Morgan Moore rendered tough standards to achieve tender results and seal the most prime apprentice butcher award in the land.
The newly-qualified New World Motueka butcher racked up the ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year at the National Butchery Awards at Auckland on 24 August.
Morgan says she was “stoked” to carve her way to the ‘topside’, and she dedicated the win to the sharp level of support to beef up her skills for the Big Smoke and to aspiring females looking to scotch stereotypes.
“I have got a really supportive team on the ground, they’ve been super supportive of me in the competition and building me into a capable butcher, and it was awesome to hear their reaction to [the win],” she says.
“I’d love to be a role model to all young girls to see that and know they can be, whatever they want to be regardless of what the industry has been weighted to before.
“If you put in the work and you knuckle down, the results will come.”
Morgan, who resides at a sheep farm with her husband Reuben, on the flanks of Upper Moutere, says her butchery career began in 2020 while they were living in Canterbury’s Waimate.
“I was in the fitness industry, and I was looking for a change, and I’m married to a farmer, so I get to see the animals growing, and I got really interested in the process right from the paddock to the plate,” she says.
“So when we moved down south I thought I would give butchering a go and I just fell in love with the art, craft and the physicality of it.
“I started in September 2020 and in January this year I moved back to Motueka, because Motueka’s my hometown, and I picked up my apprenticeship there to finish it off.”
Morgan, who wrapped up her Certificate in Trade Butchery in June, says she first got a slice of the butchery competition in 2021 and decided to re-enter to further sharpen her skills.
Five regional competitions are held to dissect the butcher apprentice finalists for the national awards.
A wildcard winner also makes the cut based on their regional competition points, which Morgan scored after her performance in the Upper South Island competition, which was held at Christchurch in June.
Morgan says the ‘steaks’ were high at the awards with a pack of eight judges determining the winner.
“We had a 30-question exam which involved questions from all aspects of the butchery, so it could’ve been meat cuts, breeds of animals, health and safety, or legal size things,” she says.
“Then we had an interview, and that was questions around why you are in the industry for [the judges] to get to know where our passion was.”
Then she had to cut a beef rump, lamb leg, pork loin and a whole chicken before presenting it and cleaning up.
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Morgan says, as well as winning Apprentice Butcher of the Year, she also won an all-expenses paid trip to compete in the World Butchers’ Challenge in Paris in 2025.
“It’s a huge opportunity in the industry, very excited to get over there and represent the country and see what other countries have to offer,” she says.
“Might have to learn how to dissect snails.”
