Adam Stratton (Captain)
Tender Gourmet Butchery, Sydney, NSW
Team Captain, Adam has 28 years of experience as a butcher and has been a member of the Australian team since the competition started in 2011. As well as being captain, Adam’s role is product innovation. He is looking forward to competing this year in Belfast and seeing his team perform at a high level, like they did at the Gold Coast and also in Wellington NZ this year (2017) when they defeated the talented Kiwi team at the Trans-Tasman test match. Adam says he likes any meat and doesn’t have a particular favorite, but the best seller in his stores is pies, particularly lamb shank and balsamic and pulled pork.
Tom Bouchier
Peter Bouchier Butchers of Distinction, Toorak, VIC
Tom has been a butcher for eight years and the thing he loves most about butchering is coming up with new and innovative products and working with food trends to give customers a great food experience. Ireland will be Tom’s fourth year in the team; his role includes setting up the display, organizing the product tickets and plates, and then going back to the bench to work on breaking down primals and making products. Tom’s favourite cut of meat to cook is a nice thick rib eye over coals on the barbecue.
Nick Dagg
Gourmet Market Meats, Cairns, Queensland
Nick’s career began after starting his apprenticeship at a small family butcher shop in Cairns and by his second year, he was managing five butchers. Nick now owns his own thriving butcher shop in Cairns and is passionate about providing his customers with value added products. This is Nick’s third time in the team, with his role in the Australian Steelers being to create innovation with new products.
Colin Garrett
Colin’s Butchery, Zetland, NSW
Colin is the director of Colin’s Butchery, Sydney at Zetland and has 33 years’ experience as a butcher. This is Colin’s second year in the team and his main role is to break the lamb down into primals to be made into products. Colin’s favourite cut is pork belly and that’s also the biggest seller in his store. Colin joined the Australian Steelers as he believes he is a good all-round butcher with an eye for detail and can work as a team. Colin has been butchering for a long time and travelled plenty, looking at every butchery along the way for ideas. What he loves most about being a butcher is the detail of the display.
Luke Leyson
Goodwood Quality Meats, Goodwood, SA
Luke has been a butcher for nine years. He joined the Steelers in 2017 for the Trans-Tasman test match against New Zealand, but Belfast will be his first WBC competition. Luke’s role in the team is to break down and cut the pork to the team’s specifications, value-added products and to assist with the sausages and burgers. Luke is a steak lover, both beef and pork, but if he were to choose just one favourite, it would be a bone-in scotch fillet.
Luke tells us it’s an exciting time to be a butcher and he wants to recommend it for younger people looking to work in the industry. As a young apprentice, he says it wasn’t the most glamorous industry to be a part of from the outside looking in, but now that the public eye is catching on to the craftsmanship of being a butcher, it has brought it into a new light.
Paul Brady
Tender Gourmet Butchery, Macquarie, NSW
Paul has been in the trade for 27 years and his passion for butchery is centered on serving customers and giving meal solutions time and time again. Paul joined the Australian Steelers three years ago to better his skills, but also to showcase to the public how far butchers have evolved, from just cutting meat to pre-preparing meals. His role in the team is mainly the beef boner and breaking. Paul is feeling excited to be competing in the biggest butchery event ever to be held in the world. This event also has special significance for Paul as it will also be a homecoming, this is because Ireland is the place where he laid the foundation for his career. Paul’s favorite protein is slow cooked pork shoulder; ‘after you crack the tasty crackling, you have this soft, moist and tender pork to devour’.
Apprentices
Joseph Maberley
Vic’s Meat Market, Pyrmont, NSW
Joseph started his apprenticeship in 2016 and has developed a passion for the art of butchery, in particular he loves the satisfaction of serving a customer and giving them exactly what they need. Josephs favourite cut of meat is beef scotch fillet, as he says that it is so tender and the flavor is always second to none. He says it has to be cooked rare with smoked salt and pepper and finished off with butter, garlic and thyme.
Jack Stuart
Neal Eastley’s Quality Meats, East Maitland, NSW
Jack is a second-year apprentice, learning from a traditional butcher and has an extensive knowledge of the processes involved from paddock to plate. The diverse skills in retail butchering, from breaking down a hind quarter and forequarter to speaking with regular and new customers daily is what he loves about butchering. Jack really enjoys creating innovative ideas for the store to suit the local market, whilst keeping in with old school butchery. Jack’s favourite meat to cook is a good old T-bone with the fillet attached.
Mitchell Byrnes
Hudson Meats, Drummoyne, NSW
Mitchell works at hudson Meats and has been an apprentice for two and a half years. Mitchell enjoys butchery because he like to experiment and leanr new things and there is a lot to learn in butchery. Mitchell’s favourite cut to cook would have to be a pork loinroast but the shop’s biggest selling cut would have to be scotch fillet steaks.
Young Aussie Butchers
Caleb Sundqvist
Goodwood Quality Meats, Goodwood, South Australia
Caleb started work at Goodwood Quality Meats in 2009 and was offered an apprenticeship when the shop changed hands. He completed his training in October 2016. Caleb loves interacting with customers and the community and has a passion for butchery and now competition low and slow barbecue. Caleb loves to cook all things low and slow barbecue, but his favorite cut to cook would have to be American style pork ribs.
Jimmy Nevill
A Cut Above Family Butcher, Corio, VIC
Jimmy has been butchering for five years and loves it because it’s different to any other trade with skills you cannot learn anywhere else, which makes it a very unique kind of job. When Jimmy was an apprentice, he won apprentice of the year in VIC and came third in the national competition. “I am very creatively minded. I am very good at coming up with new and exciting ideas and solving problems. My greatest skill is probably my ability to create complex value-add products and able to do so quickly and cleanly in a correct manner. Jimmy’s favourite protein to cook is scotch fillet steak, as it’s always been delightful.
