Inside the World Butchers' Challenge

Luke Leyson catches up with Tom Bouchier to recap the World Butchers' Challenge in Paris, discussing Australia's third-place finish and the evolution of this global competition.

• The build up of the Australian Team on it's journey, the media coverage and putting industry first
• Behind-the-scenes look at competition day preparations and how different team members handle pre-competition nerves
• Addressing the allegations of "cheating" directed at the French team and why their victory was well-deserved
• Analysis of the French team's superior workspace organisation with tool cabinets, tray racks, and efficient systems
• Breakdown of the incredibly close scoring, with just 1.05 points separating first place from third place
• Introduction of the "Cold Cuts Hotline" segment for listeners to get involved with the podcast

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the World Butchers Challenge
• 2:18 Team Australia's Evolution and Inclusivity
• 7:00 Competition Day: Nerves and Preparation
• 16:09 Controversy: Cheating Allegations Addressed
• 23:09 How The Competition Has Grown
• 29:44 Competition Results and Judging Reflections
• 35:37 Cold Cuts Hotline: Weirdest Customer Requests

Transcript

Luke Leyson: 0:06

G'day rehctubs, how the focaccia. It's Luke Leysoin here, the host of this dear podcast, the Meatup. We're back, baby. It's a fresh start. This is episode 001.

Luke Leyson: 0:20

Doing a bit of a WBC World Butchers Challenge recap, I've got my good friend, mr Tom Bouchier, on the podcast today. A veteran of the WBCs and a veteran of the Australian butcher team Give you some insights into what we went through in the lead up comp itself and, I guess, just a bit of a debrief about the whole competition, since we've had a bit of time to sit down and reflect. So enjoy and welcome back to the Meetup podcast, mr Tom Bouchier. Welcome to the MeAtup. Thank you, Luke, it's great to be here. We're back.

Luke Leyson: 1:02

I'm going a little bit different this year. I'm going to pick my topics and I'm going a little bit different this year. I'm gonna gonna pick my, you know, pick my topics, and I'm gonna get the experts in. And it seems, though, you are an expert, whether you like it or not, on the world butchers. Yeah, we chatted off air before, but it's, you know, two months, two months since, uh, the world butchers challenge, so had time to, I don't know, zone out from it. You need a break. It's hard to take a break, but we can chat about it now.

Luke Leyson: 1:34

So World Butchers Challenge for all you that need like a little touch up to what the World Butchers Challenge is. It's a global event For the senior teams. There's 14 countries competing. You have three and a half hours. Six butchers, side of beef, side of pork, whole lamb, five chickens value-added competition display in any which way you want, on eight trestle tables. Judged on everything, from your uniform, your camaraderie, your communication, your final display, everything, absolutely everything. You are judged on um, but we're talking the builder for the australian butcher team, um unlike any other we've ever had acid.

Tom Bouchier: 2:18

look huge, I'd say, and I think that the support that we got from butchers well, not even just butchers, but people from all aspects of the industry, all levels wholesalers, small shops, suppliers, customers I think it was huge and I can pretty comfortably say it was on a level that I've never seen in all my years of competing in the wbc um, I'm right in saying so, six competitions for yourself, um three world butcher challenges for me, plus one trans tasman.

Luke Leyson: 2:55

So I don't know if that bumps me up to four I'll give you one four appearances on the world stage maybe, um, but when we first started, or when I first started anyway, it was the, the steelers um. So different team, different kind of management, um, I unknowingly known now will know what I know now than what I did then. Hindsight's a beautiful thing, so unknowing to me. But the steelers was a very exclusive kind of team. Uh, it was hard to get into.

Luke Leyson: 3:26

Once you're in, um, I think it was easy to keep your spot um, great like it was. It was a great honor to obviously be be selected and and to compete um in that team. But I think now that we've kind of added new management, it's it's shifted, and it's shifted very positive way, but a very broad kind of industry focused. I would say so. Before we didn't really have socials, you wouldn't really share, and I mean it's a competition, so you didn't want to share really anything. And we still kind of don't. We try to share as little as possible when it comes to products and stuff like that. But I don't know.

