The Chef Taking Red Meat from the BBQ to the Royals with Sam Burke

Sam Burke has invited Oli and all podcast listeners to his place for a BBQ and we're holding him to it!

Sam's career spans over 30 years in the culinary world. From his early days as a milkboy to becoming a corporate chef, Sam has gained valuable lessons from every part of his career progression. He is now the Corporate Chef and Foodservice Business Development Manager for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

Sam's enthusiasm for his work and red meat is evident, and he talks about the pride he feels representing Australian producers on the global stage. And he doesn't have to wait until his 100th birthday for a letter from the Queen… Queen Elizabeth II has already sent him one for his cooking!!

Here’s an excerpt from Oli and Sam's conversation:

Oli - What does a week in your life actually look like?

Sam - "I'll tell you what mate, my job is always different. So I'm sitting in a hotel room in Brisbane talking to you at the moment. But what I love about this role is the diversity.

One day, I could be working on a cruise ship, out at sea, cooking right under the ocean in the galleys… Taking the turf to the surf if you like.

The next minute, we could be working on a revolutionary burger with a big QSR chain, featuring beef, lamb, or goat, or something equally special.

Then, next we’re giving dignity to elderly Australians in aged care, where Australian red meats play an importtant role in their diet, providing them with essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and protein.

We’re really looking for opportunities to reverse engineer solutions, ensuring that food services are confident in the products, using the right cooking methods, meeting their cost of goods, and putting Australian Red Meat on the menu.

It's all about understanding our customers and working with them in collaboration to come up with solutions that feature red meat on the menu. If we get it right, there's a good chance it’ll stay on the menu. So, that's what the job is about foremost…

The other part of my role is acting as an ambassador for the Australian red meat industry from a culinary sense. We’re doing cooking demonstrations for consumers to ensure their success with our products. So that’s fun.

And then we do big beef industry events and red meat updates where we get to speak to producers and learn from them, then take that message back to the consumer as well.”

Oli - “My god, you cover a bit of the country but you also cover a few parts of the supply chain”

Sam - “That’s what it’s about! Because a producer loves to hear what happens to their product when it leaves farm gate... And then on the other side, the chef loves to hear what happens when that animal is produced… So we’re like the link between which conveys the positives messages… And I love that role.”

Image sourced from MLA website.

At HOA we know that red meat is a really important part of Aussie Ag and we're excited to have a short series of four episodes powered by MLA