It all began as the Vogue Entertaining + Travel Produce Awards in 2005. Those early years saw winners who would go on to become icons of the Australian food scene. There were pioneers such as David Blackmore, who won time and again for his outstanding wagyu, which is now internationally revered. Ann-Marie Monda and Carla Meurs of Holy Goat were also early winners, continuing to dominate the awards until stepping aside after winning the Maggie Beer Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Food in 2022.

A beloved icon of the Australian food scene, Maggie Beer was made Patron of the awards in 2005. “That was exciting enough,” she says. “But it was when I started being part of the national judging – the two days where we would see all the finalists – it was really heartwarming. Each year, it was ‘Look how far we’ve come!’ We would get so excited. Getting access to these amazing producers all over Australia; it was fantastic.”

Chef Matt Moran, a National Judge since 2005, agrees: “Over the past 19 years, the world has got much smaller,” he says. “We’re now able to access great produce and learn from producers and farmers doing incredible things all over the globe. Sustainability, production and how we handle the produce with care just keeps getting better and better. Each year, I love looking back and seeing how far we have come as a nation.”

Chef and restaurateur Alla Wolf-Tasker has also been involved in the awards from the outset. She recalls that a call-out for nominations in the first year resulted in perhaps three dozen nominations. A few years later, the awards were receiving thousands of submissions.

“The Produce Awards has shone a light on the previously unsung heroes of our
industry,” she says. “Chefs have always had a prominent position. It was time for
Australia’s producers to be rewarded and recognised.”

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Harvey Norman has been a proud supporter of the Produce Awards for the past six years, and Executive Chairman Gerry Harvey looks forward to what this year will bring.

“What sets the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards apart is that every year builds on the discoveries of previous years,” he says. “Every winner and nominee is still contributing to the nutritional quality, taste and choice of the food available to us and our families. Every year consolidates and expands our menus, whether it is at home or in your local restaurant. More recently, we have seen the rise of sustainable produce and farming techniques, which is both exciting and essential.”

While so much has been achieved over the past 19 years, the challenges that Australia has faced in this time – from natural disasters to the Covid pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis – have also highlighted the fragility of our local food systems. Perhaps now, more than ever, it’s essential that we continue to support and celebrate the small-scale producers who are working so hard to sustainably and ethically produce incredible food.

“We need to remind ourselves of what we lose with the disappearance of every smallscale concern run with passion and determination,” Wolf-Tasker says. “Often, it’s the difference between produce that is bland and uniform rather than pockets of specialness driven by producers who constantly try to raise the bar. If we give up on this and on local food purely because of economics, we might eventually need to rely almost solely on food produced elsewhere. When we drive food supply on the basis of cheapness, convenience and year-round availability, we should be careful of what we wish for…”

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