Tom Bouchier: 4:09

It's inclusive now and the industry is behind us, which is great, exactly right and, to be fair, yeah, you don't share a hell of a lot of your products, say for the next competition, but you've got nothing to hide once it's on display. I've had heaps of people messaging me asking questions like oh, how do you make this, how do you do that? And it's all out there now. So, um, it's for the better of the trade to fill people in and get people doing a bit more. And you know, once you get ideas or more people doing, you know certain ideas and stuff like that, everything just evolves, doesn't it really naturally, and, um, products get better, things get better when you get more and more people um, having a crack at them, I suppose. So, as I say, it's um, yeah, for the better of the industry and and the trade I think the I mean the easiest way for me to explain it now.

Luke Leyson: 4:58

You're thinking we got we got amazing sponsors that put a fair bit of money into the team. It's a very costly exercise, like just trainings, trainings, travels, all that kind of stuff. But they're not sponsoring Luke, tom, brett, craig, gareth and Troy and the Young Butchers as well. They're sponsoring the team and the team's there to do probably two things I would say is the best that we can do. So win, hopefully, um, but overall that it's like to to to booster up the industry.

Luke Leyson: 5:36

It's the. You know the sponsors are putting money in because they can see what the australian team is doing and doing well for the industry in the long term. So it's going to inspire butchers, inspire apprentices, you know, to get out of their comfort zones. You know not not to all compete, but to communicate and network. And so for us as team members, it's probably our responsibility to almost be like sure, we get limelight and we get a bit of the spotlight from it, but it's our responsibility to, to give back where we can and that's, like you said, probably not sharing your recipes after it's all said and done yeah, definitely.

Tom Bouchier: 6:13

Um, I think we're pretty good too in giving people a few different ideas. Like you think about a guy like lorzy and and troy? These guys have hundreds and hundreds of products Obviously not all of them going on the display, because on competition day they're probably doing their 20 to 25, maybe even 30, I don't know products. So these guys have so many different product ideas and recipes and stuff and they're more than open to sharing and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean it gave the sponsors a lot of value and stuff like that when they could offer up a few different products that they were able to share across their different platforms and whilst still keeping our Game Day products under lock and key, perhaps.

Luke Leyson: 7:00

Game Day is. Do you liken it to? You know you used to play footy back in the day.

Tom Bouchier: 7:07

Yeah, I used to dabble at football.

Luke Leyson: 7:10

Did you like it? What am I trying to say here?

Tom Bouchier: 7:15

I think you're trying to say, luke, that game day you feel like gladiators walking into the arena. It's intense, it's loud, electric, all those buzzwords.

Luke Leyson: 7:27

It's exactly what I'm trying to say, but I almost, I almost want to be a bit more zen, because you know, when I'm out there and you're trying to your first jobs, you always you're most nerve-wracking jobs. You want to, you want to be cool, calm and collective, which is really hard when there's, you know, 3000 fans there, soccer-like or football-like atmosphere, with air raid sirens chanting. Yeah, it's just a bit mental, but like, let's go back a bit further. What does the morning look like?

Tom Bouchier: 8:06

like you wake up um. Yeah, I found it sort of pretty cool, having done quite a few of these now. Um wasn't as nervous, I think. Every year you sort of get a little bit less nervous perhaps but I found it interesting watching everyone else's um demeanors and seeing how they're sort of coping with it all and and stuff like that.

Luke Leyson: 8:28

Um, let's give everyone has their own way about going about it let's give people a bit of an insight, and we're gonna. I'm gonna call out the team members here. So troy, pretty composed, doesn't really come collected yeah, uh, craig collected. Yeah, craig is zoned in. He's got the blinkers on. He's in the corner. He's getting into his mind frame. Gareth is just normal. I feel like if he's nervous, he's hiding it pretty well.

Tom Bouchier: 9:06

Definitely.

Luke Leyson: 9:07

Just walking around like it's any other bloody day. Brett wants to fight someone.

