Can Spain carve out win in ‘World Cup of butchery’? Debutants sharpen knives and skills
World Butchers’ Challenge at Paris Expo will see teams prepare chicken, beef, pork and lamb. Newcomers Spain say they have a ‘secret weapon’
A team of butchers representing Spain are competing for the first time in what has been dubbed the World Cup of butchery, a tournament pitting the world’s greatest carnivorous nations against each other in the art of cutting and presenting meat.
For three and a half hours on March 31, the 16 teams must debone, cut and display meat in the most creative way to be crowned champions of the World Butchers’ Challenge at the Paris Expo, which hosted volleyball and table tennis during the 2024 Olympics.
Teams can use their own seasonings, spices, marinades and garnish to transform a side of beef, a side of pork, a whole lamb and five chickens into a themed display, and will be judged on technique, workmanship, innovation and presentation.
Spanish team manager Bruno Casal said that as newcomers his team would have to control their nerves to compete against this year’s favourites France, Italy and Germany.
“There are good butchers in Spain that aren’t participating this year, but we weren’t looking for meat stars but rather a good group,” Casal said as the team practised in a meat-processing plant in Madrid earlier this month.