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When Jason and Jackie Wenke planned for their wedding at the Cider Gum Restaurant in the holiday destination of the Bunya Mountains they had a special request for the Chef. This was that they have free range grass fed Bazadais meat from Walkerston Country meats 1300 km away. Jason being a former Chef had a strong association with Bazadais and was involved with the trials using Bazadais and Bazaman meat that had been developed by John and Kathy McFarlane from the Greenmount Bazadais stud near Mackay.

The head Chef at Cider Gum, Graeme Moore has over 30 years experience as an international chef and this was a first for him to have such a request.

Graeme hadn't heard of the meat before and as it was outside of normal practice, arrangements were made for samples of some Porterhouse steak from Ray Villain of Walkerston Country Meats near Mackay. Chef Moore said that ”I got the idea that the meat must be above average when John McFarlane made a 2600km round trip just to present us with the frozen samples. This combined with Jason’s background as a chef and high praise about all the cuts from the Bazadais and Bazadais cross cattle we decided to give it a go on the proviso that I was happy with the cooking trials. I've worked all over the world and yes I was both surprised and delighted with the trials of the frozen steaks and yes the request for Bazadais meat for the wedding was given the go ahead before I finished cooking the first steak."

With the distances involved, the Porterhouse we ordered from Walkerston Country Meats was frozen and delivered some days before the wedding.  "The steak was a real hit, with the wedding guests being full of "compliments to the Chef" and thumbs up all around for the wait staff. From a Chef’s perspective the Bazadais cross meat was clearly in a league of it's own with the consistency between the trials and the cuts we used on the day, which was expertly prepared by Ray and his staff at Walkerston. The cooking time was reduced and once again the consistency of the meat once prepared was outstanding. This combined with the tenderness and taste, the like I haven't seen before, which was far superior to the $110 kg grain fed products I've used. The quality control was excellent with the sires of each animal used having been DNA tested for parent verification and as an end user it's extremely important to have that confidence. The Bazaman meat we used was truly different and what a difference. The huge bonus is that the meat doesn't have to be aged for 90-120 days or cooked for the 18 hours to achieve the succulent steak. We would like to have Bazaman meat on the menu full time and will be looking forward to trying other cuts in the near future" Chef Graeme said.

John said that the stock from Greenmount Bazadais were by a Garbrook full blood Bazadais bull out of red and grey Brahmans breeders and had been on agistment at Keith and Bev Lacey's property "Grenada" near Capella as part of continuing trials.

The final words go to Jackie and Jason “We selected the Bunya Mountains for our wedding because we had guests from as far away as Melbourne, North Queensland and New Zealand, and the Bunyas are not just a place to visit but a total destination. The location meant that guests could book houses for the weekend and spend extra time together resulting in  welcome and post wedding BBQ's using the Bazaman sausages and steaks from the 2008 Australian Sausage King winner Ray Villain at Walkerston Country Meats.

Dave, Mia, Kathryn and Graeme are the operators of Cider Gum Cafe and Restaurant and they went out of their way to spoil us and this just put the capital "M" into a magic celebration".