Tom Bouchier: 9:13

Yeah, I think being around Lawzer, especially on the walk over to the arena, maybe he was looking for his headphones before we left the hotel we're already sort of running late and he was filthy. He didn't have his headphones to pump himself up, which was for the benefit of us all, because it means we all got to listen to Limp Bizkit out his phone on the walk over to the arena, which a bit of Fred Durst. If that doesn't get you in the zone, I don't know what will.

Luke Leyson: 9:41

Yeah, and I reckon us two too, we're pretty. I feel like I've got as like as captain there's a lot of shit still to do the morning of like there's, there's obviously you gotta. But I didn't. I didn't feel the pressure that much this year because I was pretty confident that everyone knew what they were doing and they set up their own, uh, personal belonging stuff. But we still had to set up our um extra equipment. So we had to make sure we had power on the day, which was, um, we got it eventually.

Luke Leyson: 10:09

Um, but there was a massive um translation kind of issue to, yes, the the organizers had power in the middle, but the power was for the bandsaw, um, the cryback machine and the minces and everything like that. So, or the cry back machine and the minces and everything like that. So everyone thought that they had done what they needed to do, but in two or two days, out from the comp, it was actually we need more. So it all worked out in the wash and I was very confident that it was all going to happen.

Luke Leyson: 10:38

But testing your appliances, making sure that no one was on the floor that didn't need to be on the floor because we're only allowed team members to go out there and, um, I guess, carry belongings out, but you don't want to. You don't want to get in trouble. You don't want to get in trouble too early, even before the competition starts. You don't want to get get told off by judges and stuff for doing the wrong thing. So, um, all these little things, I feel like and it's probably good for me because I'm distracted I've got stuff to do.

Tom Bouchier: 11:06

If I was just sitting there in silence for hours before the competition I think I'd get my head too much yeah, it is tricky too, like you think about, um, a lot of those things that we couldn't quite set up until the morning of, because certain things were in the way or we couldn't get all this equipment out because, say, the young butchers or apprentices displays were in our, um, in our little pod out the back. Um, like I sort of think back to when we're trying to set up our sign for the top of the display that said the butcher's barrel, and then we realized that the cords weren't quite long enough, yeah, to make it. Uh, and then that sort of hits you that morning of you think, oh shit, are we gonna have a led light with no turned off?

Luke Leyson: 11:50

led light.

Tom Bouchier: 11:50

Yeah, just a sign. I suppose it'd be, um, but it's all those little hiccups, like you say, and little things that pop up, that um sort of take your mind off, uh, the nerves and stuff, I suppose isn't it do not like.

Luke Leyson: 12:04

One of my core memory now it's locked into my head is when you know because I can't remember the exact timing but you're allowed in the arena at 7.30, but you're not allowed actually on the floor until say 9. So everyone's like pretty, you know, in their little cubicles because each country had a cubicle locked door. Everyone's kind of in there making sure everything's ready, but as soon as it's like one minute past nine or whatever that time was that you're laid on the floor. It was just like mental, like every team. So I don't know what's the quick math.

Luke Leyson: 12:37

So 14 I'm just whipping my calculator out here because I need this number 14 times six. So you got 84 butchers minimum back and forth to the, the stage, just carrying everything and like not running but like olympic walking. Yeah, that's it. And it was like you just lock eyes with other team members and you can either see them like like a bit chaotic, or they're enjoying themselves or they're shitting themselves. And you just lock eyes with other team members and you can either see them a bit chaotic, or they're enjoying themselves or they're shitting themselves, and you just kind of smile and nod and just like everyone, that's when you know it's on, there's a big build-up and then, ah shit, we're on in a couple of hours now and it suddenly sinks in. But then you get out there the lead-up, the walk-ins are always pretty duke huge um, you should say the least.

Tom Bouchier: 13:31

Well, we I think this year was even bigger.

Tom Bouchier: 13:34

Yeah, we were second behind, uh, belgium and you've got um, you've got great footage of it as well I do, I do I uh, yeah, I mean I I brought my POV harness that I bought specifically for it for the day, I suppose having been omitted from the Steelers team, sort of knowing now that, yeah, it might have been my last competition, it still might be, who knows I just wanted to capture as many sort of moments I suppose to look back on in in years to come, so I might have looked a bit silly with my pov harness strapped around me, but, um, yeah, I'm bloody glad I did I reckon that was the forefront of your mind in the morning was like does this look silly?

