More Members and Lamb

The school utilized Australian lamb across all campuses, creating a competition called The Taste Down Under. Meitzer competed twice.

“The first time [I competed], I took second place. The prize was four days in Australia, cooking dinner at the Australian embassy,” he says. “The second year, I won the competition— and the prize was two weeks paid in Australia. So I cooked dinner in the Outback in Alice Springs, Australia, for a group of dignitaries.”

He’d planned to make them a Texas brisket but encountered a language barrier.

“I realized their definition of ‘barbecue’ and my definition were very different,” Meitzer says. “I was expecting a cold smoker kind of a barbecue, but in the Outback, when you say ‘barbecue,’ it’s a flat-top. I should have realized when the butcher gave me a strange look.”

Still, he says, “it was an eye-opening trip and a great learning experience.”

Aussie Academy

This past year, Meitzer participated in another Aussie event when Meat & Livestock Australia’s Aussie Beef & Lamb brand invited chefs from clubs across the country to participate in a two-day learning, networking, and culinary immersion event hosted at Ansley Golf Club in Atlanta, which culminated in a cooking challenge.

Meitzer was paired with James Patterson, Corporate Executive Chef of McConnell Golf and Executive Chef of Porters Neck Country Club (Wilmington, N.C.), to craft several dishes using different cuts of Australian beef and lamb.

“That was a cool opportunity to bring different chefs together and into a kitchen,” says Meitzer. “There were some guidelines, but we had a lot of freedom to play around with the product and utilize cuts of beef and lamb that people aren’t as familiar with.”

The two created a tandoori ribeye with root vegetable curry and mint salad; a Thai lamb salad with ginger-carrot dressing and pickled mushrooms; and charcuterie with tartare, carpaccio, sausage and airdried beef (pictured above).

“Lamb isn’t often thought of on a charcuterie board,” Meitzer notes, but the dish was well-received by Ansley’s members.

Meitzer says the tandoori dish was inspired by what he foresees as a major culinary trend: Indian-inspired cuisine, which Meitzer predicts could begin to overshadow other consumer favorites like Thai.

At a recent board dinner, he crafted 15 different South Indian dishes, including a lamb vindaloo.

Ultimately, Meitzer’s all about exploring global flavors and cuisine, demonstrating new and innovative ways chefs can showcase a memberfavorite ingredient like lamb.

And while lamb might traditionally be considered more for fine dining, Meitzer’s been incorporating cuts like lamb shoulder or leg into more casual dishes, including a gyro pizza at Forest Lake’s pool area.

“I added a bit of mozzarella, tomatoes, black olives, and I flashbaked the pita with the gyro meat,” says Meitzer. “I topped it with tzatziki and chopped mint when it came out. The members loved it.” C+RC