Craig Macindoe is head chef and owner of MuMu Grill in Crows Nest.  MuMu has a strong focus on sustainable produce, and specialises in grass-fed beef.  You can keep up with Craig in MuMuLand, or by following him on Twitter.

I decided to focus on local producers… in the beginning as a way to differentiate our business from others. I wanted also to create a future based business, something that would be relevant for the near, to medium future. But it has since grown into a personal passion.

Originally, I looked into grass fed beef led by Vicki Poulter (a friend and Weston Price devotee). I thought I would try grass fed beef and see what she was talking about. After tasting the beef I was sold, this was going to be our point of difference - 100% grass fed beef. All the rest of the menu has evolved around that.

While devoting our menu to sustainability I learnt more about the “Facts”:

Fact 1. Ruminants that live of grass are healthier and they produce far healthier beef. High omega 3 fatty acids, high concentrations of CLAs, high concentration of good fats.

Fact 2. Sustainable farming produces better flavoured animals.

Fact 3. Sustainable farming keeps boutique farmers and farm families alive.

It has been an interesting road talking to the farmers and getting to know the difficulties they face as well as sharing in their passion for the food they produce.

When we first opened the restaurant we were getting the vast majority of our product from distributors but over time we have managed to deal directly with the producers. It has meant we have had to change things we do but it is worth it to get the quality and the affordability we require.

Our food is different because we don’t muck around with it too much. We focus on simple food, sourced from producers who practise sustainable farming.

Our food is different because… we don’t muck around with it too much. We buy top quality product and we treat it simply. We focus on simple food, sourced from producers who practise sustainable farming. We serve a lot of slow cooked meals, allowing the food to maintain nutritional integrity and also have magic flavour.

Also our food is by nature healthier for the customer.

Demand in the current economic climate is… soft.  I would say that we are trading well under what I would have expected for our 2^nd year. We are growing, so that is a positive, but the overall demand is soft. I am not complaining - we just have to work harder for our clients. I would say that having sustainability as our point of difference has kept our business growing in these difficult times.

The most satisfying thing about sourcing, preparing and serving local food is… the interaction with the producers. I love speaking to the people at the fruit and veg markets about their farms or hearing about what’s going on down at Arcadia salt bush lamb.

The biggest frustration about the restaurant business is… staff who sometimes don’t share your passion. But having said that, staff are also some of the best things about the restaurant business.

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was… at Meadowbank winery in Tasmania. We ate the entire menu. On the menu all the food has food miles which is a great idea. It may have had something to do with all their wine we consumed, or how friendly the staff were. It was truly a memorable experience.

My most treasured food/wine memory is… eating in “Signore” on the banks of the Largo De Garda in Italy in the town of Sirmione. This was on my honeymoon so perhaps I feel a natural love of this meal…  Jamon Iberico de Bellota every where in Spain…  A 7 course meal I ate in a great restaurant in Parma…  The first time we ate at Café de Stasio…  1969 Bollinger RD at my mate’s 21^st…  Cheese eaten from the back of the car at Portsea when we had just bought it in Millawa… Scallop pies in Tasmania… Lobster spaghetti in Mondelo…  There are so many treasured food and wine memories!

Slow Foodies should check out… www.themeatrix.com

The most important thing about the sustainable food movement is… that it generates and releases information to combat the lies that are told about the food most people eat. Most of the world’s problems would be solved if people spent time creating food from scratch, with love: Less obesity, more focus on family, less exposure to processed foods, less illness.

Most of the world’s problems would be solved if people spent time creating food from scratch, with love.

If Slow Food members could do one thing to make food and wine in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer, it would be to… support the businesses that are sending out the ideals of Slow Food.

Krinklewood vineyard is a family-owned, biodynamic vineyard, in which every member of the family contributes to the daily operations of the business. Rod and Suzanne Windrim first planted wine grapes in 1981 in the Hunter Valley. In 1997 they increased the vineyard to 48 acres in the Broke-Fordwich region, where they grow Semillon, Chardonnay, Verdelho and Shiraz, with younger plantings including Viognier, Mourvédre and Tempranillo.

