Lake Macquarie bookkeeper Naomi Roskell is hoping to raise the profile of women who barbecue by competing in the world's largest "steak cook-off" next week.
Yes, you read that right ... Naomi's a bookkeeper. But she's a bookkeeper who knows how to cook a damn fine steak. Just ask her son, Zach, who reckons he can never order a steak from a restaurant again because he's been "spoilt" by taste-testing his mum's steaks over the years.
Hundreds of competitors from around the world are heading to Dallas, Texas, for the World Steak Cook Off Championships (March 13 to 17). Naomi will be joining them, having last year won a coveted "golden ticket" at the Smoke in Broke festival for her steak.
"I beat most of the top 20 steak cooks in Australia and I then won at Adelaide's Beer & BBQ Festival in July, securing my 'ancillary golden ticket'," she says.
Naomi has been hosting a series of fund-raising "steak masterclasses" where she showcases a local butcher's kindly donated rib-rye (scotch fillet) steak, shares her cooking tips and then prepares a two-course lunch or dinner. The event caters for 10 to 12 people, and her most recent masterclasses were sell-outs.
"To say I'm overwhelmed by the response is an understatement," she said.
"On top of that, I have a list of wonderful locals who are interested in attending, if I choose to continue the masterclasses after I return from America."
Naomi grew up in the Lake Macquarie suburbs of Belmont and Cardiff and now calls Valentine home.
"My mum Lorraine was a great home cook, we called her a 'White Wings' mum as she was always baking," she said.
"The endless cakes, creme caramels, her famous rock cakes or toffees for school fetes ... or her devilled eggs, which were always requested at family get-togethers. She taught my sister and I how to cook.
"Mum would bake. Me, I would experiment. It wasn't mud pies, but there'd always be some odd (and inedible) concoction, made from pantry or chilled ingredients, sitting in the bottom of the fridge [laughs]."
Naomi's cooking did, however, improve.
"I moved out when I was 19 and developed recipe collections from promotions run by local supermarkets," she explained. "When I didn't have an exact ingredient, I'd swap it out for something I did have. That's how I developed a sense for what flavours work well with each other. I've always enjoyed cooking, but what I enjoy more is seeing people's faces when they eat and enjoy my food."
Naomi has worked in offices and in retail, and as a DJ and MC at weddings. When she received an email from TAFE NSW advertising a Certificate IV in Financial Services, though, she knew she had found her "calling": bookkeeping.
"I'm passionate about helping small businesses thrive and make good business decisions. It was really a no-brainer for me," she said.
"Fast forward 11 years to when I was asked by my neighbour if I wanted to go off-grid camping at a barbecue festival. I was taken in hook, line and sinker and couldn't wait to do it all again, and that was in 2019 for Smoke in Broke. Unfortunately there was no festival for the next two years, but I was back with bells on in 2022.
"Within minutes of entering the festival compound I was chatting with some fellas who were competing, including Brett Gray from Meat Graffiti, who asked me to pick some flowers from a small pot plant to add as a garnish for his chilli dish and, before I knew it, I was asking when the next competition was."
Naomi competed at the Kangaroo Valley Craft Beer and BBQ Festival, finishing sixth in her first competition with a "gluten-free lamb toastie on a stick".
"Then I road-tripped with mates to Smokefest on the Gold Coast where I entered my first steak comp and came eighth! From there, I went on to win the bacon category at Full Throttle, and that's ironic because I don't eat bacon, but I got my first 'golden ticket' entry to the World Championships in Texas in March 2023, which I attended," she said.
"It was an amazing experience where I learnt so much about technique, process, texture, flavour, pit management ... it was what I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip."
She has since competed at events in Toowoomba, Armidale, Melbourne, Adelaide, New Zealand, Gerogery and Albury, and has "quite a few top 10s" under her belt. She ended the year "eighth in the country for ancillaries and 12th for steak".
Under the watchful eye of mentors Tim Mazaraki, Justin Brown and Brett Gray, Naomi has developed her own techniques for cooking a decent competition steak, and she's happy to share them ("It's not something that should be kept a secret"). She says she feels "more confident and more nervous" this time around because she knows what to expect at the Texas world championships, but is also "much better prepared".
Even with the support of Lake Macquarie locals through her steak masterclasses, Naomi has not reached her fund-raising goal. If you would like to help a talented local on the world stage, check out her My Cause page at mycause.com.au.
Bravery awards
You might recognise Naomi from previous Newcastle Herald stories. In 2012 she received a NSW Police commendation for bravery, as well as a Silver Medal and Galleghan Award from the Humane Society of NSW, for courage displayed in rescuing a young family stranded in floodwater during the 2007 Pasha Bulker storm. Naomi had been driving home on June 8, 2007, when water on the road forced her to park at a service station to wait out the storm. While there, she witnessed vehicles being washed away. She climbed onto the bonnet of a four-wheel-drive to assist a man clinging onto the side mirror of his car, and then saw a woman and two young children trapped on the roof of their car. Naomi grabbed some twine, wrapped it around her waist, secured it to a pole and walked through chest-deep water, rescuing the family.
''When you have the adrenaline pumping you don't really have a bearing on how long it takes or how deep the water was,'' she told the Herald at the time.
