[energetic music] [Walter] Melbourne, located in the southern Australian state of Victoria, is home to over 5 million residents.

The discovery of gold in 1835 transformed this faraway settlement into one of the world's most livable cities.

Every theater, restaurant, park vendor and street artist provides a glimpse into the pulse of Melbourne's multicultural heartbeat.

Join me as I meet a few of the region's finest chefs and witness firsthand just how seriously this city takes their food.

I also travel into the Melbourne countryside to discover the source of one of Australia's most well-known products, lamb.

And learn how one chef is utilizing his skills to transform this prized protein into unbelievable dishes.

All for A Taste of History.

[Narrator] This program is made possible by.

Pasture-raised Australian beef and lamb, adding variety into your weekly meals or unique touch for your next celebration.

Widely available at your local market.

For recipes and more, we're at aussiebeefandlamb.com [Music] [Narrator] The traditional custodians of what is now downtown Melbourne, Australia are the Wurundjeri people who have lived in the area for tens of thousands of years and to this day continue to play an important role in shaping the cultural fabric of the city.

In 1835, European sheep farmers from Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, started to settle in this area.

They were looking for new pastures and a way to make a living outside the confines of British law.

These settlers obtained perceived ownership of the land through an invalid and illegal treaty with the indigenous people.

Furthermore, the Sydney government was against the establishment of the settlement, but by the time the authorities were able to intervene, it was already too late.

Melbourne had taken root and was growing at a rapid pace.

In 1850, a separation bill was passed by the British Parliament, which gave the settlement the status of a separate colony.

This new colony was named Victoria in honor of Britain's Queen and Melbourne became its capital city.

Immigrants leaving Great Britain in 1852 bought more tickets to Melbourne than any other destination in the world.

These new arrivals were driven by a single dream, the hope of striking it rich in the goldfields of Victoria.

The discovery of gold transformed Melbourne from a small port town into a thriving metropolis almost overnight.

Suddenly, people from all over the world were pouring into the city, creating a vibrant and cosmopolitan community that was unlike anything seen before.

Melbourne grew rapidly in the following decades, becoming the largest city in Australia by the turn of the 20th century.

[Upbeat Music] [Walter] Although Melbourne's history is rather short, it has managed to build a unique identity rich in diversity, cultural heritage and community.

Since arriving here, I couldn't wait to explore the city's bustling market scene, a tradition I always make sure to indulge in when visiting a new place.

And it's not hard to see why the Queen Victoria Market takes the cake as the southern hemisphere's biggest open air market.

I meeting with chef Rob Rees, who was kind enough to give me a tour of this bustling complex.

[Rob] Chef, Welcome to Melbourne.

This is the land of the Wurundjeri people, the first nation's tribe and one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

[Walter] It is.

And this market is so well organized.

[Rob] I think outside of Australia you have a perception of what Australia is about and what Australians are like.

But then when you come to somewhere like a city like Melbourne, you see this huge diversity, multiculturalism and our wonderful conformity.

Melbourne is a market city.

That's the joy of it.

And you can celebrate it at a relatively reasonable price in a global food economy.

[Vender] Five dollars now, have a look!

[Rob] Melbourne is just eclectic for produce.

This is an absolute prime example of what we've got.

Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, deli, bakery.

It's alive.

[Saxaphone music] [Walter] Look at those guys!

[Laughing] [Rob] They look fantastic.

I haven't seen him that big before.

[Walter] I mean, it's beautiful.

I mean, this is kind of like- speak in the microphone!

[Laughing] [Rob] It is, right?

And what you get here, what you get here, not just in this market, but in Australia, is so many different climates going on.

You can often see in some markets winter's produce in our traditional mindsets alongside summer produce.

[Walter] You have so many different climates here so different growing times can bring it-- so you bring it all to market.

[Rob] And even within state, right?

So you know, you're here in Melbourne, you go, hopefully when you get to the countryside, temperatures are going to drop in the winter, ten degrees more and then the real heat of the summer, they're 10 or 15 degrees warmer as well.

So it's it's just this rollercoaster of climates.

[Walter] You've got what, ten varieties of potatoes itself laying over there from sweet potato to yams, you name it.

[Rob] This just about sums up the multicultural diversity.

You've got okra next to Jerusalem artichokes, this classic European produce right next to African produce.

[Walter] The variety is just amazing to a chef.

