Raw meat, sharp knives, loud fans: How Sacramento made cut to host top world butchers

Danny Johnson spent years plotting to make Sacramento a battleground for the best butchers in the world.

This weekend, after endless amounts of planning, practicing and waiting out COVID-19 delays, the Taylor’s Market owner finally made his California event a reality and brought the World Butchers’ Challenge to the United States for the first time.

The Golden 1 Center on Friday and Saturday hosted the international meat-cutting event, which combines the camaraderie of a butcher shop with an Iron Chef-like competition.

“I thought it fit in with what we do in Sacramento with farm-to-fork,” Johnson said. “I think Sacramento’s the perfect size city for an event like this. In a big city, I feel it would get lost, and we have this gorgeous venue that the city was able to provide for us.”

The butchers come to Sacramento

The World Butchers’ Challenge brings together teams of six that all get three and a half hours to break down a side of beef, a side of pork, an entire lamb and five chickens.

They slice and grind the different cuts to create large displays of raw protein dishes plated and displayed for customers, like they would appear in a butcher shop. The butchers use a series of knives and saws to cut the meat, and they also get machines, including grinders and slicers, to further process it.

Judges evaluate the final display and select a winner.

The challenge started in 2011 as a butchery competition between New Zealand and Australia. It gradually expanded to become an international event drawing teams from North America, South America and Europe.

Johnson and Taylor’s Market manager Paul Carras joined the Butchers of America team to compete at the 2018 challenge in Belfast.

Ahead of the competition, Johnson began urging Visit Sacramento President Mike Testa to consider bringing the World Butchers’ Challenge to Sacramento.

“He tried to get me to go to Belfast and watch it,” Testa said. “I said, ‘You take some some good pictures, and come back and tell me about it.’”

Eventually, Visit Sacramento put in a bid to host the 2020 competition, going up against cities such as Paris. The city won the 2020 event and was set to host the challenge before the COVID pandemic shut down the world.

“Actually, I think it may have helped,” said Nathan Bingham, the American team manager. “That extra two years everyone’s been waiting has just helped us hype it up to be able to draw in more sponsors, get the word out about what’s going on.”

Three hours of meat-slicing

The main butchers’ challenge kicked off late Saturday morning with teams from Canada, New Zealand, France, Great Britain, Brazil, Australia, Iceland and eight other countries.

Butchers started hacking away at their meat at stations set up on the arena floor, slicing and sawing off bits of meat and fat.

For more than three hours straight, they transformed the raw red meat into dozens of intricate creations set up on displays highlighting their countries’ traditions and meat dishes.

Much of the meat was prepared and seasoned for customers to be able to take home and cook in the oven, on the stove or on the grill.

The Americans’ theme was “a Saturday morning at a butcher shop in America,” with sausage links hanging in the back of the display, ground meat laid out in rows, and cuts of meat artfully arranged around the tables.

Great Britain’s array of dishes celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, complete with a meat cake and sausages arranged in the shape of a “70” to celebrate her seven-decade reign.

Italy’s display evoked ancient Rome, with meat arranged on paintings placed on top of Roman columns.

Team France had the most boisterous fans, and a large cheering section continually shouted, “Allez la France!” or “Go France!” as their butchers sliced and plated meat.

Sacramento butchers feel the emotion

By the time Johnson and his team plated their last dishes and cleaned up their work station, they were thoroughly worn out — emotionally and physically.

The butchers pumped their fists, embraced one another and wiped away tears as they took in the applause from their home crowd and shook hands with competitors.

Johnson said everyone felt the culmination of years of practice, fundraising and preparation. The past six months, all the team members have been practicing three to four days per week, on top of their regular jobs and responsibilities.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Johnson said. “We give up a lot. I’ve been working on this since 2017. We’ve been delayed with the pandemic and all that stuff. And just the fact that we got done — it’s a roller coaster. You have highs and lows.”

The teams won’t find out the winner until Sunday night. Ireland is the defending champion, but Johnson thinks the Americans have improved significantly since their last challenge.

“In Belfast, we were like a seven,” Johnson said. “We’re probably like a 9.8 here. We know what we did wrong, but we’re not going to tell the judges.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2022 at 7:22 PM.