B.C. man makes the cut as Canadian team of butchers steak claim to be world's best

Over the past decade, Kamloops butcher Ronnie Keely has been sharpening his meat cutting skills at his family business, which he will put to the test atan international butchers'competition thisweek.

Keely,who works atKam Lake View Meats which is owned byhis father, willbe part of thenine-member Canadian team competing inthe World Butchers' Challenge in Sacramento, Calif.,Sept. 2-3.

The event, whichhas been postponed for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, started in 2011 as an annualcontest to produce the best cuts of meat between butchers from Australia and New Zealand.

Two years later, it incorporated British contestants. Since 2016, it has become abiannual and more international event with the addition ofFrance and more than a dozen other countries.

Organizers say the World Butchers' Challenge, last held in Belfast in 2018, is the world's largest butchers'competition, withover 100 butchers from 15 countries.

Canada making its debut

It will be Team Canada's and Keely's first time in the competition. Keelysays he couldn't be more excited about being a part of it, having watchedthe event on YouTube since its inception.

"There are some really talented people that I'm looking forward to meeting," he told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops. "This generation of butchers they've been in it for so long."

Keely, 31, is one of two Canadians competing under the "Young Butcher" category for people under 35. Contestants are requiredto break down a beef rump on the bone, a side of lamb, a pork loin and two wholechickens into predeterminedcuts within two hours and 30minutes.

Organizers say contestants will utilize different seasonings and garnish to create meat products for display that are as innovative as they are cookable.

A panel of 15 judges will score the national teams of seasonedcontestants, while five judges from Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand will score the "Young Butcher" contestants.

Team Canada captain, Hamilton, Ont.-based butcher Peter Baarda, says in 2019he reached out to meat businesses across the countryto see who wasinterested in joining the competition. He ended up with a list of 27 people, who were then selected for the nine-person team based on the creativity of themeat productsthey displayed on social media.

A family affair

Keelygot his start working in the family business withhis fatheraftergraduating high school and hasa certificate in retail meat processing from Thompson Rivers University. He says he made the cut for the Canadian teamthanks to his longtime enthusiasm for cutting and cooking meat.

"I enjoy it I'm a hunter [and] fisher, so it [butchery] is a handy thing to know at the start, and then it grew on me."

His father, Ron Keely, says he's proud of his son's opportunity to participate in an important event for people in the meat processing industry.

"He's always wanted to be the best at what he does. It's definitely his livelihood, and he likes the idea of being able to compete on the world level."