Luke Leyson: 14:17

yeah, whether or not to wear it?

Tom Bouchier: 14:18

yeah, definitely I. I got a lot of opinions on it, um, and a lot of funny looks from other countries, but, like I said, very glad I did.

Luke Leyson: 14:27

I don't know. Is it just me, or does everyone kind of seem to like Australians?

Tom Bouchier: 14:31

I like to think we're pretty cool, pretty popular.

Luke Leyson: 14:35

Yeah.

Tom Bouchier: 14:36

Don't really cause too many dramas.

Luke Leyson: 14:37

No one's got beef with us.

Tom Bouchier: 14:38

I would say no we seem to get along with everyone really.

Luke Leyson: 14:47

Not that there's any beef in the wbc, but maybe it's um. You know it's deeper than that. It's it's um. Like certain rivalries do you sort of mean yeah yeah, yeah yeah, but that kind of carries over to whatever sport they're playing. But we, we're just australians, like even you know, our hardest one is probably new zealand, but we're still like, we're still mates, we're just still mates.

Tom Bouchier: 15:05

Yeah, exactly right.

Luke Leyson: 15:06

We're bickering cousins. But what I'm getting to is you know, we go up on stage, we call that Australia. You know a couple of fist bumps, you're wailing the flag around there. You go through the middle. So we had to go through split the middle between all the benches and then we tape it off to the side and come back around and went right next to the crowd. But I was kind of thinking that the only people were going to cheer us on was australia, which was the the furthest team away from us as we got to the, the back of the, uh, the arena. But as we're going past, everyone's, everyone's trying to high-five, yeah cheering you on.

Tom Bouchier: 15:47

Yeah, exactly right. You're spotting mates in the crowd hanging over the rails going up for a high-five. It was awesome. Yeah, it just goes to show too that everyone sort of supports everyone. Yeah, it's a lot of mateship all around the world. Luke.

Luke Leyson: 16:01

It's very. It was the best. It was the best um atmosphere by far. Now we're going to get on to a raw subject and it's it blew up. Um, I guess after the competition was just allegations of cheating. Um, I guess mainly pointed at the French. If there was any others, I didn't hear about it. But high emotions after the competition, tom yeah, very much.

Tom Bouchier: 16:33

It's a juicy topic um.

Luke Leyson: 16:37

I thought we'd give you, I guess, the it's not so much of an insight, but, like I mean, we were there, we were a part of it, a part of it all. I guess we've probably seen either all the like I don't know if you whether you call the right words backlash or allegations, or all the kind of noise surrounding it, but it was all kind of nothing.

Tom Bouchier: 16:59

There wasn't a hell of a lot in it and, like you say, noise is a noise is a good way of putting it. I think, um, yeah, the cheating talk, I mean people just want to try to take the top team out, to be fair, um, and like france, france was super organized, clean, fast. That's why they won, really not not because of a bit of, uh bit of fat that was, I mean, funnilynily enough, stashed behind their display.

Luke Leyson: 17:25

Yeah, so I guess that's the allegations were cheating, of either hiding meat or intentionally hiding it on the display or something around those kind of lines, because we know that I guess with the competition you have to utilize all of your cuts. But I can hand on heart say so. We actually have a captain's meeting before it's like the day before with judges, and Danny from the US brought this up. He said in Sacramento there was found to be maybe not intentionally stashed, but you know, like things left in fillers, in minces and this is like your little scrapings and stuff like that. I don't know how much or how little or how how much, but he basically said I'm on it, like so don't try anything because I'm on it so no funny business yeah.

Luke Leyson: 18:14

So when these and I mean he came up to us, um, I guess, when the cat, uh, when the judges come around to your, your displays, and he just said, look, your, your bin, your bin bags are really heavy, like have you stashed any meat in there? I said no, I was like I was, you know, having the best time of my life because we just finished the wbc. I just laughed it off and said, mate, we've just got heaps of ingredients, like we so they didn't find that top side of that rump that we threw in there yeah, yeah, they wouldn't, they wouldn't have seen them.

