Monika Remes planned to travel and continue her career as a civil engineer when she came to New Zealand on a working holiday visa four years ago.
Instead, the 27-year-old from the Czech Republic, found herself working in a butchery and has just claimed a spot in the grand final of the ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year competition.
Remes, who is in her second year as an apprentice butcher at PAK’nSAVE Pāpāmoa, will compete in the final in August after winning the Waikato/Central North Island regional competition in Hamilton on June 29.
“It was the best feeling in the world.”
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times from her workplace, Remes said she travelled to New Zealand in 2019 and struggled to find an engineering job.
“We’re working with steel and concrete [in the Czech Republic but] here, all the buildings are made from wood.”
Remes said if she wanted to work in New Zealand as a civil engineer designer, she would have had to undertake further studies which would have been “really expensive”.
After the borders closed due to Covid-19, Remes could not get back to Europe and she ended up working in an orchard for three months.
“And honestly, I didn’t like it so much because work depended on the weather.”
Remes said her friend who worked at Affco - a meat processing plant in Paengaroa - asked her if she wanted to work with her.
“I started as a packer first but after one month, two months, managers asked me if I would love to start with knives... I did some boning - mutton, lamb, bobby calves.”
After that, she started looking for a butcher apprentice or assistant job.
Remes said she worked at a butchery for six months before starting her full-time, three-year apprenticeship at PAK’nSAVE Pāpāmoa.
Remes said her friends encouraged her to enter the Asian New Zealand Meat Company (ANZCO) Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year competition. Her manager at PAK’nSAVE also supported her.
In the regional two-hour competition, contestants were tasked with breaking down a size 20 chicken, a full pork loin, a lamb leg, and a prime steer d-rump into a display of value-added products while being monitored by judges.
The competition was part of a national series held around the country to find New Zealand’s top butchers to compete in the final in Auckland in August.
After winning the regional competition and beating 11 competitors, Remes said she felt “pure happiness” and her heart was “racing”.
Ahead of the final, Remes said she felt nervous but knew what to expect. She said she needed to practise cutting, boning, and time management.
Remes said she usually brought her work home as a civil engineer.
But as a butcher, “I basically do my job as good as I can and I can go home with [an] empty head”.
This meant she could focus on other hobbies, such as going for walks, the gym, cooking, baking and playing guitar, she said.
She hoped to become a qualified butcher and planned to stay in the Bay of Plenty.
PAK’nSAVE Pāpāmoa butchery manager Mike Haworth said the company was “very proud” to have Remes working for them.
“She has shown great promise [and] commitment to the business and we value it.”
Haworth said he had trained a few female butchers “over the years”.
“And I think it’s one of the best things to happen to the butchery industry. It’s traditionally been [a] man-only business but with women coming in, their eye on detail and they’re just so focused, I think are great assets to the butchery trade.”
In a press release, head judge Peter Martin said Remes put on a “very good cutting and display performance” in the regional competition.
“The Waikato/Central North Island regional was the best standard I can recall - the region is full of excellent apprentice butchers which is great for the trade.”
The ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year will receive a coveted trophy and an all-expenses paid trip to the next World Butchers’ Challenge in 2025 with the opportunity to represent New Zealand in the ANZCO Foods Young Butchers of New Zealand team.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.