Waipawa Butchery apprentice carving up in competitions hopes to make the cut in Paris

An apprentice butcher from Waipawa Butchery is taking the world of premium cut meats to the next level after being selected as part of the New Zealand team heading to Paris to compete.

Rhys Tamanui was recently crowned ANZCO Foods Apprentice Butcher of the Year Lower at the North Island competition for the second time - he first won in 2022.

“In my first comp, I contemplated not even doing it, but I gave it a go to see what it was like.”

He themed his 2022 winning display around the Waipawa Butchery to pay homage to his workplace.

Tamanui went on to win this year’s regional competition in June and is now preparing to compete in the National Butchery Awards grand final on August 22 where he hopes to be crowned the winner again.

Rhys Tamanui said work was the best place to practice for his upcoming competition. Photo / Michaela Gower

“In New Zealand, we do a two-hour competition and you get four different cuts of meat, and this year it is a pork leg, lamb shoulder, a beef T.bone and two chickens and you have to turn it into a massive display.”

He said he was making the most of the practice before he headed to Paris to compete in the World Butchers’ Challenge in March 2025.

Tamanui is part of the ANZCO Foods New Zealand Young Butchers team that will compete individually for the title.

He said he had started to preplan a theme and props he would use for his display where he had to process a whole side of lamb, a beef rump with the bone in, a pork loin with the belly attached and two chickens.

The young butcher said he would be judged on efficiency, health and safety, display, knife skills and how he used the meat.

Despite excelling in his work, Tamanui didn’t have a specific reason for his decision to pursue a career path of butchery straight out of finishing at Karamu High School in 2020.

“Much like a lot of the butchers you ask, I just fell into it.”

The 22-year-old described his work as both a sport and an art form as he was judged in competitions for efficiency, but was also judged on the display.

Tamanui was around nine months away from finishing his apprenticeship and had found that his favourite meat to process was pork.

“With me and pork, it just clicks and I find I can turn out some half-decent stuff.”

He said he took pride in prepping the whole carcass meat that came straight from Waipawa Butcher owners Duncan Smith and Annabel-Tapley Smith Patangata Station farm 15km away.

“We do everything from hanging it on the hook to being out in our shop display.”

His advice for anyone looking into a career in butchery was to give it a go.

“You just have to ignore what everyone else says and if you want it - just do it.”

Waipawa Butchery also recently won a gold medal for their “Ham on the Bone” and a silver medal for their “Streaky Bacon” at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay newsrooms. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.