Luke Leyson: 18:44

But I just kind of laughed it off and I said I mean, you can see our products. We use a lot of ingredients. There's a lot of packaging in there. I said we can open it, we can take my knife, we can split it open now if you want to have a look in there. But he was like was judges on the on the look of this stuff and they, if any of it was true, they wouldn't have let it slide just for the sake of letting it slide like it's um, and you know, you know what happens with those kind of things as well they gain traction. One person says something to someone yeah, that, that's it, snowballs.

Luke Leyson: 19:25

Snowballs gets out of hand. You're right by saying if it's unusable fat, it might not need to be on your display, even if it is hidden away or whatever it was, but maybe just like a tightening on the wording. The wording is a big thing for your judging or your rules, because it is an international competition and people will look at the wording and and you know that english is their second language, so it's different.

Tom Bouchier: 19:55

It's different for each team yeah, as we learned quite a few times in france, google translate can sort of let you down at at certain points of the journey. Yeah, I feel like if they sort of just tighten up a few of the rules just to, yeah, say, like you know, there is only one spot for fat and bone, just to avoid any further confusion. And also, you know, you've just trained for two, three years. Emotions are high. Everyone's so passionate, everyone's put so much heart into it and stuff like that. You know there's always going to be something that sort of pops up, um, and I guess when it does and there were sort of pictures floating around and things like that, as you say that things can sort of snowball yeah, and these are pictures from a blurry live stream as well, so no one.

Luke Leyson: 20:42

It's like. It's like when you're watching sorry for the international listeners, but when a Crows kicks a goal in the dying seconds of a season-defining game, like the other year, and they say it hit the post, but it's blurry so you can't really see. It's such a like the vision you know we don't have Exactly right.

Luke Leyson: 20:58

It's a screenshot that's been zoomed in about 100 times yeah, uh, but I'll probably like we're not gonna, you know, dwell on this for too long, but I can. I can say that the, although the french won everything, they won. Well, they take apprentice one, two young butchers one, two, three and, like the world title, the french are just really fucking good butchers they, they're just very, very good.

Luke Leyson: 21:27

And then you put that they're at home. You put that they didn't travel, and I'm not saying that these are the reasons they won. I mean, they are always up there because they are French butchers. Plus, they were using you know produce that they use all the time. They could go to their local shops, get this, uh, get the products that they normally would use. I guess that's the things that we we have trouble with when we that's. That's the um, the hurdles we have to jump by traveling, and that's the nature of the competition. But the french are just fucking good butchers and they just work very well.

Tom Bouchier: 22:02

That's why they won there was certainly no uh track doors or secret vaults in the back of their display for hiding things. They were just very, very good they're very good.

Luke Leyson: 22:12

So just um, yeah, I would say, have a look at their insta and look at, because obviously we don't get a, we don't get to watch to comp when we're competing. So I've gone back and tried to watch Vision, but the way that they worked was just I feel like we're pretty organized, but they made us look unorganized, pretty much Like just the way they worked was so clean. So everything on purpose, everything had a spot trolleys yeah, it was mad.

Tom Bouchier: 22:44

It sort of looked like a you know formula one pit crew or like a high-end kitchen. Their work area, um, and you sort of compare that to a few other teams and stuff, it's, yeah, not quite a battlefield, yeah, as uh. A few of those work areas sort of looked like, not excluding ours at times, I suppose all right.

Luke Leyson: 23:08

So this competition's it's massive now. So, as we mentioned before, 14 countries, 16 countries in total, right? If you want to um include, was it czech republic and indonesia, which both just had a young butcher in? So not no apprentice, no full team, just a young butcher. So 16 countries, right? How many was it?

Luke Leyson: 23:27

so when you started, it was trans tasman, yeah no, I started in the tri-nations, tri-nations so three to 16 is pretty mad, and I guess also the equipment that we're allowed to bring in now. So these, this is just the additional equipment. Um, so if all you playing at home, basically if your team wants to bring any additional equipment, that's not. You know, everyone gets a mincer, sausage filler, like some of these are shared between teams bandsaw, backpack machine, vertical slicer, hand washing sinks as well again, reading this off the? Uh, the website. But if you've got products that you want to showcase on the world stage and you need certain equipment for them, you're allowed to bring it. You just have to get it approved. And if you're allowed to bring it, so is everyone else. So that's, I guess, the fairness of that as well.

