“That ones got a bit of a kick,” says Tony Tartaglia, as I bite into his award-winning Hot Mexican Delight. And he’s right. It’s certainly a sausage with a fiery finish, but then, you’re not talking your common or garden snag here. I’ve travelled to Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to meet the man who has just made history in the regional heats of the Australian Meat Industry Council’s 2011 Sausage King Awards.
For the first time in the competition’s twenty year history, just one butcher (Tony), won first, second and third places, beating 180 other sausages made by thirty different butchers in the awards’ Victorian regional heats.
The sizzling trifecta success was achieved with a multicultural melange of mouthwatering mincemeat creations: The Hot Mexican came in third, second spot went to his orientally-inclined Chinese Plum variety, and topping the lot, was his Tuscan – a delicate concoction of lean pork and veal, parsley, green peppercorns, parmesan and a pinch of chili.
The son of Greek and Cypriot / Italian parents who had met in Egypt, Tony Tartaglia was born in Melbourne and raised with two elder brothers in the suburb of Fawkner. Tony’s father, Luigi (born in Lemnos of Italian extraction) came to Melbourne in 1956.
“Dad first worked as a motor mechanic and turned to local politics after working for Ford,” says Tony, “after being a local councillor, dad became the first ethnic Mayor of Broadmeadows and its longest serving mayor.”
An appreciation of good healthy food came early in life to Tony, like most children of the first generation diaspora, courtesy of his mum Olympia. “She was the typical Greek mum, ‘you must eat, if you don’t eat you’re not going out’.
Mum would cook mousaka and stifado. My friends couldn’t wait to come round my house. From my background, food is not just eaten, it’s celebrated.”
At sixteen, Tony left school to become an apprentice to Joe Pecci an Italian butcher in the neighbourhood . “I loved it from the beginning. I started, like so many butchers, as a clean-up boy, I washed dishes, swept floors for a bit of pocket money.”
Tony learned his trade and was soon working for another Italian butcher in Carlton, learning continental European styles of meat preparation. Fully-trained, Tony was in demand and worked hard. For seventeen years Tony plied his trade at Preston market managing three butchers shops for their Greek owners. In 1998, he established Tony’s Gourmet Delights – combining the traditional butchers shop with a delicatessen experience – offering a diverse range of ready-cooked meals freshly prepared each day.
The shop today is a profusion of products: ready-to-heat curries, casseroles, soups and stews, pies and pasta dishes. The gastronomic spread of prepared meals jostles for space with traditional butchers’ fare – aged beef from King Island, high-quality poultry, pork and lamb, and of course, thirteen varieties of some of the finest sausages to be found in Victoria. “It’s quite simple,” says Tony, when asked what his recipe is for commercial success, “good quality product, exceptional service, and honesty.”
Tony leads a committed and creative team of seven staff, including two experienced chefs who prepare the ‘heat and eat’ products in the registered kitchen at the back of the shop. It’s here that the award-winning recipes based on a health-enhancing Mediterranean diet are perfected. “Having the kitchen allows us to play around with different flavours,” says Tony, “we’ll cook it up and experiment, like an artist does on a canvas.” There may be no paintings on the walls, but one framed photograph takes pride of place: a shot of Tony with his then wife-to-be Mary Christofidis, taken less than two years ago at Collingwood Football Club’s annual Copeland Trophy dinner.
He’s always been a devoted Pies fan and was a keen teenage ruckman himself, until being an eager apprentice at Pecci’s butchers those years ago put an end to playing Saturday footy. The photograph shows a dinner-jacketed Tony onstage with Mary. Celebrity broadcaster and Magpies president Eddie McGuire is on the right, offering Tony the microphone. The moment in time is caught, as the gourmet butcher proposes to Mary in front of 1700 Pies fans. Happily she said yes. They married on Valentine’s Day 2010. Mary, who teaches secondary students history and English also at the local Greek school, finds the time to be a vital cog in her husband’s business, working behind the scenes on recipes, administration and merchandising.
“She gives me lots of confidence, makes sure I’m rested and fed. She’s the rock behind it all,” says Tony. Born in Melbourne, of parents from Cyprus who had Cephalonian and Macedonian roots, Mary added a new and rich ingredient into Tony Tartaglia’s world. Together they are very much a winning team. The state finals of the 2011 Sausage King Awards will take place in November and Tony will be up against six other regional winners. After that it’s the national awards. There’s every chance that Tony’s Gourmet Delights can go all the way to the grand final. Go Tony and the team!
For more info visit www.tonysgourmetdelights.com.au