Speaker Profile

Sam Burke is an executive chef, marketing and hospitality operations manager with more than 28 years industry experience working with premium beef, lamb, veal and goat.

Starting out as an apprentice chef Sam worked his way up the catering trade in butcher shops, corporate, leisure and sporting events including the Olympics and Rugby World Cup, before joining one of Australia’s largest commercial catering companies for 20 years.

Trading catering halls for beef and boardrooms, Sam took over the executive chef reins at Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) in 2014 and has since travelled across Australia and the globe promoting and celebrating the quality and diversity of premium Australian red meat to the wider community.

Sam’s expertise in large scale catering environments has enabled him to educate Australian Red Meat users on plate costs, product development and extracting value from the whole carcass. This included working with McDonalds Japan on new sandwich concepts using Australian red meat alongside their traditional burger offerings and enabling other quick service restaurants and retailers to present smaller primal cuts to suit the growing convenience trend.

Globally, Sam has cooked for thousands ranging from trade shows in Asia, wagyu experts in Japan, politicians, sports stars, musicians in Australia and in 2016 at the Queen’s Young Achievers annual celebration at the Australian High Commission in London.

Sam’s knowledge of red meat spans the entire supply chain, having worked closely alongside farmers, processors, food technology scientists, chefs, restaurant chains, retailers, CEOs and meat traders to understand and celebrate the attributes of beef and lamb to the global chef and foodservice community.