Thank you to all the entrants of the inaugural Italian Festa Salami Competition!
Our judging panel really enjoyed the opportunity to taste all your salami and we were very impressed by the overall quality. We would like to congratulate the winners and encourage you to continue to work on improving your salami in preparation for next year’s competition.
In judging salami for a competition like this, the judges are looking for salami standout in flavour, texture and balance as well as demonstrate refined production techniques. While you may not have won an award, it does not mean your salami is not enjoyable.
2024 Italian Festa Salami Competition Results
Category Winners
Best Northern Style Salami
Winner: Bullanoo Short Goods; “Blonde”
Best Southern Style Salami
Winner: Jeffrey Vincent; “Pork & Garlic Cacciatore”
Second Place: John Castiglione; “Fennel Salami”
Third Place: Roberto Domenico Orlando; “Papa, Zio and me”
Grand Champion
Winner: Jeffrey Vincent; “Pork & Garlic Cacciatore”
Medals:
All salami scored out of 20 points.
No Medal (less than 13 points): Domestic style salami with some technique deficiencies
Bronze (13 to 15 points): Nicely made domestic style salami
Silver (15 to 17 points): Well made salami
Gold (17+ points): Very well made salami with great balance and flavour
Scores
Northern Style Salami:
A small, but generally well made group of salami. We would like to see more people attempting this style in next year’s competition.
Southern Style Salami:
A large and diverse group of generally tasty salami. The best showed great technique and balance, but a lot struggled with binding and crumbling/dryness. The judges recommend binding the meat well with salt only, before adding spices, capsicum paste and/or wine etc.