[Rob] And the joke in Melbourne is when you're going out and about coats, jumpers, everything you can experience four seasons in one day weather wise, come to market.

I think you've got four seasons produce wise.

[Walter] Right in front of us, Yeah!

[Rock music] [Rob] Indoors you've got quite a lot of the Greek traders here as well as Italians.

They say that there are more Greek people living in Melbourne than there are in many of the Greek cities, and that this is the second capital outside of Athens for Greek people, Melbourne.

[Vendor] 1 Kilo!

[Rock Music] [Walter] Okay, mate!

[Rob] Oh, I don't want one, you're good!

[laughing] [Italian cafe music] [Rob] You can't come to Melbourne without coffee.

What would you like?

[Walter] A regular.

[Rob] See no, you see, we're in Australia, you can't have a regular coffee.

It doesn't exist, right?

There's hundreds and hundreds of different types of varieties.

[Vendor] We'll do the long black.

[Walter] Okay!

[Laughing] [Rob] I never knew this until I moved here, you know, the first Italian coffee machines were actually made here.

It's about skill and knowledge.

A lot of this about just passion and purpose, just like anything in the chef world, right?

Every single coffeemaker is researching their blends and their beans and the varieties.

[Rob] I haven't had a bad coffee yet!

[Walter] Same here.

Except ordering it.

[Both laughing] [Walter] Coffee is almost like wine and the terroir is becoming very important.

you know, the flavor stays within it.

It's an art form, not just about dollars and cents.

It's a passion you have to have behind it.

[Vendor] The regular long black for you sir.

and that's a small cappuccino.

[Rob] Thank you very much.

[Vendor] Oh, you're welcome.

[Rob] There ya go, look at that.

[Walter] The aroma, the bouquet that comes right out of that coffee.

[Rob] The temperature, getting the beans in the right place, the right grind, right temper, everything about it.

[Walter] Now, I'm awake!

two sips of that and voilà!

It's unbelievable [Energetic music] [Walter] To see the community of Melbourne from a grassroots level.

Rob took me to one of the 21 community gardens across the city, which supports vulnerable groups in public housing.

These gardens embrace cultural diversity and use cultivation and cooking to promote social connections and bring people together.

[Rob] That's the whole point of A Taste of History is that how do we tell the story via food?

And this place does it brilliantly.

Here, you've got 780 plot holders that we have across the city of Melbourne and they speak 34 different languages.

Here it's real.

Here, you can get dirty, here you can smell it feel it, touch it and enjoy it.

People can come in and they come bake, talk to people that live here, talk to other people from around the world, just over food and hear true stories of where food comes from and how to prepare it.

[Emma] Thank you so much, Julia.

[Walter] Thank you!

Wow.

I didn't expect to be entertained here.

[Emma] How beautiful it is.

A magnificent wood fire oven behind us.

[Walter] Emma what better way for me to understand the food culture, the complexity of the restaurant scene than somebody with your background?

[Emma] Well, I love Melbourne and you need to immerse yourself into Melbourne.

Melbourne is this incredible multicultural place.

28% of people were born overseas in the last census.

That gives us a really amazing and delicious food scene that we're so lucky to have and you can step outside your front door and walk down the street and you could be anywhere in the world and I love that.

[Walter] Tell me something, so what do you think has happened over the last few years as far as the culinary trends or the flavor profile what people are looking for?

[Emma] I think people are definitely becoming more connected to the land and and really understanding where their food comes from.

And it's becoming cool.

The best restaurant of the year was a Vietnamese fusion restaurant.

Gives me goose bumps.

[Walter] You're fortunate to live here.

The beautiful product that you have, produce, beef, lamb, I mean, give me a break.

[Emma] And you can mix it with any culture, add some spices, the fresh produce, and you can go anywhere in the world but stay right here in Australia.

[Walter] And people appreciate it and that's what food is all about.

[Emma] Food is about sharing our culture, sharing each other's company and having a really beautiful time.

Let's get some focaccia into us shall we?

[Walter] Sure.

Here we go.

Mm hmm.

Fantastic huh?

[Emma] Love it.

[Acoustic music] [Walter] After touring the Queen Victoria Market, I am so inspired to find a restaurant that showcases the diversity of the city, but also its lamb product.

And here at Serai, they pay tribute to the diverse cultural influences of the Philippines.

Hi, my name is Ross Magnaya and we are Serai restaurant in the Melbourne CBD.

