CLEAVER Salumi Cabinets is partnering with Viva Leichhardt and The Norton Street Italian Festa to bring Sydney’s first amateur salami competition.
The 2024 Italian Festa Salami Competition will be a heavyweight showdown as we search for Sydney’s finest maker of Italian-style salami.
Represent your heritage and earn the bragging rights your salami deserves.
We’ll be crowning Best Northern Style, Best Southern Style and, of course, Grand Champion Salami complete with trophies and cash prizes.
Entries close Sunday 20th October with the winners announced on Sunday 27th October on the Viva Leichhardt Cooking Stage at the 2024 Norton Street Italian Festa.
The Italian Festa Salami competition is looking for the finest Italian-style salami makers in both Northern and Southern styles.
Non-Italian styles or salami made from other than pork meat cannot be entered into this competition.
Northern Italian Style:
Traditionally made with the use of the following ingredients, pork and a blend of spices including pepper, cinnamon, cumin, and nutmeg as well as the use of garlic. Most Northern Style salami is made in casings ranging in diameter 50-60mm. Salami made with paprika or capsicum paste are not permitted in this class.
Southern Italian Style:
It can consist of the following ingredients: pork, chilli, paprika and/or pepper paste; and/or fennel seeds as flavouring. Size can range from cacciatore 40mm, salami 50mm or soppressa 80mm.
Definition of Salami Classes/Styles:
2024 Italian Festa Salami Competition Results
Thank you to all the entrants of the inaugural Italian Festa Salami Competition!
Our judging panel really enjoyed the opportunity to taste all your salami and we were very impressed by the overall quality. We would like to congratulate the winners and encourage you to continue to work on improving your salami in preparation for next year’s competition.
In judging salami for a competition like this, the judges are looking for salami standout in flavour, texture and balance as well as demonstrate refined production techniques. While you may not have won an award, it does not mean your salami is not enjoyable.
Category Winners
Best Northern Style Salami
Winner: Bullanoo Short Goods; “Blonde”
Best Southern Style Salami
Winner: Jeffrey Vincent; “Pork & Garlic Cacciatore”
Second Place: John Castiglione; “Fennel Salami”
Third Place: Roberto Domenico Orlando; “Papa, Zio and me”
Grand Champion
Winner: Jeffrey Vincent; “Pork & Garlic Cacciatore”
Medals:
All salami scored out of 20 points.
No Medal (less than 13 points): Domestic style salami with some technique deficiencies
Bronze (13 to 15 points): Nicely made domestic style salami
Silver (15 to 17 points): Well made salami
Gold (17+ points): Very well made salami with great balance and flavour
Scores
Northern Style Salami:
A small, but generally well made group of salami. We would like to see more people attempting this style in next year’s competition.
Southern Style Salami:
A large and diverse group of generally tasty salami. The best showed great technique and balance, but a lot struggled with binding and crumbling/dryness. The judges recommend binding the meat well with salt only, before adding spices, capsicum paste and/or wine etc.
