The owners of a Riverina butchery say a focus on quality is the secret behind them taking out a national win over major smallgoods brands Don and Bertocchi.
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Lockhart's That Butcher Shop was awarded seven accolades at the Australian Meat Industry Council's National Charcuterie Excellence Small Goods Awards on Friday night.
The locally-run butchery took old two gold metals, for its chilli beer sticks and hotdogs, as well as four silver metals and a bronze.
Up against the best businesses across Australia, it was no small feat for the business.
Owner Jared Walker said they entered the awards in June but hadn't released at the time who they were going up against.
"We were invited to submit our entries ... and they were judged by Colin Fassnidge, who is a judge on My Kitchen Rules," Mr Walker said.
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"We knew it was a national event, but we didn't know we would be up against people like Bertocchi Smallgoods and Don.
"We did quite well given it was our first time entering."
In total, there were 725 businesses who entered across 10 distinguished classes and 42 categories.
Mr Walker and his wife Amy bought the butchery in August 2019 and changed its name to 'That Butcher Shop' in the hope residents would refer to it as 'that butcher shop with the good quality products'.
The couple said the experience of butcher Russell Gleeson, who has been making smallgoods for more than 30 years, was crucial to them achieving the recognition.
"We really focus on the quality of the ingredients and it really shows with such a small shop doing so well at such a big event," Mr Walker said.
"Everything we make is handcrafted, we pick what goes into it, the type of meat, how we produce it, it's a testimony to being able to tell the difference in the quality of meat we are putting into our products."
It was an accomplishment no one was expecting when they turned up for the event and released they were "small fish in a big pond", but that just goes to show sometimes the little guys do it best.
"When we first arrived we thought we didn't stand a chance and we had bitten off a bit more than we could chew," Mr Walker said.
"We couldn't believe it, it was quite astonishing.
"We've always thought our products were good, but to be able to say we have the best chilli beer sticks and cabana in Australia is amazing. "
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