Over the Easter weekend, our effervescent, Spanish butcher, Cristina, left the Meat N16 Team. Cristina decided after a year and a half that she wanted to return home to her family. Like any valued member of the Meat London family, it is sad when the time comes for people to leave, but it is of course inevitable, for one reason or another, that the time comes for everyone to move on sooner or later. It’s part of the deal when operating such a cosmopolitan company. On this occasion, we lose the professionalism, the enthusiasm and the relentless passion that Cristina has. We’ll keep the ‘back of house’ antics to ourselves, but Cristina is just as crazy when the doors are closed as she is when customer facing. Good luck to her. She will be missed.
In the same week, a new butcher shop that opened on the other side of London, is promoting itself using a very pleasant, articulate, young lady from the West Country. I saw her promotional video, and her work, her knowledge and her presentation suggests that the lady in question will lead a very good team, and will help bring a great, new butchers shop into the industry. And, around about the same time, yet another female wrote a great article encompassing the history of butchery, and her experiences at the, sadly, now defunct Walthamstow College Butchery School. The article was enlightening and well balanced, and the woman appears to have enjoyed her experience.
Blimey, it’s all about the girls, and why not! I wrote a long time ago that I could see a rise of female interest in the meat industry. Of course, at Meat London we have had others, Monika probably serving the longest. New, modern butchery lends itself to cleaner, more user friendly shops. New machinery and improved practices help with heavy lifting and encourage more confidence. I once asked “how many fathers dreamt of their beloved daughters becoming butchers?”. Well, it’s happening, and it is happening for the good of the industry, and probably society. Of course, there have been females around butchers shops for ever, but, it just seems that the new breed are ready to step up, and bring something new into the industry, and good luck to them too.
Am I pushing my luck? I am going to bang the drum for St Georges Day, Tuesday 23 rd April. We always get excited about Burn’s Night and the green sausages always make an appearance for St Patricks Day, so this year, we’re going to have great fun promoting our George, and his dragon. Of course, it is our business ethos to use British products wherever we can. All of our wonderful beef, lamb and pork are from home soil. Our chickens and ducks are also from the finest English farms. The deli too is awash with hams, pies and cheeses produced lovingly by proud English producers. I hear talk that Conroy has developed a Sunday Roast Sausage recipe to celebrate. On Sunday 21 st April, Craig will be producing Sunday Roast Sausage Baps for lunch at Meat N16. Our friends from Lost and Grounded will be sampling their delicious range of English beers and Gessica has a couple of English wines to taste that will test the best in the world. An opportunity to showcase our finest products, and a chance to be Proud to be British. All of the fun will start at 12 noon. There are more details on our website, but come along and we promise some fun.
Once again, as our pictures testify, we had a fantastic response to our Easter Painting competition. The kids of North London produced artwork to melt the heart. We estimate something like 200 pictures were handed in, resulting in a whole lot of Cream Eggs being given out, before our judges generously gave their time, picking winners and runners up in the 5yrs and under and the 6yrs plus categories. I think our Craig engaged his inner child as he packed the winning hampers with enough chocolate to be shared for weeks to come. We had a great time, and the enthusiasm from the youngsters is to be commended. Thank you, and well done to every entrant. This is one of those moments in life when just taking part makes you a winner.
*BTW; we never judge our own competitions. It’s not our fault if your very own little darling didn’t win!!
