‘Old’ butcher goes head-to-head with young bucks at World Challenge

The owner of a Moreton Bay butcher shop has revealed how his reputation exploded virtually overnight.

Ever since animal activists protested The Squealing Pig’s opening both in person and online, owner Gary Thompson, 54, has amassed a noted reputation at Burpengary.

It would seem that reputation may only grow with Gary’s skills being recognised at the largest butchery event on Earth.

Mr Thompson can lay claim to being one of the world’s top butchers after coming second in the international ‘Olympics of Meat’ event in Sacramento on September 4.

Gary was part of an seven-person Australian team at the World Butchers’ Challenge that featured 13 teams and was four years in the making.

The Australian team came second to Germany and beat New Zealand who finished in bronze medal position.

Each team had just over three hours to turn a side of beef, a side of pork, a whole lamb and five chickens into a themed display of value-added cuts, requiring superior carving, boning and finishing skills; while injecting their own creativity and innovation into their final line-up.

“I thought they were joking for starters, simply because of my age,” Mr Thompson said.

“I’m probably 20 years older than anyone else in the team.

“We all put our own product ideas into the products we were actually making.

“It showed a lot of individuality and teamwork to put it all together.

“There’s some smart guys overseas who are really ahead of the game.

“There’s certainly a few cuts I want to have a crack at and master.”

The Squealing Pig owner Gary Thompson was surprised to get the call up to the World Butchers' Challenge. Picture: Aaron Goodwin

When the animal activists protested outside the shop on August 12, 2017, Mr Thompson said the business’ Facebook page went from 108 followers to 20,000 in a matter of days.

The Squealing Pig has operated for five-and-a-half-years and the business venture expanded to The Toasted Pig, a cafe which has operated for four years in Burpengary Plaza as well.

“Covid was extremely hard,” Mr Thompson said.

“The fact we had the other shop (The Toasted Pig) as well, all of our trade basically disappeared overnight.

“We’d been open three months, built a nice turnover and overnight it just collapsed.

“My butcher shop had to pay the bills, the staff, we didn’t know how long it would go for.”

Mr Thompson said he’ll humbly take the title as one of the world’s best butchers and would love to represent Australia again.