Ontario’s Finest Butcher Competition Sees Record Number of Entries
Six heats faced off on Monday in a showcase of extraordinary knife skills, demonstrating remarkable efficiency from butchers across Ontario
The scores were calculated, and for the first time in 8 years a tie was announced, resulting in four finalists moving forward to the final round in Ontario’s Finest Butcher competition.
Competitors had thirty minutes to transform a fresh pork bone-in leg, bone-in butt, and bone-in loin, into merchandisable cuts of their choice, and were judged on the degree of difficulty/efficiency and skill level in boning, trimming and cutting, primal cut utilization and financial performance.
“We had a record breaking 17 butchers competing this year which is great to see“
The four butchers moving on to the final round at Storehouse 408 in Cambridge on September 28 are (in no particular order):
Doug Easterbrook of Townsend Butchers, Simcoe
Christopher McNutt of Halenda’s Meats, Oshawa
Paul Gentile of Metro Ontario, Toronto
Ricardo Sousa of Pavao Meats, Toronto
“We had a record breaking 17 butchers competing this year which is great to see,” said Franco Naccarato, MPO executive director. “All competitors should be extremely proud of their performance.”
The elimination round took place at Halenda’s – The Meat Store in Mississauga. The 320kgs of pork donated by Conestoga Meat Packers, Breslau, was packaged by the team at Halenda’s and delivered to Second Harvest Food Rescue.
Tune in to Meat & Poultry Ontario’s Facebook page at 11:30 on September 28 to watch the final round live, sponsored of Metro: https://www.facebook.com/MeatPoultryON .
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