A chef in central west New South Wales is purchasing entire beef carcasses to minimize waste and support local producers. Dom Aboud at Union Bank in Orange buys whole steers, utilizing unusual cuts that would otherwise be discarded. The practice, though uncommon, is gaining slow traction among restaurants for cost savings.
Chef Dom Aboud, executive chef at Sienna Hospitality's Union Bank restaurant in Orange, central west New South Wales, began buying whole steers after realizing that ordering just a dozen Scotch fillets would leave suppliers with around 200 kilograms of unused meat. "If I just said I wanted 12 Scotch fillets, they're going to be left with something like 200 kilos of meat to move," Aboud said. He views the approach as a way to support local producers and significantly cut food waste, ordering a full carcass every four to six weeks.
Aboud is now experimenting with 'funny' cuts and trim. "We're getting to the fun part now where we're trying to figure out what to do with all these funny cuts and trim," he said. Dishes include a Lebanese-inspired corned beef, veal schnitzel, and a chuck roll typically turned into mince. Customers have enjoyed discoveries like the Sierra steak from the shoulder muscle, described as a long flank-like cut that grills well but is usually trimmed and discarded. "Recognising that this is the most win-win way for us to do it was the first thing," Aboud noted. He hopes other restaurants will adopt the method. "Australia is such a great place in general for old steak and chips, but levelling it up and really putting that care into using a whole beast and thinking about proactive ways that we can all do it," he added.
According to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), the whole-animal approach is established in metropolitan high-end restaurants but remains uncommon overall. MLA's Sam Burke, product and business development manager and corporate chef, said: "You've got an opportunity to use that whole carcass, you're not going to buy it to waste it." Just over 8 percent of a cow carcass goes to prime cuts like Scotch fillets and sirloins, with the rest becoming less popular secondary offcuts, sometimes used for pet food. The trend is growing slowly, allowing chefs to use 59 percent more meat at a lower per-kilo price. "It provides an efficiency dividend on cost, you're getting a lower per kilo price," Burke explained.
The first steer came from Tilda Chianina farm at Cudal, west of Orange, one of few Australian properties raising the Italian Chianina breed. Director Jason Ryan described them as "the largest and heaviest cattle in the world … they're a very old historic breed, originally designed to pull ploughs." The breed is known for tenderness, leanness, and the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina cut. "You could probably just about count the number of Chianina breeders on one hand," Ryan said. His farm adopted the whole-beast strategy amid cattle market fluctuations, as larger operations handle volatility better. Other high-end restaurants have previously bought whole steers from him. "We want to look after and use the whole beast in our operation," Ryan said, praising Aboud's initiative.
