of Beef Australia is an extension of what what he has been doing in restaurants and at Noosa food and wine festivals, since arriving here from Melbourne in 2004.
Last year, despite travel restrictions for celebrity chefs from overseas, Shane managed to entice 11 of the nation’s best to be part of the Beef 21 Celebrity Chef Program which included the Celebrity Chef Restaurant.
At the burners and plating up for 2000 people across five lunches and dinners, were well known chefs Adrian Richardson, Analiese Gregory, Ben Willis, Dominique Rizzo, Duncan Welgemoed, ‘Fast Ed’ Halmagyi, Martin Bouchier, Matt Moran, Nick Holloway, Scott Pickett, Tony Howell, Alison Meagher aka Butcher Girl, and returning to Beef Australia for the third time was Gareth Collins as Head Chef. Good mate and local chef Matt Golinski has ‘starred’ on two previous occasions.
Shane shared tasty cuts with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and met the supreme champion bull aka top-of-the class.
The five-day triannual event also featured property tours, industry seminars, the latest on-farm technology, premier cattle and cattle judging, approximately 1400 stud animals plus 350 trade cattle. But it’s not all about beef with a shopping mecca, music concerts, shows, demonstrations, bars, gala ball, dinners, sportsman’s lunches, high teas and so much more.
To top it all off, Beef Australia’s biggest ever event, with a record 115,000 people who consumed 63 tonnes of beef at the Rockhampton Showgrounds, triumphed as Queensland Tourism Industry Council’s Best Major Event and Best Food Tourism Event for 2021.
No doubt there’ll be a stampede for tickets to the National Awards in March.
And mark your calendars for Beef 2024 from 5 to 11 May in Rockhampton.
Outside of the event, Shane works with Beef Australia on promotions such as health benefits, environmental best practice, awareness of Aussie beef the world’s best, also using the whole animal creates a more sustainable industry.
“Forgotten cuts are tastier and more cost effective for restaurants and at home,” Shane says assuredly. “I make brisket into bacon the same as the other bacon by curing and then smoking.
“It’s used on Kilpatrick oysters and is a taste sensation. At Christmas I made beef ham (BAM) using the eye round, and at a nose-to-tail dinner at Noosa Boathouse. That was where I cooked nose for the first time. It was presented as a surprise and tasted like pork belly.”
Shane said great steaks such as the Denver and Delmonico were famous in America but not seen on many menus in Australia.
“Short rib is definitely the king of slow cooking meat and will take on a lot of flavour as do beef cheeks, which I’m afraid to take off the Noosa Boathouse menu because they’re so popular,” he says.
Similarly, the stunning entrée of Wagyu Beef Bresaola with local Buffalo Mozzarella, mango, olive dust and vincotto. Pure beef brilliance!
