Salty secrets and bragging rights on the line in salami showdown

The Veneto Club in Melbourne’s north-east is preparing to hold its first salami festa, and while for many it will be a bit of fun, it’s serious stuff for some home smallgoods makers.

Many entrants in the two-day festa’s salami competition are closely guarding their recipes, says the Italian social club’s executive manager, Joe Morello.

“People don’t like to give away their secrets. It’s a bit like the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices.”

While the winners behind the salamis judged “best” and “most innovative” in blind tastings will get $500 each, “it’s more about bragging rights”, Morello says.

“Everyone wants to be able to say, ‘My salami is the best.’”

Veneto Club general manager Kon Monos hopes the festa, to be held on August 30 and 31, will “put the club back out there in the marketplace” and become an annual event.

It’s been a challenging few years for the club, which was founded in 1967 by immigrants, who built the Bulleen headquarters in 1973.

It survived the COVID-19 pandemic partly by selling takeaway and online deli products and meals.

The North-East Link freeway is being built on its doorstep, the government having acquired some of the club’s Bulleen Road frontage.

Morello, who when growing up would spend a weekend each winter with family and friends making salami in his uncle’s Mildura garage, will submit to the Veneto Club festa competition a salami made from his own secret recipe.

This winter, at the club, Morello taught salami-making to workmates, including Monos.

Monos, from a Greek family, quips he’s more inclined to make souvlaki than salami, but says that when growing up in Preston, his Italian friends would make salami. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.

In a twist, the salami that Morello taught his Veneto Club workmates to make, which will also be entered in the Festa contest, derives from the south of Italy, reflecting Morello’s family being from Calabria.

However, the Veneto Club’s more than 600 founding members were from the Veneto region, in the country’s north.

Morello said Calabrian salami tended to include hotter ingredients like chilli flakes and capsicum sauce, whereas the Veneto version was often milder, with salt, garlic and a bit of cracked pepper.

The festa will be open to the public, with a $15 entry fee and children under 12 free. Stalls will sell everything from pizza to salami, cheeses, cannoli, spritz drinks and coffee.

Live entertainment includes the Veneto Club choir, a band that plays regional Italian music, a jazz band and a roving accordion player.

Entries to the homemade salami competition cost $10 per salami. The salamis need to be dropped off at either the Veneto Club or Artisan’s Bottega in Epping by close of business on August 29.

They will be judged from noon on August 31, based on factors including appearance, texture, aroma and taste.

Judges include 3AW journalist Tony Tardio and City of Manningham Mayor Deirdre Diamante. Winners will be announced at 3pm on August 31.

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