Two minutes and 40 seconds is all it takes to cook the perfect Wagyu steak. Carefully sliced to 10mm thickness and passing through the cooking chamber before resting for exactly two minutes, the steak was at its optimum flavour point. The fatty, marbled flesh tasted rich and gently sweet, with a lingering savoury taste. The judges only got a slither of wagyu, enough to give it a score but not enough to feel satisfied and full. That was lucky because they had to leave room in their bellies for the Grass Fed Beef and the Grain Fed Beef.

Pleased by the very high standard of entries in the Sydney Royal Branded Beef, Branded Lamb and Branded Pork competitions, Chair of Judges George Ujvary was happy to welcome university student Sophie Ward for her first experience as a Sydney Royal judge. Sophie is currently finalising her Honours in Animal Science at Roseworthy College in South Australia and hopes to go on to complete her PHD in Sow Welfare. Sophie’s area of interest is the influence of the living conditions of pigs on the quality of the meat.

“It was pretty incredible to taste such sweet flavoursome and tender pieces of pork,” said Sophie,

“I would have loved to know about the living conditions from the entries afterwards, as well as the feed they were given as some of the flavours were just incredible.”

Christmas dinner is looking good this year with such positive feedback from the Sydney Royal Branded Beef, Branded Lamb and Branded Pork competitions.