My Account
Apple, sage and rosemary lamb rack, beef boot roast stuffed with mushrooms and garlic and steak royale pie were just three of the creations that made Rob Lees this year’s NZ Master Butcher.
Being himself and taking a taste of his shop to town proved to be a winning combination for Rob Lees, when he won the Pure South Master Butcher of the Year award in Auckland last month.
He only entered the contest to encourage employee Eli Ropata to take part in the long-established ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year awards, but ended up taking the newly introduced senior title ahead of five other finalists himself.
“Not for one minute did I think I would ever win it,” he says. “In fact, I thought about pulling out for a while, but everyone said I should give it a go.”
To win the title, Rob had to spend two hours cutting, preparing and displaying a wide range of joints, cuts and ready to cook creations from a whole lamb and a “banjo” of beef – the industry term for a foreleg and shoulder. Rob says the beef in particular was quite challenging since the meat was mostly suited to stewing and slow cooking.
“They’re not pretty cuts,” he says. “The hardest thing was coming up with what to make. But I decided I’d just be myself and take my shop with me. I had a pretty good mix of basics, which freed up time for me to be more creative. And I took a load of props from the shop.”
Rob had to make any accompaniments from scratch, such as rubs, stuffings and marinades, and all vegetables had to be cut fresh. He said the first hour was “quite pleasant”, but the second was manic and seemed to disappear in seconds.
“I did enjoy it, funnily enough, but I was super-anxious before. I really stewed myself up about it,” he says. “But I’m already planning next year.”
The whole event was live-streamed online from the ASB Showgrounds due to Covid-19 – normally, there is a black-tie dinner where all the meat is auctioned off. This year, Rob took the option of buying his items back and then gave it all away in prizes for two of his local customers on Facebook.
He says the local reaction to his win has been great, with dozens of people coming in to congratulate him, and he is hugely grateful for everyone’s support and good wishes.
Rob and his family moved from Christchurch to Warkworth and took over the old Stubbs butchery in 2014. He’d had his eye on the place since his Warkworth-based brother told him it was for sale in 2011, but he couldn’t raise the funds at the time. However, three years later, while attending the NRL Auckland Nines, Rob spotted the shop was closing down and “just made phone calls until it happened”.
He says he never intended becoming a butcher, but answered an ad for an apprentice in the paper two years after leaving school and hasn’t looked back since.
The Pure South Master Butcher competition is open to qualified butchers aged at least 31 and the winner receives a trophy and $3,500 in cash.
