A grain-fed Wagyu F2+ 75% aged for 30 months has earned Tamworth-based Australian beef producer Jack’s Creek the World's Best Steak prize for the second year in a row.
Judges said the steak scored highly on appearance, quality, taste and tenderness, putting it ahead of entries from 17 countries and 83 of the world’s top beef producers in the World Steak Challenge held in London recently.
It gets better … Jack’s Creeks’ 150+ days grain-fed 100% Black Angus also won the Silver award.
“We spent considerable time selecting the entry and this win confirms that we’re the best in the world again,” Jack’s Creek managing director Patrick Warmoll says. “Winning last year was one of the biggest things to happen to us and our brand awareness rocketed and it’s been great for business.
“This is as much a win for Australia as it is for us,” he says, adding: “We’ll be going for the hat trick next year!”
World Steak Challenge chair of judges and butcher Keith Boxley says “every gold medal winner was worthy of winning the top prize but the overall winner was outstanding”.
“People are getting more selective about the meat they eat and they want something more prepared. As a butcher judging this competition, I’m looking for something that looks and tastes nice that has no gristle.”
Jack’s Creek’s farming operations are based on its Willow Tree property in the Great Dividing Range and its Breeza property on the Liverpool plains.
Its Wagyu beef is derived from cross-bred Wagyu cattle, which are raised free-range on natural grasses for the first part of their lives, then given a specially designed diet of feed grains — with no added hormones — for 450 days to generate a high degree of marbling.
The Warmoll family emigrated from Ireland in 1852, opening butcher’s shops in the Victorian and New South Wales gold fields. They began farming in Breeza in 1947 and launched into specialist beef with Jack’s Creek in 2000.
They now process and market Wagyu and Black Angus to more than 20 destinations around the world, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, China and Germany.