It's always: "What is Australian food?"

Australian food is very multicultural, in my opinion it's top three in the world.

Our relationship with Australian farmers is very important because all the protein in the fresh stuff is from here.

So we get the best ingredients that Australia can offer, good Filipino techniques and ingredients, cook everything on a fire, and then we serve natural wine, low intervention, no preservatives, kind of wine.

That's basically the philosophy.

[Upbeat music] We have two lamb dishes here.

One is lamb ribs from Gippsland.

We have this master stock that we cook it in basically water, dark soy, some Chinese cooking wine, one star anise, cinnamon, black pepper, mandarin peel, and then you cook the lamb and you kind of simmer the lamb in it for 4 to 5 hours until it's really soft.

Once it's ready, you just cook it on a fire to order, smoke it in the fire, so it gets the caramelization and char.

[sizzling] With the fire and the smoke and the charcoal and everything, the flavor is so much different.

We kind of want to highlight that smoky, punchy flavor.

You can't do it with a normal grill.

We glaze it with this adobo sauce, traditional Filipino sauce made from soy, dark soy sauteed garlic, little bit of ginger, coconut vinegar, vegan mushroom sauce in it, thickens it up.

And then we finish the dish with a crumb made for a black pepper and coriander seed.

Little garnish on top.

That's the dish.

[Music] [Rob] Chef, welcome to the restaurant.

We have two lamb dishes here.

[Walter] That just speaks absolutely for itself.

Lamb Ribs Adobo.

And this one here is lamb loin cooked on a woodfire with our smoked potato mousse, caldereta sauce, jus from the bones of the meat with a bit of Don Papa Rum.

[Walter] Australian rum?

[Russ] It's a Filipino product.

So we kind of mix the Australian ingredients, Filipino techniques Filipino flavors.

Yeah.

I know Filipinos like their own.

[Walter] I know Filipinos like their rum!

I know that.

[Ross] Oh, yeah.

[Walter] I've been dying to taste that boneless lamb loin.

Cuts like butter, I mean it's just beautiful.

[Ross] Perfect.

[Walter] Oh, the flavor!

Speechless.

[Ross] I love that.

[Walter] I could be in downtown Manila!

[Ross] Nah, it's better than Manila for sure.

[Walter] Yeah!

[Both laughing] [Walter] I love the presentation I love your method and I like the idea that you using loin boneless on top of it.

Therefore, you also have the stock.

you can make with bones that you're not going to use.

[Ross] Yes, exactly right.

[Walter] Which now brings me to your number one selling dish you're known for, this [Ross] Lamb Ribs Adobo.

Yep.

[Rock Music] [Walter] Oh, god.

[Laughing] [Walter] You know what?

Spectacular glazing done to it so you got a little bit of those beautiful pure lamb fat right in there.

The flavor gets so great coming right down to the bone.

Unbelievable.

I mean, it's to die for.

[Ross]Thank you, Chef appreciate it.

[Acoustic music] [Walter] I want to get to the source of the spectacular dishes so I'm stopping in to meet Tim Leeming of Paradoo Prime.

Tim and his family have been fine tuning the techniques of a system called precision lambing, where they emphasize the importance of lamb genetics, reducing mob sizes and maximizing their land to its fullest potential.

[Tim] Australia in particular, you know, it's fantastic for raising livestock.

We're very reliable on our growing season with pretty reliable rainfall.

It's not that harsh.

We can actually still have our lambs reproduce in the winter because we've got a landscape that offers that natural protection.

We care for our animals, we want them to be healthy.

[Baaing] [Tim] We've moved our breeding systems away from needing to mules, needing to use any chemicals on there to reduce fly-strike.

We started to introduce human grade pain relief with our livestock.

Having them fit and healthy.

It's a win win for production and it's a win win for animal welfare and animal wellbeing.

[Tim] Chef Walter, welcome to Paradoo Prime.

[Walter] Ten thousand miles I come just to meet you.

[Laughing] [Tim] Sure you did.

[Walter] I'm speechless around here It's like, so beautiful.

And I've been anticipating coming to Australia because I've used your lamb for a long, long, long time.

And lamb is one of my favorite out of all the meats, believe it or not.

[Tim] It's a great meat.

It's a versatile meat.

As you know, Chef, We're really proud of it as a nation.

You know, people want to know where their food comes from and how well those livestock and those animals are being cared for.

