The Dalziel Butchers Show is the only dedicated show for retail butchers and was primarily attended by butchers enabling them all to see what was going on in the industry. Many butchers felt that the show was more important than ever because working long hours left them with very little opportunity to interact with the rest of the profession.
Brendan Anderton Butchers was represented by Bruce Ogden who, along with his wife Gigi, had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Bruce spoke with many of the exhibitors and fed back accordingly to the Anderton directors.
We submitted 9 pork entries (sausages and burgers) and all were awarded certificates with the majority being at Gold/Silver level. This was an outstanding achievement and clearly shows that Brendan Anderton Butchers is the purveyor of high quality produce and is most certainly up there with the best!
As well as the trade aspect of the show, some of the finest young butchers in the South of England participated in the Young Butchers Creative Meat Display competition. Each competitor was given a knuckle of beef, fore of pork, shoulder of lamb and 2 whole chickens along with a ‘pantry’ of Verstegen, MRC and Lucas products supplied by Dalziel. The competitors had 2 hours to complete the display and were ultimately judged on their innovation, display skills, workmanship, utilisation of waste and trim, the amount of products produced in the time allocated, description/labelling, health, hygiene and cleanliness. The competition was won by James David Taylor.
The 6 GB team members, collectively known as the ‘British Beefeaters’ are due to participate in the World Butchers’ Challenge in Australia in September 2016. The team took advantage of the day to show off their combined butchery skills with a 3 hour warm up performance by turning a side of beef, pork and a lamb into a first class display.
Bruce spoke at length with Mr Roger Kelsy, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Meat & Food Traders (NFMF&T). Roger was extremely passionate about being a butcher and was keen to point out that the industry was not just about cutting meat; to the contrary, he felt it was more about the overall level of skill, thereby allowing people to showcase their exceptional creativity. Roger also felt that the NFMF&T was ideally placed to ‘open doors of opportunity’ especially to its younger members, both male and female. Furthermore, Roger was extremely proud that many NFMF&T apprentices had already achieved considerable success at a very young age.
