From Motueka butchery to world stage

An all-expenses paid trip to the City of Love with all the trimmings. Motueka’s Morgan Clark is one of the sharpest butchers in the land who is winging to Paris with the national butchery team, the Sharp Blacks, at the end of this month to carve her way to the topside at the World Butchers’ Challenge.

She racked up a spot at the ‘Olympics of Meat’ after rendering tough standards to seal the ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year at the 2023 National Butchery Awards.

While the Kelly’s Homekill and Butchery team member won’t be dissecting snails and frogs, or preparing a cordon bleu for the oven, she’s in for a beefy contest in the Young Butcher category.

She will have two hours and 30 minutes to break down a range of primal lamb, beef, pork and chicken cuts into a pre-determined product display along with original creations.

With 15 other nations primed for the world champion, the steaks are high.

Morgan says she’s well-rested for France, after months of preparation in Motueka.
She’s also had up to nine visits to a New World in Christchurch, to practice with 2024’s Young Butcher of the Year Sam Weller, who is also travelling to Paris with the pack of 11 other New Zealand butchers and the support crew.

She says people have wished her bon voyage and warned her to keep her knives clear from her carry-on luggage.

“I’m nervous, but it’s pretty cool to be able to go and represent your country,” she says.

“It’s been a long time coming, a lot of time and effort goes into practicing for it because you want to do a good job.

“Every time I go down [to Christchurch] I practice all the cuts that I need, to get all the finer details and timings down to where I want them… and it’s been amazing to have that space and have those people behind me helping me out.”

Morgan says her workplace has also been a cut above since donning her apron there at the end of 2023, having previously worked at New World Motueka.

“I’ve been working on the boning side of things and all of the basic skills to get faster,” she says.

“They’ve been really supportive and it’s awesome for building your knowledge and skills around the trade… supermarkets are awesome, but they are more the retail end, whereas, at Kelly’s, it’s mint to do it right from the paddock.”

Morgan says, before competition day on 30 March, there will be a study tour and a visit to the French National Butchery School.

“There will also be really cool networking opportunities to meet the competition and remember that we’re all there to put on a good show, encourage each other, and enjoy being in that world of butchery,” she says.

“I just want to do the best that I can, and if it gets a win, then that’s a bonus, but it’s more about getting up there and putting up a presentation that I’m proud of, and that my family and stuff can be proud of, too.”

Morgan says after the competition wraps up, she and her parents will explore Italy before trotting back from London to Aotearoa on 24 April.

She will then make the move across the hill, relocating to Blenheim for a fresh role at New Zealand’s filet mignon of wild game meat supplies, Premium Game.