So both of those things are dear to our hearts as Australian farmers, we want to supply a quality product that is being cared for, but also in an environment that we're enhancing and making better than it was in a previous generation.

We're planting a lot of trees on the farm for protection of livestock and livestock wellbeing.

Our property has actually got well over 35 kilometers of waterway frontage, so we've fenced those waterways off to prevent erosion, to prevent nutrient runoff, they become biodiverse corridors for native birds and native animals.

[Walter] And I also realize there's a lot of detailed work behind it to maintain the quality that you have that you're proud of.

[Tim] We've got some really good production outcomes.

We get all these really good welfare outcomes by being smart and using our landscape really well and putting those most susceptible animals at their most vulnerable time of their life, which is when they reproduce and we put them in these nursery type environments that are nice and protected by the natural shelter that we have on the farm Fence off the high part of the farm, we don't lamb there and because it's really exposed to the elements and that will be the difference between high lamb mortality and really, really good lamb survival.

We've put about 170 kilometers of permanent fencing in the last ten years, but it pays off.

On the farm you can get mismothering and that's where the ewe takes the wrong lamb, so we've made a concerted effort in reducing mob size and then lambing ewes lamb in mobs of 50 in a mob or less, as opposed to a lot of other farms might have 200 in a mob.

If we have less ewes in a mob, there is less chance of that mismothering occurring.

We'll get 10 or 15% better lambs about.

[Walter] All the savvy that you bring to your farm here, do you think there is a possibility it can be adopted on a global basis?

[Tim] Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And you know, we've had to do it in Australia because we have a very fragile environment.

We've got a great ability, I think in Australian agriculture to share with other countries in the world and that continuous improvement is important for the land that we manage, but also in quality.

The one thing that I know is that that Australian live always had a distinguished, unique flavor.

You really, really can tell.

You don't have to be a chef like me in cooking lamb for four or five decades, for a long time and many variations of the many recipes and the commitment that you have shown, the passion which is behind it, because obviously there's a lot of love.

[Tim] You know, we're only one little blip on a big country of Australia.

We know so many fantastic, passionate farmers that are doing some incredible things on their part of the world.

As livestock producers in Australia, we are trying to be ahead of the game.

That's what Precision Lambing is all about.

Maximizing the good.

[Walter] Just 30 minutes down the road from the farm, there is one unassuming restaurant that has been a staple of the area since the 1840's.

It's here that they aim to provide this region's fantastic locally sourced product in an authentic country pub setting.

[James] Welcome chef staff to the Bunyip Hotel in the Western District in the Grampians.

It's one of the most naturally beautiful areas in Victoria and we're very excited to show off our little region and what we do here at the Bunyip.

[Walter] I'm obviously very excited to be here.

I have a big appreciation for Australian lamb to begin with and just in front of me and I'm jealous that you are this close to where the lamb grazes and gets farmed.

So you have an advantage.

[James] It's an advantage that I've been trying to exploit since I've moved home about seven years ago.

This sort of gold here that is a little bit untapped.

It gets shipped off and exported, which is great.

But, you know, not often it gets expressed locally.

[Walter] Tell me a little bit about your philosophy and how you came about creating the menus that you serve here.

[James] I grew up on a farm just north of here.

My family still own the farm.

My family's been here for many generations.

I was very sort of in touch with the whole chain.

So from breeding, growing, selling, processing and then obviously formalized it by learning how to cook it.

[Walter] So tell me what you're going to show me.

[James] So, Chef, today I'm going to present to you Pyrénées-style wet-roasted lamb.

It's an all inclusive dish cooked till it's tender and then served.

I could get you to just break down it's a square cut shoulder.

- Yep I'll start the sauce.

It's a classic sauce Sofrito base.

[Walter] Mm hmm.

[James] So it's diced onions, red capsicums or peppers and tomatoes.

[Chopping] [James] Just dice our veg nice and finely.

[Walter] I'll tell you what, this is fantastic.

Look at the marbling.

[James] Yeah, the IMF.

The intramuscular fat.

That's, I guess, what we're all about, isn't it?

So you've got.

[Walter] Look at how beautiful.

[James] Four quarter chops, neck and chops, ribs.

[Walter] Beautiful.

- And shank.

[James] As we all know, too.

I don't like to trim off all the fat either.

That's going to render into the sauce.

[Walter] And also that is what gets the flavor.

