Our two superstar butchers, Dan Turnbull & Alex Daley have landed in the upper echelons of some of the best in the UK after facing off against rival butchers in a national competition on Thursday, July 11.
Competing at The Great Yorkshire Show, a total of 9 teams were entered to the competition, which was hosted by industry supplier, Dalziel Ltd, which saw teams of 2 race against the clock to cut, prepare as much as they could from a range of fresh meat in just 2hrs and 45mins before presenting to a panel of expert judges.
The team given a side of Pork, topside of Beef, rump of Beef, thick Flank of Beef, whole lamb and three whole Chickens, alongside pantry of ingredients and a communal workspace with commonly found butchery tools; a mincer, a sausage machine and a scale. Each team was judged on their theme, butchery skills, innovation, display skills, workmanship, health and hygiene, cleanliness, utilisation of waste and trim, amount and quality of products produced.
The pair came away with four awards from the heat on Thursday, those included: Best Beef Product (Bistro Steak & Stilton Pie), Best Burger (A Beef, Stilton, Black Pudding & Caramelised Onion Burger), Best Sausage (Honey Roasted Pork) & Best Pork Product (Oriental Pork Tomahawk)
Dan & his trusted sidekick, Alex, chose to focus their efforts with their team theme showcasing the ‘Past, Present & Future’ of Butchery by mixing up traditional cuts with modern techniques.
Dan said: “We are so happy to be recognised as some of the best in the UK by taking part in this competition. It’s shame we didn’t win overall but just to be here is a great achievement and I’m proud that we were able to represent over 140 years of my family’s legacy”
He added: “I’m dead chuffed at how we managed to produce a total of 45 different dishes in just under three hours, that was not an easy task”
As for the future, the team decided to enlist the help of Ai to suggest new dishes for the pair to create on the day.
Dan explained: “We asked Chat GPT to suggest a range of products we should produce based on the meat we had a available and it came back with some really interesting results. One of them, our summer fiesta sausage, we are now selling in the Food Hall”
Alex added “There was some stiff competition, and we were up against some great teams but I’m buzzing that we’ve been able to bring some awards home, unlike the Football ha-ha!”
The team at Turnbull’s look forward to showcasing their award-winning efforts in-store and encourage shoppers to try their award-winning produce based on their recent accolades at from the Smithfield awards earlier this year, including the Diamond award-winning Venison Wellington, Gold award-winning Maple-cured Bacon, Bistro Steak Pie, and Pork & Haggis Sausage – proving that you don’t have to go to Paris to win a gold medal!