Luke Leyson: 24:19

So we've got bowl cutters, combi ovens or ovens, pressure cookers, induction hot plates, hot plates, a waffle iron and a cotton candy machine, which I don't know if I saw that in use, but um proved me wrong. Uh, food processors, blenders, robo coops, air fryer, kettle, meat tenderizer, electric meat stripper uh, electric meat strip cutter. Uh, apologies, uh. Portion machine, kebab box, blast chiller, electric drill um shit, I hadn't seen that one before. I hadn't seen that either. That's pretty cool. Electric drill, uh, hot water urn, a zed linker mixer, spa machine which I've no idea what that is either and a general fryer, um, electric drill. Yeah, there you go, but anyway. So basically what I'm getting with all this is the competition has. It's gone mad like it's. It's so much bigger and so much more extravagant than than it first was, and I think the wbc want that. They want to be able to allow every country to showcase exactly what they can do.

Luke Leyson: 25:31

Um, but then, going to these things as well, and and you know things that weren't on that list is that you're racking in your trolleys and stuff like that. But I know you, um, you've played, paid close attention to, like we said before, the french and even germany as well. I think that's why they came second, because they worked really well, like their whole work was really well put together. Um, these are things that we take from it and, like, we've come third and we're pretty happy with it. But you know those, there's two spots there we can get better. Um, you're you're mad on the, the french's works workstation. What did you see, tom? What did?

Tom Bouchier: 26:08

yeah, you know I see look, I was, uh, as soon as we'd finished I was straight over. Not straight over, you know, but um made the effort to go over and and I was chatting to my good friend, um godfrey, on the french team, and I was just looking at their station and it was incredible the things they had, and just simple things that um saved them so much. Um, you know, time and inefficiencies and stuff like that less double handling, things like speed racks, tray racks for all the products. We would finish our products. I'd garnish them up, have them on the plates and I would try my best to bring over as many as I could to the display, but I might only be able to carry sort of two or three products at a time. Bring over as many as I could to the display, but I might only be able to carry sort of two or three products at a time, whereas these guys had tray racks with 10 finished products on the trolley and they just wheel it over, put it on the display, wheel it back, load it up again. Like I said, that would have saved us a good 15-20 minutes at least myself anyway in double handling and carrying things, but just such a simple thing really.

Tom Bouchier: 27:16

The other thing they had was like these tool cabinets, like what you'd see in a mechanics workshop. I got photos of it and everything. I was chatting to Godfrey about it and he said that they're quite common in butcher shops in France because they're so sort of small. The shops over there they use these tool cabinets. So the French team. In the top drawer they might have all their say utensils. They might have their tongs and their scrapers, that sort of thing. The second drawer was all their different strings, their different poultry ties. Third drawer might have all their fancy like skewers and toothpicks, those sorts of things. It sort of just makes sense, doesn't it? Get them up off your bench or out of your crates underneath where your ingredients are, and storing them to the side, as well as having another sort of flat surface that you can work on a product, on, just something simple. But yeah, think about the amount of time that would have saved them and a hell of a lot of less double handling.

Luke Leyson: 28:21

It's mad to think that, like you know, you've done six, I've done three. You think your process is pretty good. You know when I was doing probably a bit more product than this year, I pretty good, um, you know when I did, when I was doing a probably a bit more product than than this year, I'd have you know, if I knew I needed six like little cocktail kebab sticks, I put, I put them in a tub with my ingredients and put eight in there just in case I, you know, broke one or whatever. But if you're using all those things, like you said, it's just one draw. Like you you know where they are, like you're not going to forget.

Luke Leyson: 28:51

Like you said, it's just one drawer. Like you you know where they are, like you're not going to forget that you can't put them in your product. But by the time you're rummaging through ingredients, you maybe got like your tools in there, like, so I'd have a. If I knew I have to have a mallet for that product, I'd put the mallet in with there. It's just a lot of items in a small container which, where it has worked well us before, but then you kind of see something else and you go, it makes completely, makes so much sense.

