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I often get asked why, or how, I became a butcher.

My life has never been sheltered when it comes to the ins and outs of meat. 

From as far back as I can remember my parents have been involved in the meat industry.

When I was of a very young age, my stepfather met my mother and the story of my introduction to meat stems from there. My stepfather was, and still is, a butcher by trade along with his father and brother. Earlier his grandfather was the founder of the slaughter-house (abattoir) in Canberra, Australia. By the time I entered school, my extended family of mother, father, sister and brothers, 7 in total, were in some way involved in the meat trade and mostly at the slaughter-house in Canberra.
Mother was working in the canteen supplying all the meat workers with lunch. Stepfather was grading beef, two stepbrothers working on the slaughter floor, my sister supported mum and my brother was working in the boning hall. So my family where likened to the Mafia at the slaughter-house. 
Most of my school holidays were spent walking every inch of the Canberra slaughter-house which is not the way most 5 to 13 years olds spend their school holidays.
There were unexpected benefits.  If a pregnant ewe came in and lambed overnight we would take the lamb home to raise in the backyard. I remember at one stage having 8 young lambs running around which meant coming home from school on lunch breaks to bottle-feed the little blighters.
When I was 15 my parents went back into retail butchery. It was a husband and wife operation with a little help from me making sausages and minced meats. After leaving school this is where I began to learn real skills as a butcher. Father was a very good teacher, but sometimes lacked patience.  If something wasn’t right, or up to his high standards he would make you do it over and over again till it was perfected. A habit I have now picked up when training my new butchers.
Straight after leaving school I had no interest in butchery at all. The thought of long hours, little pay and hard work put me off. My challenge was getting to the beach every day to go surfing. It slowly dawned on me that I needed money to do the things that I wanted. So I returned to my hometown to follow the family tradition of working in the Canberra slaughter-house. I worked packing meat for a year before it closed it's doors for the final time. 
From Canberra I returned to the family butcher shop near the coast to start my 4 year apprenticeship as a butcher, which meant working closely with my stepfather on all aspects of butchery. He always gave you the impression that what you were doing was not up to his standards which was good in a way. This always made me try that little bit harder. I think now he is very happy with my achievements as a butcher. It was great working side by side with my mother.  It still amazes me how quick she was with a knife. Dear old mum could debone a chicken quicker then I could. 
After the completion of my trade apprenticeship, I moved to an export boning hall some 200 km commute away, living on a farm in the company of 4 other meat workers. Here I learnt the art of getting a knife razor sharp. Your knife was your best weapon in keeping your wrist in good working order and every night I would ask different people how they sharpened their knives. The answers were many and varied, but the common thread was keeping the sharpening angles exactly the same all the time. I quickly worked my way up from just a laborer to a slicer, which was close to a portion controller, de-fatting meat and trimming correctly for mince or other specified cuts. The next step was one of the hardest challenges in my butchery life, learning to bone out beef hindquarters suspended on a moving conveyor belt. I had been doing this with my dad but this was a whole different game. The carcass was always moving and you had only 4 minutes to do it in. I remember I had 6 weeks to get up to the speed of the other boners some of whom had been there for years. I think for the best part of those 6 weeks I could hardly open a packet of crisps as my hands were so sore from holding a knife and meat hook. But some great times were had. Picture a warehouse full of suspended beef carcasses, with 60 men dressed in full food safety whites, including hat and wellies (gumboots in Australian) singing and dancing along to Sophie Ellis Bextors, Murder on the Dancefloor, Her producer should have come to us for her video clips !
Not long after I made the progression to a fully qualified boner there was a family illness that saw my return back to the family butcher shop. My favourite part of being back in the shop was the customers and the chance to show off my new found knowledge and skills. I worked for my parents for the next 2 years before my girlfriend offered me a chance to run her modern pizza restaurant. Which happened to be right next to a pub, so how could I decline.
Upon moving to London I found that butchers were in high demand and had 3 jobs to choose from in my first week, in London.  My choice was to work at the Smithfield Meat Market for Butcher & Edmonds who used to be in the old Leadenhall market. Trading out of Smithfield, Butcher & Edmonds became one of the biggest catering butchers in London. Both the managers were ex-Allen’s of Mayfair so they really knew their stuff. I learnt some very fine knife skills here, the importance of presentation, speed and timing. All orders were done during the night and after no contact with the general public, I found myself looking elsewhere for work after a year.
After a brief stint with Daylesford Organics, I joined the Ginger Pig @ Borough market. Under the watchful eye of Paul Greatorex, I built my knowledge of meat, breeds and the importance of animal husbandry more than I had in my entire butchery career so far. It was great working with Paul listening to all his stories about the way London butchers used to be. Murray’s meat market and their massive meat displays was often a topic. Paul still carries the photos around with him. They show massive meat displays that were created for competions, every thing from top displays to whole sides of pork hanging above the meat counter. Paul is a very talented butcher; one of London’s best and most passionate. When he left The Ginger Pig I had the chance to become manager and work a little closer with the farm. This involved a couple of trips and over night stays at Ginger Pig HQ in lovely North Yorkshire. Whilst working at “The Pig”, I met some very nice customers who I still love to catch up with and a lot of great chefs like Nuno Mendes, Ben Greeno and Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May’s fame in the States.  Adam eventually asked me to join him and Jamie Oliver in the opening of Barbecoa Restaurant and Butchery. An amazing experience and a real eye opener to just how differently meat is treated across the pond, lots of BBQ, brining, different cuts like short rib (Jacobs Ladder), Denver and especially interesting were the South American influences, like pulled pork or picanhana (the ‘cap’ or top muscle from the rump), more popular in Brazil than Rib eye or Fillet, get yourself some if you haven’t already. I recommend a BBQ or very hot griddle and only cooking to medium rare.
I was in awe of Adams meat ageing room in the Las Vegas restaurant, CarneVino, some 1000 square feet of meat love. And at Barbecoa we really enjoyed having the space to age beef well beyond the UK standard of 28 days – to watch the process week by week and taste the results. As well as fun things like BrawnOff - great food bloggers Meemalee, Aaron Davies, Paul and Danny Kingston invited to make their own brawn and us lucky butchers to taste test and pick a winner.
And currently I am learning about animal welfare as Meat Team Leader at Wholefoods High Street Kensington, come by and say hi.


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