Thomastown food producers clean up at Australian Food Awards

Thomastown food producers have laid claim to the title of fine food capital of Australia after a golden haul at the Australian Food Awards.

Plough to Plate Fine Foods owner Natasha Petrovska has claimed back-to-back gold for her ajar.

THOMASTOWN has a claim to the title of the fine food capital of Australia after six businesses cleaned up at the recent Australian Food Awards.

Awards were presented across 49 overall categories, and food businesses in the suburb took out gold in nine categories, featuring in almost one in five awards.

Bertocchi led the way with an astonishing seven gold medals for its famous meats, while
Plough to Plate’s renowned ajvar — a Macedonian pepper-based spread — won gold for the third year running.

“I have a Macedonian background and apart from bread, peppers is the main food in Macedonia and I’ve never had a year where we haven’t grown peppers,” owner Natasha Petrovska said. “It’s all organically made, it’s smooth and creamy and best served on crusty bread with a bit of fetta cheese.”

That’s Amore Cheese, Select Harvests, Pantalica Cheese Company and Ardour Food Co also picked up gold.

That’s Amore Cheese founder Giorgio Linguati, who arrived in Melbourne in 2004 unable to speak English, won gold for his diavoletti (little devils), a smoked cheese with a centre of an olive filled with chilli.

Mr Linguati taught himself the language and fell into the food profession after his previous career ran into the language barrier.

“My job in Italy was in advertising and I came out here and couldn’t do that anymore so I got a job in a cheese factory,” he said.

Mr Linguati began reading up about cheese and experimenting at home, before working alone producing his first cheeses.

“I was working by myself and washing all the dishes and making things by hand,” he said.

“Now we have about 70 people working for us and we make 45 cheeses … I’m very proud of the team.”

The Australian Food Awards are awarded across July and August every year, covering everything from muesli to seafood.