Tom Bouchier: 29:17

Exactly right. And then you know as well as I do, like on the day, sometimes things don't go as well and you might need to throw an extra couple of those products on, but if you've used all your cocktail skewers, you're up the proverbial creek, luke, as they say. Yeah, you're done, but yeah, if you could have a few extras there and they're in the same spot, then, yeah, easy to access and doesn't cause too much commotion.

Luke Leyson: 29:44

Obviously, we love getting the judging sheets back and for me, I guess, as a competitor, it's almost hard because you get it back so you can improve on next time. Um, but it's hard because the next time the judges are probably different. Um, the judging sheets are good, but they're also a bit subjective sometimes, um, so I know for us like I'm just going on, you know how, obviously, how big the competition is now and how much it's changed, and then obviously we want to or everyone wants to do better next time. I guess you, like I, focus on the poor marks. So you know, we've come third, we've done well, you still get some you did great yeah we did, we did great like and I'm not and I.

Luke Leyson: 30:31

You still get some great. Yeah, we did, we did great like and I'm not and I. And it's hard because I'll see one or two comments, not even comments, just marks. And obviously the judging thing uh, judging sheets, they get rid of your, they get rid of your high score, they get rid of your lower score. There's that many judges there, so it all kind of works out in the wash in that sense, like there's, if you're up there, majority of your marks are up there, but then you do see one, and then that kind of gets into my head and thinking should we change what we do because one judge wasn't really crash hot on it, or am I focusing on one bad when I've had you know, we've had 13 really good ones? Like obviously anything in the world, you're not gonna please everyone. So that's something that I have trouble with, I reckon, like moving into the next comp, cause I won't remember the 13, four out of fives.

Tom Bouchier: 31:19

Yeah, you'll get hung up on the bad one.

Luke Leyson: 31:21

Yeah, on the one, one out of five, and go how do we change their mind? But maybe I don't, maybe we don't need to it, maybe we don't need to. It's hard because the competition is so tight from first to fifth was so close. So you think if I could just change one of their marks to a two or a three, we might have nipped another spot.

Tom Bouchier: 31:43

And that's not by just sort of adjusting the actual pen mark making a one or seven. Perhaps.

Luke Leyson: 31:49

Yeah, I mean we could be like um kim jong-un. Yeah, we've competed. I played 18 and got 18 holes, or whatever I hope that's how you do play golf yeah, um, but yeah, I know that's a bit of a ramble there, but that's that's the thing that I have trouble with leading into the next competitions because you want to do better, but you also have done pretty well doing what you do. How much do you change? But you've got to change something. That's the.

Tom Bouchier: 32:16

That's the constant carousel I'm stuck on yeah, I understand, um, and I mean I I've had quite a few phone calls from yourself as soon as those judge sheet comes out and you say, oh, did you see his comment? Like, did he not see that we'd done that? That, that sort of thing. But it is tricky and I also think too, like you think, how many judges are from Europe and what they're used to seeing, and we're obviously not from Europe from quite a while away. Actually, our style of product and butchering is so different Does it just sort of not land with some of them. But, as you say, we bloody came third. We did pretty well. What was the score difference between first and third?

Luke Leyson: 32:59

just out of interest so just on the judging and the, I guess the points right. So Australia actually was closer to first in Paris by coming third in points than we were in Sacramento by coming second, if that makes sense. So we had France.

Tom Bouchier: 33:23

Not a hell of a lot in it.

Luke Leyson: 33:24

No, no. So France 72.14. Germany 71.23. Germany 71.23. Australia 71.09. So what's that? Quick math is 11.12, 0.12 away from second for Australia, belgium, which first time competing come forth, is massive uh 70.1, sorry, 70.82. And then canada 70.59. So that's the top five, um, which is there's definitely little blocks here. So top five was very close. Uh, italy, great britain, ireland, romania and new zealand were the next kind of chunk, from 64.27, from new zealand to italy 65.73, and then, down the tail end, we have iceland, united states, spain and brazil, um, all around the the 60s to 62. So tight.

