Radford’s Butchers in Sleights has carved its place in competition history after winning the coveted Battle of the Butchers title for the third year in a row.
Andrew Radford and Pete Everington were a cut above the rest of the competition – eight other teams from around the country – creating a mouthwatering display of 48 products styled in a Yorkshire rose, and in just two hours.
Using a side of pork, a lamb, a beef knuckle and three whole chickens, the award-winning duo had to bone, fillet, prepare and marinade the meat, present it and provide labels with a description of the dish and details of how to cook it.
They set it out in a Yorkshire rose they, and Andrew’s wife Sarah, had made with Kingspan insulation, and covered with felt and flowers.
It is the third year in a row they have won the competition, hosted by Dalziels, a firm which sells ingredients and products to the butcher trade.
Between the pair of them they have now won six gold cleavers and have had to remove them from the top of the counter as they now have so many, staff can’t see the customers.
Andrew said: “It was a work of art and we were so proud of it. It was definitely, in 30 years of competing, the best I have done in terms of layout – and thanks to Sarah because the Yorkshire rose was her idea.”
“We were so delighted with what we had done on the day, just to complete it was an achievement.”
The competition was hosted at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate and, after finishing the display, Andrew and Pete had hours to wait before they found out the result.
“It wouldn’t have been an easy task to judge”, said Andrew, who joked they had entered to avoid being asked to judge.
After winning Battle of the Butchers for the previous two years, each time the duo have said ‘that is the last time’ but were tempted back.
Andrew said: “It was tea-time at home and I just said to Sarah, ‘if’ we were to do it again I’d do the display as a big round. She suggested the Yorkshire rose, as we are all about Yorkshire produce, and it was at the Yorkshire showground.
“We still weren’t 100 per cent about entering and then I got a phone call from Dalziel saying there was one place left in the competition, and if I didn’t want to take part, would I judge?
“I thought, ‘I ain’t judging, so we will do it’.”
Andrew and Pete, who have each been in the trade for more than 40 years, did several practice runs before the competition and still used every second of their allotted two hours.
Pete recalls: “They counted down 10 to one and we used every last second. We wanted to be creative but you can’t do something which looks fantastic but would never sell in the shop.
“You can’t create a leg of lamb that looks like a fountain because nobody would ever buy it.”
When Andrew attended Malton Cattle Market this week, he was given a round of applause in the ring.
Each Tuesday, he goes to the market to personally select and buy the livestock, from which meat in his shop is produced, and prides himself on buying from the same select group of farmers he has known for years.
Andrew explained: “The nod to Yorkshire was also about being supplied by Yorkshire farms from Whitby, Malton, Pickering and Ryedale. It was as much about that as the Yorkshire rose.”
