Millennials turn their backs on veganism and take up butchery

Times

2 days ago

Just when we thought the future was vegan, the young have bored of the meat-free life and are picking up the knife to learn butchery at meat masterclasses around the UK.
At Turner & George in London, Richard Turner, an executive chef who has worked with restaurants including Hawksmoor, runs four-person classes for £180 a head and said 75 per cent of sign-ups were under 40.
'Most millennials are very hands-on and want to learn the skills of butchery,' he said. 'For Gen Z, the emphasis is more about going out for the night and doing something different, to watch our butchers working with the meat and having a glass of something, then at nine o'clock when it finishes, moving on to the next stop.'
He said the vast majority were young male foodies with a barbecue obsession.
'They like to entertain at home and adding butchery skills becomes an extension of that but, that said, it's not always about kudos. Others simply like the idea of an alternative night out and many who join up are totally wide-eyed beginners.'
High-end meat, particularly Japanese-style wagyu beef, is rising in popularity. At Waitrose, sales of wagyu burgers and meatballs have been up 20 per cent since May and Tesco said that searches for wagyu were up 87 per cent year on year.
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Gordon Ramsay's new London restaurant, Lucky Cat, reported that sales of its wagyu range were particularly high among younger customers. At the chef's cooking academies in Londonmore than 600 people have signed up for beef wellington and steak masterclasses.
'There's definitely more curiosity about high-end cuts like wagyu but we want to introduce people to lesser-known, locally sourced options,' Andrew Roberts, the head tutor, said.
'What tends to be a surprise cut for a lot of people is the 'onglet' or 'hanger steak'. It's technically offal but rich in flavour and surprisingly tender.'
Flora Phillips, 27, is one of a new breed of butchers taking the interest a step further. She credits growing up in the Dorset countryside and a love of animals for turning her on to butchery.
'I tried liver for the first time aged 11 and it was a straight shot in the veins: the taste, the smell, what it felt like to the touch,' she said. 'I couldn't believe it was possible to see and eat an organ of an animal when we were animals too. It blew my mind.'
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She left her job as an art dealer three years ago, started her own company Floffal and retrained as a butcher.
'I realised there used to only be two types of butchery shop: very rough and ready or very twee Daylesford-sort, both of which were intimidating. What's happening now is a lot of new places opening up in the middle. We don't just cut meat, we work with it. It's a weird thing to say but I find butchery so enlivening. The counter is a vortex. It's a very over-stimulating environment on all levels. It overwhelms every sense and my muscles itch when I'm not doing it, I miss it.'
Floffal has become a series of pop-ups and supper clubs that have won collaborations with Fortnum and Mason and Taste of London, and she is not alone in her interest in going back to basics.
Jack Homan, 34, a Channel 4 producer based near Leeds, said it was a family connection to butchery that had driven his own interest.
'I've always stalked, or gone on 'rough' shoots, not on pheasant drives, with my grandad and dad and it was always a one-for-the-pot outing. We ate everything after gutting and butchered it,' he said.
'When my own family and I left London for Yorkshire a few years ago I decided I wanted to try to eat only the meat I'd shot myself for a year. '
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In many areas of the UK deer are classed as pests because they cause damage to the rural environment. Keeping their numbers down is legal and necessary, countryside managers say.
'Most important to me when stalking for my own consumption was understanding where meat came from and using the whole animal. I actually eat less meat as a result because butchering is a long, messy process,' Homan said.
'In the end I did six months of living only on the meat I caught. I would've carried on for a year if my wife hadn't become pregnant and told me she didn't want to see butchered venison for a while.'