I decided to grow and make biodynamic wine because… I wanted to make the best possible wine from Krinklewood. I was inspired by vineyards in Burgundy that were using biodynamic principles to grow grapes; in France they have a higher disease pressure than in the Hunter, which gave me even more confidence. In 2001 I discovered ‘Wine From the Sky’, a book by Nicholas Joly which sparked me to do a Steiner Agricultural course that same year. From that moment, I was absolutely hooked on Biodynamics, and in 2002 I began operating within the biodynamic cycle and using the biodynamic preparations.

Biodynamic practice is better for the environment, better for the people who live on and work on the property, and can give us better quality wine that truly reflects the terroir of the vineyard. It didn’t really take much convincing…

“Biodynamic practice is better for the environment, better for the people who live on and work on the property, and can give us better quality wine that truly reflects the terroir of the vineyard”

Krinklewood wine is different from the mass-produced wine you might find in a bottle shop because… no chemicals are used in the vineyard to grow the grapes. Biodynamics also allows the wines to express the uniqueness of the vineyard site, known as terroir.

Demand for Krinklewood wine in the current economic climate is… very strong. In the past few years some of our wines have been selling out before the next vintage is available for sale which we feel good and bad about - good that the wines are in demand, bad that we are unable to produce enough.

The most satisfying thing about producing wine is… working biodynamically. It is extremely motivating and addictive. It has allowed us to be almost totally self-sustaining and as a result our farm has healthy soil, plants and animals - which is without doubt reflected in the quality of our wines.  Viticulture is an ongoing learning process, as is winemaking. The more you know the more you want to know!

The biggest frustration in producing wine is… not being in control of the weather!

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was… with a bunch of like-minded winos, hell-bent on having a laugh and enjoying some great wines. We were at Lolli Redini Restaurant in Orange, and I had the roasted Dutton Park duck with Sicilian vegetable caponata, crisped truffle Parmesan polenta and glazed quince. It was fantastic !

My most treasured food/wine memory is… enjoying a roast chicken dish for a Sunday lunch in Chez Blanc in Borg-en- Bresse in France. It was a wonderful restaurant and after reading about their free range chicken for so long, it was great to finally experience it.

“Bresse chickens are treated like fine wine. They have an appellation, a particular place where they come from, and they are a particular breed. Plus, they get to eat real food and walk around the countryside, all regulated by law.”

“Bresse chickens are treated like fine wine. They have an appellation, a particular place where they come from, and they are a particular breed. Plus, they get to eat real food and walk around the countryside, all regulated by law.”

Slow Foodies should check out… Wine from the Sky by Nicholas Joly, and the following websites:

www.krinklewood.com

www.biodynamics.net.au

www.biodynamics2024.com.au

The most important thing about the sustainable food movement is… not only sustainable food that is important, but that food must also be nutritionally enriching, i.e., to be sustainable is not enough if the food is not nutritionally beneficial.

To make food and wine in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer, Slow Food members should… support certified growers at farmers’ markets and genuine certified food and wines. Restaurants could also give better support to certified organic and biodynamic food and wines.

“Support certified growers at farmers’ markets and genuine certified food and wines.”

I decided to make a living as a craft brewer because… beer has been a long time passion of mine and it felt like the right time to follow the dream. A friend from university who has a lot of experience in running businesses was also looking for a change, so we saw the opportunity and ran with it.

Barons is different from the mass-produced beer you might find in the liquor store because… it’s an independent Australian beer company and our beer is made from the best ingredients we can source. Our products contain no preservatives or additives and our native range of beers use Australian ingredients such as wattle seed and lemon myrtle to create a unique imbibing experience. Our native spices are sourced from Outback Pride who work with indigenous communities to produce the best crops available.

Demand in the current economic climate is… holding up well.  Demand for beer is always solid both in good economic times and in bad. We have observed a shift to customers drinking more at home because it’s now possible to find a quality six-pack of beer that’s better value than a good bottle of wine.

The most satisfying thing about producing beer is… having people approach you and tell you that they love what you put your blood, sweat and tears into.

