CRAMPED kitchen conditions and a popular craving for slow-cooked meals have the food service industry outsourcing ready-cooked meat products by the tonne.
Braised beef ribs, pulled pork shoulder and lamb shanks have never been more popular in cafes and restaurants but their lengthy and balky preparation requirements can make small kitchens - many of which have nothing more than a hot plate and a toaster - groan.
Increasingly, chefs are outsourcing their cooked meat and suppliers are increasing their factory space to cater to demand.
“We’re scaling up production to keep up,” said Andrews Meats retail sales manager Ian Hill.
“We just moved into a new 4500 square metre kitchen where we produce up to 400 tonnes of cooked meat each week.”
To capture the growing market the company, owned by JBS and based in Lidcombe in Sydney’s western suburbs, has teamed up with smallgoods hero Primo to launch a new range of cooked meat products.
“We’re working in conjunction with Primo to launch a ready-cooked range of lamb shanks, ribs, roast beef, pork and portion cut rump steak for the food service industry,” he said.
“Primo already supplies a vast amount of business in the food service industry so we will be piggybacking their network to deliver products under Andrew’s Creative Food Service brand.”
Mr Hill said the buying power of JBS meant cooked products could be sold for the same price other suppliers charged for raw meat.
Another Western Sydney-based wholesale supplier, Ribs and Roast, has reported soaring demand.
The company began in 2008 and has ridden the ‘slow cooked’ wave ever since. It only cooks products using the sous vide method. Their range includes pork and beef ribs, pulled pork, shanks and carvery roasts.
“We started off an a small scale and experienced rapid growth in our first five years,” said Ribs and Roast general manager Ryan O’Shea.
“We moved from a 400 square metre site to a 1500 square metre site to give ourselves the room we needed.”
The sous vide specialists target chefs by promising to “take wages and waste out of the kitchen”.
“If you have a five kilogram shoulder of beef and roast it for four hours you would lose 50 per cent of that product. Conversely, when you use the sous vide method you only lose 30pc in the cook out,” Mr O’Shea said.
“At the end of the day the customer is buying less protein and the chef can simply cut it out the bag and heat it up.”
Pre-cooked and sealed products also have a longer shelf life.
Meat and Livestock Australia group marketing manager Andrew Howie said the range and popularity of secondary red meat cuts on offer in cafes and restaurants was especially pleasing.
“It’s important to find a home for the whole beast – that way producers can get a higher price for the animal as a whole.”