00:00It's nearing lunchtime at this 150-year-old pub, recently transformed into an elegant,
00:16fine dining restaurant in inner Melbourne.
00:19A venue that specialises in steak of only the highest quality.
00:24With 18, sometimes 22 different types of steak on the menu.
00:29But in more than two decades, head chef Jake First has never served meat so good as this.
00:36It's definitely at the top.
00:37So as a grass-fed product, the tenderloin is probably the best I've had and experienced
00:41in a long time.
00:43So just to have the tenderness but married up with the flavour as well, which rarely
00:47you get both of those together with the tenderloin.
00:51So what are these most prime of all cuts?
00:53A tenderloin from a two-year-old grass-fed Speckle Park heifer, dry-aged for 38 days.
01:00And a ribeye from 150-day grain-fed Speckle Angus cross.
01:07Each mouth-watering steak will set you back $360, which diners are happy to pay.
01:15Paul Guy was responsible for making it all happen.
01:19Paul spent 25 years as a bloodstock agent who bought and sold expensive racehorses for
01:24mostly rich clients around the globe.
01:27He came back to Australia to live a few years ago and took up raising cattle.
01:32But with a new perspective, fanatical about pedigrees, before every horse sale he used
01:38to collate pages of breeding records on every horse.
01:41When he applied the same fastidious approach to cattle, he discovered some very enticing
01:46qualities about Speckle Park.
01:49Above all, it's tasty steak.
01:52If you're going to put your hand in your pocket for a really expensive menu item, well it
01:59better be really good, it better deliver and Speckle Park just do.
02:03They taste delicious.
02:04Talk to anyone who's eaten it and you will get rave reviews.
02:07Not saying it's better than everything, it's different.
02:11In my long career as an agricultural reporter, I've seen dozens of the newer breeds proclaimed
02:16as the next big thing in Australia's beef industry.
02:19Of those, most have fallen by the wayside.
02:22So will that fate affect Speckle Park?
02:24Well no, say the supporters of this breed, because they now have some serious science
02:28to back up their claims.
02:31Omega-3, a long-chain fatty acid, is found in avocados and olive oil.
02:36It lowers blood pressure and has a range of other health benefits for the brain and heart.
02:41Australia's cattle have unusually high levels of long-chain fatty acids.
02:47In recent years, cattle producers have selectively bred cattle with high intramuscular fat, or
02:52IMF.
02:53Commonly called marbling, there's a belief that the greater the interspersed fat, the
02:58more flavoursome the meat.
03:00But Professor Aduli's research suggests it's only part of what makes a juicy, tender, flavoursome
03:06steak.
03:07I want to say that there's more to meat eating quality than marbling, because there are other
03:12important traits that affect texture, flavour, juiciness and health benefits as well.
Comments