The biggest frustration in producing beer is… I love creating new, unique beers so it can be frustrating at times to be limited by the cost of releasing new beers into the market.

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was… at the Glebe Point Diner. Their focus on local produce, seasonal menus, ingredient outsourcing and quality suppliers make for a memorable meal.

My most treasured food/beer memory is… the last beer dinner I did with the chef at Sticks in the Chalk Hotel in Brisbane. He took a lot of time and effort to match each beer with the perfect course, and you could really see and feel his passion. He went as far as sending five litres of Barons Black Wattle beer to an ice cream maker to create Black Wattle Bon Bons, made with Black Wattle ice cream coated in dark chocolate.

Slow Foodies should check out… http://www.outbackpride.com.au to learn more about what they are doing with bush foods and native ingredients.

The most important thing about the sustainable food movement is… that people care where their food and drink comes from and have a vested interest in the people who produce it. It makes for a much more appreciative dining experience.

If Slow Food members could do one thing to make food, wine and beer in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer, it would be to… demand better maintenance of beer lines in pubs and ensure that your local has Barons!

Rob and Nita Lennon own and run Gundooee Organics, producing organic wagyu beef at Dunedoo, north of Mudgee in Central NSW.  They are finalists in the Vogue Entertaining and Travel Produce Awards.  Winners will be announced May 11.  We caught up with Rob at Taste of Sydney in March.

We started producing organic wagyu beef because…  organic farming is a way of thinking and a way of life that’s right for us.  I don’t come from a farming background - my parents were accountants - but I always loved going canoeing and camping around the Gloucester area.  Eventually I thought, I love being out of the city, why not find a way to live out here?  So I got my truck-driver’s license and used to carry wheat from all over NSW.  Then I studied farm management at Marcus Oldham Farm Management College in Geelong, and spent the next 10 years managing mixed farms through central and northern NSW.

There was never any question that we’d take the organic route.  It’s the vibe!

When we bought our own land 10 years ago, there was never any question that we’d take the organic route.  It’s the vibe!  Organic growing is a passive approach.  It creates the right environment for what we want to exist or grow, instead of focusing on getting rid of what you don’t want - a positive approach to things.  Farm systems are complex - if you do one thing, it’s hard to quantify the effects.  If you kill one thing, you end up having to kill more.

We’re encouraging deep-rooted perennial grasses which access nutrients and moisture deeper in the soil profile.  This gives the cattle feed a more complex battery of nutrients, and also allows pastures to hang on to provide grazing through dry periods, and bounce back faster when we do get some rain.  We use grazing management and ‘competition’ to control weeds, one example being in an old ‘sheep camp’ area where we replaced a huge Paterson’s Curse invasion with native pasture without any inputs. And we’re experimenting with pasture cropping - using the same land to grow feed crops for the cattle in our native pasture paddocks.

Gundooee beef is different from supermarket beef because…  the cattle are fed on native perennial pastures, and it’s wagyu.  Both the pasture and the breed combined provide great flavour, as well as providing some great health advantages including a good Omega 3 : 6 fatty acid ratio.  We also take great care with stock handling.  I’ve followed the animals though the slaughter line [at Cowra abattoir] - I figure if they’ve got to go through it I should face up to it too.  They’re completely calm throughout, and that makes a huge difference to the quality of the meat.

The most satisfying thing about producing food is…  days like today [at Taste of Sydney], spending time talking with people who are interested in what we do.  Our nearest organic neighbour is about 100km away, so it’s great to chat with people who care about organic food.

The most frustrating thing about producing food is…  the gap between producing “animals” or “carcasses” and producing food.  The system isn’t really set up to reward producers for producing food.  The focus on consistency and quantity at the lowest cost doesn’t encourage producers to take pride in the quality and flavour of what they grow.  It’s consumers wanting to know more about what they eat that leads to farmers making the effort to produce great food.

It’s consumers wanting to know more about what they eat that leads to farmers making the effort to produce great food.

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was…  no doubt a barbeque with family and friends at home.  They call me Barbeque Bob, because too many barbeques is never enough.  Some of our beef and a fresh salad and baked vegies - you can’t go wrong.

