Cowboy maybe you can get them to join in on the Georgia competition  

We've Crowned our Best Butcher

Our butchers are a cut above the rest, and we just crowned the king.

Of some 3,000 meat cutters working in our stores, 300 competed nationally to be the Best Butcher, and just three made it to our 2nd annual Best Butcher Competition, held September 8 at Meatopia in New York.

Our finalists were:

• John "Kabali" Kalabolas (West Coast champion from our Lafayette, California store in our Northern California Region)
• Andy "The Animal" Alcorn (Central US champion from our Fort Collins, Colorado store in our  Rocky Mountain Region)
• Armand "The Arm" Ferrante (East Coast Champion from our Middletown, New Jersey store in our Northeast Region)

The Best Butcher Competition is our way of celebrating our skilled butchers and shines the spotlight on the tradition and craft of butchery — a pursuit that takes a high degree of skill and years of experience to master.

At Meatopia the three finalists were tasked with crafting a turducken (for those of you not familiar with this particular delicacy it’s duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey) and merchandising a whole lamb. These tests were a surprise, so there was no way to practice. For the ultimate challenge, the three gentlemen had to create a new beef item – a steak, chop or roast the world has never seen (or tasted) before.

The butchers performed beautifully, despite the rain, smoke, and hungry crowds. In the end, judges awarded Best Butcher prize to Armand “The Arm” Ferrante.

Congratulations, Armand! Your 40 years as a butcher have clearly paid off, and we are lucky to have you.