Rick Stein (blue shirt, centre) was impressed by the Hanwood P&C democracy sausages. Photo: Hanwood Public School.
Rick Stein doesn’t rate Australian sausages. He has long maintained they’re no match for a proper British pork banger.
That opinion, however, softened during a visit to Griffith, when local photographer Eleisha Collins handed him a sizzling beef snag from the Hanwood Butchery.
“I’m amazed,” he said.
“I love Australia, but I’m not keen on the snags, but this is a good one; maybe I’m becoming an Aussie after all.”
The 79-year-old celebrity chef was in the Riverina in May 2025 filming the TV special Rick Stein’s Australia, which aired for the first time last week.
During his visit, Mr Stein fried an omelette for Ian Marston at his emu farm at The Rock, sipped a red at De Bortoli Wines, tasted a ricotta cannoli with Kandi Bertoldo at her family bakery, dined with Luke and Peter Piccolo at their family farm, and was surprised when he found beetroot in his burger at Australia’s oldest milk bar in Gundagai.
Ian Marston invited Rick Stein to his emu farm. Photo: BBC still shot/Visit Lockhart Facebook.
He even found time to stop by Hanwood Public School on federal election day, where the P&C was selling democracy sausages.
“It was very enjoyable spending time with Rick, he is a total gentleman and was not fazed with the fuss of filming at all,” Ms Collins said.
“Having Rick, his wife Sarah and the SBS film crew at Hanwood Public School was a real pleasure. The kids that came to help out that day thought it was super special he came to our school.”
While in Hanwood, Mr Stein also met winery king Darren De Bortoli, who explained that his grandfather began making wine in the 1920s because he couldn’t sell his grapes.
“In the 1960s, when people ordered a red wine in Australia, they’d be asked if they wanted either port or sherry,” the famous chef said.
Mr De Bortoli told him Australians didn’t start drinking more table wine than fortified wine until 1972.
Mr Stein was just as intrigued by local history when he visited the cave of legendary Griffith hermit Valerio Ricetti, inspected his kitchen and learned about his bizarre two decades of solitude after a barmaid broke his heart.
“It seems this is a place [Griffith] where people can reinvent themselves into whoever they want,” he said.
Eleisha Collins with Rick Stein. Photo: Supplied.
At the Piccolo family farm, he enjoyed oven-roasted quails prepared using a recipe Luke Piccolo’s nonna taught him.
“We usually eat about two, but my father Peter eats about six,” Luke joked.
The TV chef’s final stop in the Riverina was the famous Niagara Cafe in Gundagai, which opened in 1902 and is believed to be the first Greek milk bar in Australia.
“I’ve ordered a classic hamburger with the lot which always includes canned beetroot,” he said.
“It’s a mystery as to why beetroot started appearing on burgers; it’s believed the opening of canneries led to a huge enthusiasm for canned food across Australia.”
He described the burger as “really special”, a phrase that neatly summed up his entire Riverina experience.
The Riverina episode of Rick Stein’s Australia can be viewed on Daily Motion.