My most treasured food memory is…  throwing some green eucalyptus leaves on the (wood-fired) barbie.  My Mum used to love the smell.  She’s gone now but we still do it.

Slow Food members can make food in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer by…  promoting the vibe!  Don’t take it too seriously - just turn the tellie off, enjoy the experience of gathering and preparing food, and then spend the time with family and friends having a nice meal.

You can find ‘Gundooee Organics’ wagyu beef at…  Sydney restaurants Bécasse, Etch, Plan B, Longrain, and Sean’s Panorama, and occasionally at Glebe Point Diner and Bei Amici.  Also now in some Canberra restaurants including the Ginger Room.  It’s also available through five butcher shops in Sydney:  TJ’s Quality Meats in Balmain, Hudson Meats in Cammeray and Surry Hills, Pino’s Meats in Kogarah, Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats and now T&R Gourmet Butchery in Double Bay.

Food miles are a big issue for us, so we’ll never export, and won’t send our beef to Melbourne or Brisbane.  How many foods can you get in Sydney but not Melbourne?

How many foods can you get in Sydney but not Melbourne?

We grow free range saltbush lamb because… since the early 90’s we’ve seen the writing on the wall regarding climate change.  We began experimenting with ideas to evolve a kind of agriculture that is truly sustainable, or ‘regenerative’ as I prefer to call it.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with the word ‘drought’, as though a single word can absolve our society from admission that we still have no idea of how to live with the reality of this continent’s climate.  But I think the wool is starting to lift from most people’s eyes as they increasingly see farmers with progressive attitudes and practices bringing their produce directly to market.

People are also waking up to the fact that many of the people they once thought of as farmers are not actually farmers at all:  they’re commodity producers with very little regard for where their produce ends up, who eats it and how it effects them.

Oh yes, the lamb!  Saltbush is an amazing plant. We mostly use Atriplex nummarlaria or Old Man Saltbush, but also grow Creeping Saltbush (Atriplex semmibaccata) and Thorny Saltbush (Rhagoida spinescens).  OMSB is extremely hardy and handles dry conditions well as it has three root systems:  a deep one that can go down to 10m, a mid-range system and a shallow root system. It has a high protein content and provides essential year-round green plant material that ruminants need for their digestive systems to properly function.

We started growing the saltbush for its benefits in dry conditions as it’s virtually indestructible.  As far as livestock were concerned, we were mainly wool producers when we started planting saltbush.  It’s only been since 2006 that we’ve been producing ‘Arcadia Saltbush Lamb’.  It started as an exercise to see how lamb raised on our saltbush would be received in the marketplace, as it’s been known for a long time that
sheep grazed on saltbush tended to have particularly positive eating qualities.

Saltbush lamb is different from supermarket lamb because… it has a very ‘clean’ taste - there’s no strong sheep-y, woolly flavour, and none of that greasy mutton chop fat.  Put simply, the saltbush diet combined with other factors such as excellent water access and low stress seems to purge the animals of all that stuff which can give lamb a bad name. In addition, we hand-pick each animal before sending to slaughter, and work on a very small scale.

Our animals have access to wide variety of plants, not just saltbush.  We’ve planted around 500,000 trees and acacia shrubs since 1996. We are also bringing back native perennial grasses into previously cropped paddocks. I think the overall mineral-rich diet is a big factor in producing such tasty animals.

Another important difference to get your tongue used to (won’t be very difficult!) is the high moisture retention of the meat. One of my favourite ways to cook the lamb is to bone out a leg, cut thick steaks across the grain and cook on the barbeque. It’s great rare or medium rare, just like steak. The lamb also has fantastic flavour and moisture retention using any slow cook method.

“with all the trouble in the world,
people are realising that life’s too short
to eat crap food”

Demand for saltbush lamb is so high right now because… with all the trouble in the world, people are realizing that life’s too short to eat crap food.  There’s no doubt that interest in slow food, farmers’ markets, farmer-direct food, etcetera has increased in recent years. So apart from riding some of that wave, I guess people are no longer satisfied by QA labels alone. They are saying: ‘OK so it’s organic, but how much energy went into producing it?’, ‘Yes it’s free range, but what does that mean?’, ‘Does it actually taste better?’, ‘Is the farmer good-looking with a sense of humour?’ and other very, very important questions.

