On the 8th May in Los Angeles, I was joined by celebrity chef, Vic Cherikoff and award-winning cookbook author Sally James to celebrate the arrival of Australian Made® foods on Gelsons Market shelves.

The three of us hosted an exclusive media event in West Hollywood where we showcases some of the most unique gourmet foods ever to leave Australian soil including products from Brookfarm Macadamia, Beechworth Honey, G’day Gourmet Tuna and Valley Produce Company will feature alongside 100% All Natural Organic Beef and Country Fresh Australian lamb, flavoured with Vic Cherikoff’s range of native Australian spices.

Using many of the products being showcased we created a uniquely Australian menu accompanied by Wolf Blass premium wines for media to sample, including:

• Macadamia, Ginger & Truffle Oil Spread with Wildfire Dukkah
• Angel Hair Paperbark Smoke Pasta Nest Topped with G’day Gourmet Chili Tuna with Lemon Myrtle
• Broadleaf Country Fresh Australian Lamb Cutlets Crusted in Wildfire Spice and Kashmiri Chili Spiced Macadamia Nuts with Warm Illawarra Plum Sauce
• Wattleseed Pavlova with Beechworth Honey & Brookfarm Toasted Muesli

Apart from the media launch, Australian Made Food tastings will run in Gelsons Markets in Hollywood, West Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, Newport Beach, Century City, Encino, Marina Del Ray and Valley Village NoHo for the month of May. Gelson’s markets across Los Angeles will now be stocking Brookfarm Toasted Macadamia Muesli, G’Day Gourmet’s™ range of flavoured tuna, Beechworth Pure Australian Honey and Valley Produce Company’s™ award-winning Fruit Pyramids and Crackerthins.

Australian Made is a not-for-profit organization helping consumers exercise their preference for buying Australian by clearly identifying products with the green triangle and gold kangaroo. The logo signifies the item is unequivocally “Australian made”, of an exceptionally high quality and adheres to strict environmental and ethical standards. Australian Made’s™ Ian Harrison said it was important Los Angeles consumers look out for the kangaroo logo to ensure it was genuinely Australian. “The iconic gold kangaroo in a green triangle is proof and will ensure shoppers are buying and enjoying the real deal,” Harrison said.

The Australian Made & Gelsons Market promotion was organised by Brook George from www.crocmedia.com.

Throughout the event, Australian photographer, Martina Gemmola took a great deal of photos capturing the moment. Here are just a few of them.