Cream of the crop drop in

Erin Jones, from Mary Valley Cheese, shows Perth chef Adam Sayles, head waiter from Wasabi in Noosa, and Dairy Australia representative Amanda Menegazzo, the cheese-making process.

Renee Pilcher

CULINARY young guns from all over Australia visited the Cooloola Milk dairy and processing plant yesterday to gain a better understanding of how Mary Valley Cheese is produced – from the cow to the plate.

The tour is a major component of the Electrolux Appetite for Excellence Young Chef and Young Waiter awards, which aims to educate the next generation of opinion leaders in the hospitality industry.

The awards were established by specialty restaurant and celebrity Luke Mangan and his business partner Lucy Allon in February 2005 to identify, recognise and nurture the finest emerging young talent within the Australian food industry.

“It is crucial that we as an industry inspire young people and give them confidence,” Chef Mangan said.

“It is also important we continually look for ways to improve our industry, raise standards and strengthen Australia’s food reputation.”

Program director Phee Gardener said Mary Valley Cheese was a “fantastic collaboration between Erin Jones and Cooloola Milk’s Dick Schroder.

“It’s important the future leaders of our food industry understand and learn more about the processes and how the product gets from the farm to the restaurant,” she said.

“It still amazes me that hospitality is number three on the skills shortage list.”

Over the week-long tour the finalists will taste, try and discuss a broad range of food with the primary producers who grow, catch and cultivate it.

The tour started at Dick Schroder’s dairy where the cows are milked, to his processing plant where the milk is bottled, finishing up with a tour through the state-of-the-art cheese making facility where master cheese maker Erin Jones explained the process.

Having hosted many guided tours for the public at her previous factory at Kingaroy, Miss Jones imparted in-depth knowledge of the cheese-making process to the Appetite for Excellence finalists.

She said she expected Mary Valley Cheese products to be available at IGA in Gympie within the next month. Mr Schroder hoped the tour would be good for business. “Any publicity is good publicity,” he added.