Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
Beef, Lamb, Gin
It is all very well an Englishman on home soil enjoying the best of Australian meat, but what about an Australian spirit to match with the barbecue? Rupert Bates finds them just a few miles - and hours - apart.
A taste of Australia hit London this summer. One night it was the smoky aromas of beef and lamb in a Mayfair restaurant; the next, drinking cocktails of gin distilled in Byron Bay to wash down a rooftop BBQ atop the former BBC headquarters in White City.
The two events were not directly connected, but it was an opportunity to wrap myself in the green and gold of my wife’s homeland and taste produce, with sustainability a key driver, from 10,000 miles away. It travels well.
First to Jeru restaurant, for a dining experience, hosted by Aussie Beef & Lamb, to mark the first year of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and then to Soho House beside the pool to sample Papa Salt Coastal Gin.
Actress Margot Robbie and her film producer husband Tom Ackerley are among the founders of the Byron Bay gin, distilled on Australia’s east coast in a zero-waste facility powered by renewable energy. Papa Salt celebrated its UK launch in London, with BBQ magazine, resisting a Barbie-cue pun, among the guests and our Australian art director Kelly Bates sharing backyard stories with the film star, with grilled prawns and chimichurri on the menu alongside cocktails such as the Paloma – Papa Salt gin, pink grapefruit soda, lime juice and rosemary salt (dried rosemary blitzed with sea salt).
There was a link as, on arrival at Jeru, the welcome cocktail was Papa Salt with yuzu sake, orange liqueur and lemon, before an introduction to Roy Ner, executive chef. Ner is an Aussie Beef Mate ambassador and works with the Aussie Beef & Lamb brand to promote the benefits of Australian red meat exports to the UK.
“I spent 18 wonderful years in Australia, enjoying its diverse cultures and delicious cuisines and I’ve become quite the BBQ expert, especially with the amazing meat there. I am a firm believer in the consistency, superior eating quality and sustainability of Australian red meat, which is produced with the strictest rules around animal welfare and food safety,” said Ner, born in Israel, with a Greek father and Moroccan mother – a mix of cultural influences, informing the eclectic dishes he serves at the culinary crossroads he has fused off Berkeley Square, as the Mediterranean meets Mayfair.
“When I moved to the UK and Australian beef and lamb became available in the trade, it felt like a natural fit to use more of it on my menu. It was an honour to become an ambassador for Meat & Livestock Australia and the Aussie Beef & Lamb brand. I take great pride in my background and love sharing and showcasing the finest produce available with my guests and friends.”
Beef exports to the UK from Australia, with Australia one of the largest beef and lamb exporters in the world, have increased in the last year by 415% and lamb by 85%. “Our beef and lamb are really impressing the food service industry in the UK. We’ve seen a lot of demand for prestige cuts and high-end products such as Wagyu and premium, grain-fed beef. These are trained chefs, experts in their field, and those with a keen eye for a good quality cut of meat,” said Stephen Edwards, business manager of Meat & Livestock Australia.
Emma Boughen, UK business development manager for Meat & Livestock Australia, says the exported meat arrives in large shipments by boat, which have a lower carbon footprint than air freight, with transport only accounting for a very small percentage of the emissions for red meat production.
“Thanks to our strict hygiene and food safety practices, we have a very long shelf life, meaning the journey aids the ageing process too, which improves tenderness. In terms of animal welfare, the UK and Australia have a shared affinity in terms of food safety and the protection and humane treatment of animals. Our cattle and sheep spend the vast majority of their lives roaming freely on vast landscapes. And we have some of the strictest food safety procedures around, so British consumers can be safe in the knowledge that they food they’re consuming meets the high standards expected here on British soil,” said Boughen.
Jeru’s strapline is Fire, Stone, Sea, and Ner, alongside head chef Leena D’Onofrio, brings a little bit of everything to the table, with live-fire cooking clearly a passion. Canapes were woodfire potato and full-blood wagyu, followed by charcoal lamb neck with yoghurt bread, glazed Angus beef short rib croquette with gruyere and truffle aioli, and grilled Angus oyster blade with herb salsa and burnt aubergine.
If you wanted a showcase for the quality of Australian beef and lamb, this was it. The main courses were a holy trinity of flavours: slow-cooked lamb shoulder with aubergine ezme and mint dressing, chocolate-aged tomahawk steak with fig mustard, and smoked salt and chocolate-aged full-blood sirloin with garlic black ketchup.
Even the olive oil sorbet was smoked, with wines from the Adelaide Hills – a Unico Zelo Sea Foam Pet Nat, as bubbly and refreshing as it sounds, and the blended red Unico Zelo True Blue – to accompany the meats cooked over the restaurant coals.
Papa Salt Coastal Gin is the brainchild, or beach child, of five friends – Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara, Charlie Maas and Regan Riskas – and its launch the culmination of a five-year journey, born from a shared love of gin and inspired by Australia’s coastal lifestyle.
The gin is infused with native Australian botanicals such as roasted wattle seed and native wax flower, winning a gold medal at this year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The London launch cocktail menu included the Paloma; an Aussie Collins – gin, lemon myrtle and soda; a Papa Colada, mixing the gin with coconut, miso and pineapple; and a champagne martini with gin, champagne cordial and citrus.
Appropriately enough, there was plenty of BBQ food after you’d left the oyster station (oysters served with Papa Salt gin granita) including grilled prawns, lamb chops with gochujang, chicken kebabs with mango salsa, halloumi skewers and grilled flatbread.
“The gin goal was simple – complement any soda, taste great with tonic, and make a mean martini; 59 recipes and many joy-filled sunny afternoons of gin tasting later, we present you with Papa Salt,” said the founders.
“Papa Salt is an easy-drinking gin that celebrates the subtle taste of native Australian botanicals. Flavours are brightened with zesty wax flower, hibiscus and citrus peel – all wrapped up with subtle hints of wattle seed, the mild spice of pink peppercorn and a minerality from a hint of oyster shell.”
Later in the week, the five headed to Jeru – there was a location connection after all – and we learn that Papa Salt is named after a “salty seadog” Robbie, McNamara and Ackerley met at a bar in Sri Lanka, likening him to “Santa Claus in a Hawaiian shirt.”
Next year promises to be an epic one for Australian sport. First, rugby’s British & Irish Lions tour, including three Test matches, and at the end of 2025 it is cricket’s Ashes on Australian soil. Plenty of time for barbecues, racked with Australian beef and lamb and with a local gin to drink around the fires.
