AUSTRALIA has beefed up its credentials as a prime beef producer after a Gold Coast company scored a sizzling coup at the first ever World Steak Challenge in London.
Jack's Creek, a specialist beef producer with cattle properties at Willow Tree on the Great Dividing Range and Breeza on the Liverpool plains, took out the title against 70 of the world's top producers.
The company scored with its 450-day-old grain fed Wagyu cross-bred reared at Big Jack's Creek in NSW.
Jack's Creek managing director Patrick Warmoll (pictured) says the steak scored with judges because of its marbling and superior taste.
"When cooked, the judges knew straight away that it was the best in terms of tenderness, succulence and length of flavour," he says.
Warmoll describes the win as a triumph for the entire Australian beef industry not just Jack's Creek.
"There were more than 70 of the world's top producers involved, from 10 countries and it was an Australian steak that was judged the best," he says. "We were absolutely thrilled to receive that level of recognition."
Jack's Creek, which exports to 20 countries, was entered into the competition by German meat importer and wholesaler Albers GMBH from Dusseldorf.
Among the 70 entries, 11 won gold medals with four going to Australia. Among them was Australian Agricultural Company (ASX:AAC) which scored for its Darling Downs Wagyu steak, reared at the company's Avon Downs Station in the Northern Territory.
While Jack's Creek is still regarded as a relative newcomer in the industry after launching in 2000, the company has a long heritage in fine food that dates back to 1852.
That's when the Warmoll Family emigrated from Ireland and opened butcher shops in the Victorian and NSW goldfields.
John Francis Warmoll established JF Warmoll & Co in the 1940s founding the farming enterprise that still operates the grain and pastoral business today.
Jack's Creek, which is headquartered at Robina on the Gold Coast, became one of the first Australian companies to breed, grow, feed, process and market Wagyu beef. The company processes and markets grain fed Wagyu and
Black Angus, which it ships to more than 20 destinations around the world.
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