At Sydney restaurant Le Foote, lamb rump is treated with the reverence of a premium cut of beef. Fine ribbons of white fat run through the meat, which is cooked gently over charcoal to render it slowly, basting it from within. The lamb arrives in a bordelaise sauce enriched with lamb bone marrow, closer to something you’d expect from a steakhouse. Brendan Fong, culinary director of Le Foote’s hospitality group Swillhouse, says that marbling creates a “richer, more luxurious mouthfeel”.

The lamb rump at Le Foote is supplied by Kinross Station, a New South Wales farm that began breeding its Hampshire Down sheep to have a higher intramuscular fat content (marbling) in 2012. Thirteen years later, it launched KS7, which it describes as the world’s first ultra‑premium lamb. The fat content and texture invites comparison to that of Wagyu, the Japanese beef famed for its buttery flavour and high expense.

Kinross guarantees a minimum intramuscular fat content of seven per cent (the average Australian lamb, says founder Tom Bull, sits closer to four). For Darren O’Rourke of Endeavour Meats, which markets KS7, the goal is to “take lamb out of the cheap seats”. The product is priced up to A$100 a kilo and is sold to fine‑dining restaurants in Australia, Asia and the Middle East, not supermarkets.

Other New South Wales farms pursuing ultra‑premium lamb include Gundagai Lamb and Margra. Tim Leahy, co‑founder of Margra, notes that their Australian White sheep produce fat that melts at 28‑35°C, a different sensation to traditional lamb.

In the UK, Northamptonshire farm Seawell is experimenting with breeding sheep for marbling, acknowledging that Australia is ahead by about 15 years.

The movement is reshaping lamb’s cultural cachet, with chefs like Tomos Parry arguing that lamb is “starting to be respected in the same league as beef” but still cannot match the prestige of steak.