Shropshire Star

Daniel is top of the chops

Talented Daniel Raftery proved himself to be top of the chops when he was crowned Welsh butcher of the year at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair.

Published
Welsh Butcher of the Year champion Daniel Raftery with Katy Godsell (left) from Cambrian Training Company and Kirstie Jones form Hybu Cig Cymru/Meat Promotion Wales.

The 34 year old slaughterman from Randall Parker Foods, Dolwen, Llanidloes, has not been a retail butcher for 10 years. But he held off a strong challenge from two rivals to win the title.

Organised by Cambrian Training Company, the contest is sponsored by Hybu Cig Cymru/Meat Promotion Wales, the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and Celtica Foods.

The contest was a true test of the butchers' skills over three tasks. They were given an hour to seam a topside of Welsh Beef, 70 minutes to create kitchen ready products for customers from a mystery box of ingredients and 90 minutes to create a visually exciting barbecue display of chicken, Welsh Beef, Welsh Lamb and pork.

Daniel, who lives in Abermule, near Newtown, said it was only his second competition and he was surprised but delighted to win. "Everything went pretty smoothly, but the time went very fast," he added.

"I had been practicing for the previous week but couldn't prepare for what was in the mystery box, which threw me a little. I find the competitions hard because the last time I worked as a retail butcher was about 10 years ago. I'm lucky to have the full support of my employer to compete."

He now plans to compete in next year's Butchery WorldSkills UK National Competition and would like to open a butcher's shop in the future.

Chris Jones, from Cambrian Training Company, who judged the final with Steve Vaughan, from Vaughan's Family Butchers, Penyffordd, praised the high standard of work produced by the three butchers.

"It was a very close final . "Daniel was so organised and everything he did was done perfectly. He produced good, clean products that were well displayed.

"What is particularly impressive is that Daniel has retained his retail butchery skills despite being out of that environment for 10 years. Being a grade A slaughterman is a very skilled job which requires accuracy, cleanliness and speed, while retail butchery requires more finesse and a knowledge of how to display meat."