I think demand for Arcadia Lamb is high because we attempt to provide straightforward answers to these questions.  So far our customers seem to be happy with this approach, judging by feedback from Becasse, Etch Dining, and MUMU grill in Crows Nest.

Another reason for high demand right now is that I’ve run out of lambs!  One of the things about maintaining quality is not trying to push the system too hard.  All our lambs are born and raised on our property.  We don’t buy in and ‘finish’ stock. I think this is one reason why the product integrity stands up. I hope to have Arcadia Lamb back on menu in Sydney around mid-March when the new season lambs catch up.

I think seasonality is fine as long as everyone communicates. It gives a chance for lots of small producers to share markets.

The most satisfying thing about producing food is… how appreciative our customers and supply chain partners are when you show them some basic respect.  This sort of relationship is very difficult, if not impossible, in the industrial food production business. It’s divorced from the nurturing value system associated with real food. I really like the contact with like-minded people, the occasional trip to Sydney, and also being challenged and meeting those challenges to improve what we do.

One of the things I’m particularly grateful for are the relationships we’ve secured with Junee Abbatoir and our distributer and butcher Dick Stone.  These two partners are ideally placed in the supply chain so that the food miles are kept to an absolute minimum, and they’ve been doing a great job getting Arcadia Lamb to Sydney.

The biggest frustration in producing food is… never a frustration, but an opportunity.  I’ve found if you keep things as simple as possible, and know everyone in the supply chain, then there’s no dramas at all.  In an ideal world I’d like to supply Arcadia Lamb a lot closer to home, but we still have a lot of work to do to stop those abandoned shopping trolleys sprouting and growing into major supermarkets in regional towns. I wish Monsanto would develop a herbicide for them!  I do a little bit of business for a butcher in Jerilderie, but it’s a simple fact that the markets are in the major cities.

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was... my friend Heather’s famous chocolate cheesecake.  What makes any meal from Heather’s kitchen special is being warmly invited over to share it.  The other reason is that the main course is equally delicious and usually contains some garden produce.

My most treasured food memory is… when Mum hit a Crested Pigeon in the Kingswood, circa 1980, and brought it home and cooked it for my tea. It was delicious.  I’m wondering with the speed it hit the radiator, would it have been classified as fast food?  It made it to my plate pretty quickly, too.

Slow Foodies should check out… my website first!  Something else to keep in the radar is anything about ‘pasture cropping’ or ‘perennial polyculture’. There are some good people growing crops into living perennial grass pastures without chemicals or cultivation: A really exciting example of a ‘third way’ that’s asking all the right questions when it comes to finding a system that works in our unique environment.

Also check out ACT-based providore Pennie Scott at Bush Goddess Foods.  Pennie has a fantastic approach to the slow food ethic.

I could go on and recommend books but I think the strength in the slow food movement is realising the power of nurturing personal relationships through food.  So go and find someone to wander down to the farmers’ markets with and enjoy good food and life!

“I think the strength in the slow food movement
is realising the power of nurturing
personal relationships through food”

The most important thing about the sustainable food movement is… that it’s the seed for the revolution.  The high energy-using, polluting, industrial system will collapse, it’s only a question of when.  It will keep producing for years but the cost will be more food safety scares, a more intense level of risky manipulation, such as GM crops, and lower nutritional levels in food as soil nutrients are depleted and houses are built on the best soil.

Unfortunately I see this trend continuing for some time yet, until we have a major disaster that triggers a change in people’s thinking.  The challenge will be to unravel the damage done by industrial agriculture, so it’s critical that we keep the fire burning so we are well prepared when the day does come.

To make food in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer, we should all… keep the fire burning, but try not to be zealots.  We need to recruit as many folks as possible from all walks of life, and not alienate people.  Whenever you can, subtly introduce people to clean, ethical, tasty, unadulterated food.  Try to do it without them even realising - then they’ll completely own that life-changing moment when they crunch into an amazing organically-grown apple.  Build the tribe!