Tom Bouchier: 34:31

Oh, it goes to show, doesn't it? Everyone's in with a chance, especially these later years, as the competition's evolving and becoming a bit more of almost an elite sport, I suppose On the day it could be anyone.

Luke Leyson: 34:51

I remember in Ireland you'd have your first teams and you know it, probably the the whole competition wasn't that uh fluid on on socials. There wasn't a lot of pictures going. You didn't really have to search for the pictures on people's facebooks to kind of get ideas for what the product was put out there. But now it's so it's everywhere. So you've got new teams coming in, like Belgium coming forth. They know exactly what they're in for, they know what's won it before their processes, what they need to do. Some people actually come out and they see the competition, the comp before and then they put in a team for the next one. So there's no first teams that come out when you go easy beat because you just don't know what they're going to be coming out with.

Luke Leyson: 35:37

Now we we're finishing off the show here. We've got um, a new segment coming into the meetup podcast. It's called the cold cuts hotline. So this is where we ask, uh, we ask the question and you guys, the listeners, get in contact with us, dm the Meetup podcast on Instagram, facebook or you can go over to my socials as well. I'll put them all in the show notes. But the question on the Cold Cuts hotline is what is the weirdest thing you have been asked for in the butcher shop or asked to do so. I'll save mine for the next episode because I don't think anyone is gonna beat it. I think, hands down, I've got the weirdest thing, uh, that anyone has ever asked for, and it only just happened. It's only just happened in the last couple of months. Um, but, tom, we were on another podcast and you were asked this very same question. What is the weirdest thing that?

Tom Bouchier: 36:37

you've been asked to do in a retail butcher shop. Yeah, I mean. Well, shout out to Ollie over at the Humans of Agriculture podcast, doesn't miss an episode, I've heard. So yeah, I was working in the shop Luke with the great Troy Wheeler. At the time I was probably first or second year apprentice. And I was working in the shop Luke with the great Troy Wheeler at the time I was probably first or second year apprentice and I'm out in the shop.

Tom Bouchier: 36:55

The ladies asked for some minted cutlets. So I start grabbing them out and putting them up in the bag and as I'm doing it she sort of says oh, do you mind if I smell those cutlets? I just want to smell the marinade. And I didn't really know what to say. I certainly wasn't going to say no and make her feel silly.

Tom Bouchier: 37:13

So I decided to take that myself. I've offered the bag up, put it over the counter. She's stuck the big snout in the middle of it and had a big long breath and she sort of pulls her head away and just shuts her eyes and nods and goes yep, yep, I'll take 10. And goes yep, yep, I'll take 10. And it burns into my mind how close these cutlets got to the lady's nose and I just remember thinking to myself geez, if she turns around and says, no, I don't want them, I mean I suppose I would be having the minted cutlets for dinner that night. But yeah, I didn't know what I was going to be doing with them. And yeah, I turned around. After serving her I walked back into the back room of the shop and all the boys are looking at me, just shaking their head and Troy sort of just looks at me and goes what the hell are you doing? Why are you letting her smell the lamb?

Luke Leyson: 38:13

But yeah, it's certainly a funny experience, and not one I've had ever since. Well, there you go. There's Tom's weirdest thing he's been asked to do in a butcher shop. What's yours? Make sure you DM us on the socials. Links are in the show notes. That's episode 1 done. 001 for the made up podcast. Stay tuned for the next episode. And thanks to our first guests and that will probably be a be a resident resident guests I reckon I'm going to pull them in a few times over the course of the the next few seasons. So thanks, tom, for jumping on.

Tom Bouchier: 38:46

Thanks Luke and thank you listeners. I'll chat to you in a couple of minutes, probably, luke. Anyway, yeah, easy. Thanks, luke and thank you listeners.

Luke Leyson: 38:50

I'll chat to you in a couple of minutes, probably, luke. Anyway. Yeah, easy, everything you need is in the show notes. That's all the socials and also our new Facebook group. So hit the link there, jump in there, chat to other listeners and also you can answer the Cold Cut Hotline questions there as well. So until next time.