Moorabool mushroom grower Parwan Mushrooms has achieved a marketing coup with its chief executive, Tim Adlington, making his national television debut last week on Channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules.
He and his family were invited to Sydney to be on the program.
Mr Adlington, who appeared on the show on behalf of Coles, was one of 12 of the supermarket’s suppliers given the chance to showcase their products by having contestants use them in the cooking competition.
Mr Adlington said he and his family enjoyed the experience and had a great day meeting and working with other farmers and the contestants.
“It was a long day of filming, but it was really quite enjoyable.”
Mr Adlington said the food produced by the contestants was of high quality, and he had the best salmon he’d ever tasted while judging the dishes.
“The food they produced and cooked that day was fine dining and really, really good cuisine. They really produce some great stuff.”
Each pair of contestants chose produce from a different farmer, with Parwan Mushrooms being picked up by contestants Kat and Andre, who made pork and mushroom cabbage rolls with mushroom sauce.
“I loved it,” Mr Adlington said of the dish.
In the words of [judge] Colin [Fassnidge], the cabbage roll “is nice but when you put the mushroom sauce over it, it’s spectacular. It was an incredibly good mushroom sauce”.
Mr Adlington said appearing on the show was a great way to shine the spotlight on local produce. “It makes me feel really proud of the industry.”
Mr Adlington, who has been working with mushrooms all his life, says he loves this “fruiting body of a fungus”, especially the way they double in size every 24 hours.