The so called Champion of Champions sausage competition has come under scrutiny after some butchers have been refused the opportunity of entering.
Andrew Rook of J C Rook & Sons Ltd., an accredited Master Butcher who won the Champion of Champions competition in 2016, has complained to organiser William Reed Business Media after the organiser refused Andrew’s 2018 entry despite the fact the he won UK Sausage Week's Supreme Sausage Champion Award and also the Best Independent Butcher, England South East – Innovative Category Award in 2017, as part of the week’s annual competition.
Meat Management also understands that the president of the National Craft Butchers, John Mettrick, was refused entry to the Champion of Champions competition this year, despite having won the Best Independent Butcher England North West – Traditional Category at UK Sausage Week 2017.
Andrew commented: “I was allowed to enter Champion of Champions last year and was actually the champion in 2016 and a finalist in 2017. I simply fail to understand why William Reed is not going to let an independent family butcher enter despite winning the biggest UK competition in terms of numbers of entries. UK Sausage Week and its categories is actually the hardest competition to win and most entrants are from independent butchers like myself.”
Initially, Lara Bacinello of William Reed contacted Andrew by email stating: “Unfortunately we cannot accept your entry due to the fact the UK Sausage Week is not a competition like-for-like the ones we accept the winners from as it accepts entries from multiple retailers and larger processors.”
Sonia Young of William Reed subsequently emailed Andrew to say: ”Champion of Champions has always – and will continue – to showcase butchers who have competed against butchers not vs manufacturers or supermarkets.This is our guiding principle supported by all of the other butchers who are competing against each other this year.”
Andrew told Meat Management: “I am absolutely gobsmacked that I have been barred from entering the Champion of Champions sausage competition. I am an independent accredited Master Butcher and won the biggest competition of the year. That, I believe, should have qualified me by right as it has in the past. I was also an extremely good ambassador for previous Champion of Champions events.
“I was the winner in 2016, and qualified through the same competition for last year’s event, even though beaten by the brilliant Allan Bennett. All my hard work, and that of all competitors, many of whom put in hundreds of extra hours just for these competitions has, I think, been tarnished by not allowing genuine and fair competition. I find this situation totally unacceptable for what I suspect is most likely not a slight at me, but more likely at the organisers of UK Sausage Week.”
The editor of Meat Management magazine, Emily Ansell Elfer, said: “Surely the idea of a Champion of Champions competition is that it is designed for the winners of other major competitions? The UK Sausage Week competition does not put butchers against manufacturers/supermarkets, as supermarkets and manufacturers are judged within their own categories and not against the butcher sausages.
"Any UK Sausage Week winners who have been refused for Champion of Champions won their own butcher categories against stiff competition with substantial entries. Andrew Rook also won UK Sausage Week’s Supreme Sausage Champion accolade and as far as I can see remains an independent Master Butcher. It all seems a bit odd and I can understand Andrew’s frustration.”
The Champion of Champions competition was originally started by Graham Yandell, now the publisher of Meat Management magazine, back in the early 1980s when employed by International Thompson Publishing as publisher of the Meat Trades Journal, which ceased publication in January this year. William Reed the owner of the title have continued with the Champion of Champions brand, depite no longer publishing Meat Trades Journal.
Yandell commented: “I don’t really understand why leading butchers like Andrew or John, and potentially others, cannot enter the William Reed competition. Perhaps it should be renamed Champion of ‘some’ Champions? However, I am sure they have their reasons. Butchers will now decide how credible the competition remains if they don’t have an opportunity to compete against the very best. My understanding is that the Reed competition actually has winners competing from much smaller regional events but, as stated, I am sure the organiser has its reasons and its competition rules.
“We certainly have no axe to grind and I personally hope Reed may now reconsider,” he concluded.
Last autumn, whilst still in circulation, the Meat Trades Journal launched The Big Sausage Week, which included the more established Champions of Champions brand as part of it, and the new promotion went head to head with the 2017 UK Sausage Week activity, which was hugely successful. Yandell added: “Not sure what’s happened to The Big Sausage Week, but it seems it was not so big after all, certainly we have seen no sign of it this year!”
UK Sausage Week 2018 runs from 29th October to 4th November. All 2018 winners will be revealed at the celebration lunch on 29th October at London’s Plaisterers’ Hall. Tickets for the lunch, hosted by food writer and chef Sophie Grigson, are available now at www.uksausageweek.com/awards-tickets. For further information on the celebration lunch contact Emma Cash on emma.c@yandellmedia.com or call 01908 613323.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