[James] It takes a farmer a year to get it to that.

Why would I cut it all off?

Cook those down for 5 minutes.

Sweet peppers, sweet tomatoes, beautiful, sweet lamb.

We're just building and building and building, basically cook that right down into sort of a jam consistency.

So you just keep moving around a little bit.

These are things you can't rush.

As you know.

- No, this you can't.

[James] So now we'll add these.

The roast pureed pepper's, chef.

[Walter] Fire roasted.

[James] Add a little bit of paprika as well.

It seems like such a simple sauce, but you've got to put the time in, too.

So you'll see it's all homogenized there.

We'll add some sherry.

I would say that's three cups.

[Walter] Now this again, locally produced Sherry.

[James] Yeah.

Yep.

We'll season the sauce a little bit now.

So, we just cook out that raw alcohol.

Please taste, taste, taste.

- I gotta taste that.

[James] For all the young chefs out there, taste, taste, taste.

[Walter] Yo!

[Laughing] [James] Nailed it you think?

[Walter] Think about it, there are no smoke and mirrors, no nothing.

This is beautiful.

- Sweet and savory.

[Walter] Oh golly, come on.

[James] Now comes the time to braise the lamb so if I can get you to season that nice amount of pepper, always fresh, cracked pepper don't pregrind your pepper.

- Absolutely.

[James] Little bit of sea salt, couple of pinches.

That's perfect.

We can adjust it at the end, too.

So now we'll just literally pour on this sauce.

The peppers will go roast a little bit.

It'll dry out on the meat.

The fat will sort of render off chefs and home cooks can get a bit obsessed with stock.

I think there's nothing wrong with a bit of water.

[Walter] Well, no, not in this recipe, because you get so much flavor already built in there.

[James] And you can just see the bits of bone poking out.

And that's what we want.

They'll they'll go black and curl up and get that extra depth of flavor.

We'll pop it in the wood oven, preferably, or a home oven, it doesn't matter around 135 degrees Celsius, 140.

It'll take about an hour and a half hour and 20 minutes.

[Upbeat music] [James] So, Chef.

[Walter] Look at that, that's too pretty to eat almost!

[James] You'll see here that the rendered fat and the sauce are emulsifying.

See it's sort of coming together?

Just beautifully.

Some of you might have noticed as well is that I didn't put garlic in the sauce and that's because we've got new seasoned garlic.

So we've got some of the shoots.

[Walter] For somebody who wants to really do that The shank is your indicator because once the shank has strunk back enough, everything is completed.

[James] If the shanks ready, Everything's ready.

[Music] [James] I like to serve a piece of neck, a rib, a chop.

[Walter] And the piéce de résistance!

[James] Absolutely.

How can we not do a bit of shank?

So we've got those beautiful caramelized dark bits.

[Walter] Gosh, look at that.

[James] Grass fed lamb reared on natural pastures.

There's a variety of species of grass that are quite endemic to Australian agriculture.

What it does is, you just get this depth of flavor and you're tasting the earth, you're tasting our region.

[Walter] Let me try that here.

Wow.

You are not kidding.

It's like flavors burst from all over my mouth.

Unbelievable.

If you love lamb like I do already, it's just the ultimate lamb dish in my book because you get the sauce, you get the flavor of the fat.

The reason that this is so powerful, once you use the neck bone, you have a lot of marrow in there so the marrow cooks slowly into it.

And this is a flavor that you cannot ever imitate.

[James] No.

[Walter] And this it's just a beautiful thing.

[James] To me there's so many dimensions to this.

[Walter] I mean it's I really don't even know how to describe it.

It doesn't get better than that.

All the way up the country.

Nobody would expect that.

[James] We're just a humble boozer.

[Walter laughing] [upbeat music] [Walter] It's been a spectacular journey through Australia, a dream of mine for a long time.

The lamb, the wine, the hospitality, the environment, the people.

I want to thank you and all this for a spectacular Taste of History from Australia!

[Narrator] This program is made possible by.

Pasture-raised Australian beef and lamb, adding variety into your weekly meals or unique touch for your next celebration.

Widely available at your local market.

For recipes and more, we're at aussiebeefandlamb.com Viewers can find DVD's and cookbooks at atasteofhistory.org including the all new A Taste of History Cookbook, complete with step by step instructions of recipes seen on the show.

Exclusive content can be found on A Taste of History's Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages.