Adrian Richardson says the proliferation of celebrity chefs like him during the past 10 years has been a double-edged sword for beef producers.
The high-profile Melbourne restaurateur, author and one half of the Good Chef Bad Chef television duo says television chefs have significantly raised consumer interest in good food and how it should be cooked.
The popularity of television cooking shows was bringing the great chefs of the world into everybody's lounge rooms, he said.
As a result people were becoming more educated and were asking more questions about where their food was coming from and whether it had been sustainably produced.
He said customers to his La Luna Bistro in Melbourne were now asking more questions about the origins of the high-quality beef he was serving and whether the animals had lived happy lives.
Mr Richardson told the Angus through the Ages national conference in Albury that this increased education of consumers about foods like beef had also coincided with a rise in the activities of radical vegans and animal liberationists.
They were using all forms of media to persuade people that meat was bad, he said.
Last year his own restaurant had been picketed by about 30 protesters as he was preparing to serve suckling pig to 110 customers inside who were "chaffing at the bit" to tuck in.
He likened the protesters to militant members of a cult but warned they were clever, well organised, were getting traction and had money behind them.
"For me it's about getting the message out there that meat is natural and normal," he said. "The slaughtering of animals is a natural process."
Mr Richardson said he had differentiated the beef he sells in his restaurant by aging it for up to eight weeks.
At any one time he had 2500kg of beef aging in his cool room to provide the flavour and tenderness which had customers happily forking about between $50 and $80 for a steak.
Mr Richardson said his customers preferred aged grassfed beef because of its special taste and the stories around its production were appealing to his customers.
His customers wanted to know their steak had come from animals that had "roamed the fields and nibbled the daisies", he said.
He buys around eight long-cut "argies" on the bone a week (which consist of the four primal cuts of rib eye, porterhouse, eye fillet and rump) direct from abattoirs.
Mr Richardson said the long aging process negated the need for a lot of marbling in his beef although he was enjoying good success with Little Joe premium brand grassfed beef from JBS which has a minimum marble score of 4.
He left school planning to follow the career path of his father who was an airline pilot but with strong cooking genes from both sides of his family he decided to become an apprentice chef back in an era when there was little glamour working long hours in dinghy kitchens for poor pay.
The "Perfect Steak"
And how does Mr Richardson cook his "perfect" steak?
Well, you start with a good quality steak which should be taken from the fridge and left to sit until it is at room temperature.
"That will allow it to cook nice and evenly," he said.
Next sprinkle some salt on the steak. "Salt loves beef and beef loves salt," he said.
Then warm up your grill, fry pan or griddle to a medium-high temperature so the first side of the steak is immediately seared, locking in all the juices and flavour.
"Put the steak on one side for a minute or two minutes and then turn it over every couple of minutes."
The steak should be turned before any juices had a chance to escape from the top, he said.
"Those juices belong in your mouth, that's what makes the steak flavoursome and tasty.
Depending on the "doneness" required (rare, medium-rare etc), the steak should be left to rest for about half the cooking time then reheated on the grill for a minute or two just before serving.
"Cooking a steak is like shaking up a can of Coke, all the juices want to explode and get out straight away (if the steak is cut immediately after cooking)."