After their victory last year at the Scottish Craft Butchers, Butcher Wars competition, this father and son duo proved themselves as two of the best butchers in the country. Fast forward to January 2024 and they were selected to represent Scotland in the 4 Nations Battle of the Butchers competition held as part of the Irish Craft Butcher Expo at The Curragh Racecourse near Dublin. This would see them face the very best butchers from all corners of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Butchers who have competed and won in competitions across the world. While Richard has been in the game for over 27 years (before Ben was born!) at 21 this would only be Ben’s second competition, since starting to work as a butcher in the Perth shop 2 years ago – a huge amount of pressure on such young shoulders.

However, they have the bond of a father and son, something that none of the other teams had and since being selected to compete and being told the list of cuts they would need to work with, had worked non-stop practicing against the clock to ensure they were ready to represent.

The boys flew to Dublin on the morning of the competition and after only a short time settling in and then settling their nerves, it was show time! They produced 29 products from the 5 different proteins (chicken, pork loin, beef chuck, lamb, and beef rump) all within the 1-hour time limit, and were crowned the champions! On announcing them as the winners the judge described the way they worked together as ‘telepathic’ and ‘off the scale’ explaining that their close bond had been clear to see both as they worked and in the innovative and completely knock-out products they produced together.

Despite Ben being the youngest butcher in the competition, by over 15 years, thanks to his dad mentoring him as the oldest and most experienced butcher there, their partnership triumphed once again and they were absolutely delighted to be crowned the winners while competing against the best of the best.

Richard is of course extremely proud of Ben but he explained he is in safe hands too – trusting Ben completely and enjoying every second of working and winning together.

Pop in and see Richard and Ben working together at Simon Howie, 270 High Street, Perth.