I can count on one hand the number of times I have been into a butcher in the past five years. Usually it has been at Christmas when I’ve forked out on a turkey and all the trimmings then spent the rest of the year paying for it.
And now that Aragawa, a restaurant in Mayfair, is selling sirloin steaks from a blue-blooded breed of Japanese cow that range from £500 to £900 (for two to share), I am more convinced than ever that the least terrifying place for me to get my meat is the local supermarket. There I can buy organic and free-range cuts without the scary price tag, or the gold leaf that restaurants such as Salt Bae’s Nusr-Et Steakhouse insist on serving it with. (Although if you want to buy Kobe beef, you can order it online at fineandwild.com from £180 for a measly 300g of steak.)
Until recently, independent butchers were a rare breed, disappearing from high streets to be replaced by big bad supermarkets and chains. Thirty years ago there were 15,000 in the UK; by 2015 that had dropped to about 6,000, and in 2021 there were fewer than 5,500 butchers. Then came Brexit, triggering a national butcher shortage, according to the British Meat Processors Association, as EU workers left the country.
• The 16-year-old farmer selling Michelin-starred meat
Until then few seemed to take much notice. We’re all vegans now, aren’t we? Meat consumption has dropped by 17 per cent in the past decade. Everyone knows red meat is bad for the environment and our health. Plant-based diets save the world. The only new butcher I’d heard of opening was the Vegetarian Butcher, a brand of vegan and vegetarian sausages and burgers sold in the supermarket.
Advertisement
Which is why I was surprised when I learnt that the Small Herd, a collection of trendy butchers, had arrived in London. “How brave,” I said to myself. “I wonder how long they’ll last.” The Small Herd is a collection of independent butchers founded by Luca Mathiszig-Lee, who also runs two hipster east London restaurants (Hill & Szroks and Stella’s — butchers by day, eateries by night). The collection will include three butchers across the city selling, according to the website, boneless pork loins (£21.50) and whole free-range chickens (£24.50). These are proper butchers, not a man behind the meat counter at Tesco. Not the owner of a deli that sells artisan sausages or a chef who buys meat online. These butchers are the full oink.
What’s behind the resurgence? Perhaps it’s nostalgia. A smelly but comforting trip down memory lane to the olden days when we shopped at the butcher in between visiting the cobbler and the baker. Or maybe it’s the small group of people who believe that instead of cutting down on meat, the answer to helping the environment is shopping at organic, local butchers rather than buying mass-produced, factory-farmed meat. Actually, though, I think it’s that butchers are becoming the latest foodie bragging right for the one per cent, a way for those who can afford it to flash their culinary credentials. First it was £5 packets of Spanish crisps. Then it was £4 tins of Gordal olives. Will expensive, organic, carbon-neutral steaks that cost a paycheque be next?
In November ArtFarm, the luxury hospitality group that runs Durslade Farmhouse in Bruton, Somerset, will open a farm shop and butcher in Mayfair, London. Well-heeled customers — including George Osborne, who lives in Bruton — will be able to watch sausages being made and order cuts of meat, or birds. Large chickens for £20, six sausages from £6.50, two sirloin steaks for £19 (dursladefarmshop.co.uk). Next week in Margate, the epicentre of the country’s cool food scene, Northdown Butchers (@northdown_butchers) will open its first shop.
• How to enjoy venison and the butchers to buy it from
The first cult butcher was C Lidgate in the exclusive neighbourhood of Holland Park. It’s a favourite of Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay, and sells meat from King Charles’s Highgrove Estate. I went (once) to buy a chicken for a Sunday lunch with friends. I left shortly after I was told the price (£30) and headed straight to Sainsbury’s. Another is Turner & George, in north London, run by the Hawksmoor restaurateur Richard Turner. In his shop he’ll sell you a whole chicken from £24.15 or a shoulder of pork for north of £30. Or there is Provenance, a “village butcher” in London that provides the ribeye steaks for Ed Sheeran’s restaurant Bertie Blossoms in Notting Hill (you can buy them at Provenance for £43).
Advertisement
In the Cotswolds the award winning Todenham Manor Farm and the butcher in Moreton-in-Marsh is a one-stop shop for Michelin-starred chefs such as Tom Aikens, who chose its produce for his Soho Farmhouse menu.
Admittedly, the Small Herd is trying to be a little different, more “approachable” and “cool”, pushing cheaper and less fashionable cuts on its customers. “We want to show that you don’t have to be in a pinstripe apron holding a big wooden chopping board to be a butcher,” Mathiszig-Lee says. But I’m not sure I expected how this would manifest itself. At the Small Herd sites meat hangs inside cabinets that have been lit up with neon lights, like some kind of beef-dripping rave. At one of the sites the fridge is bright pink, and the company has its own line of merchandise for sale.
Now, obviously I know that the welfare of the animals and quality of the meat is likely to be far superior when it comes from a butcher. But I’m not sure I’m ready for the meat-splaining or the dinner party chat about how it really is worth forking out for better cuts. So if someone asks me who my go-to butcher is or if I’ll be sending them a Christmas card, I know I am more than likely to tell them to trot off.
Top of the chops: where the foodies buy their meat
Secretts Farm Shop, Hurst Farm, Surrey
secretts.co.uk
Alongside the award-winning on-site butcher Black Barn there’s a tearoom and a deli. The farm supplies vegetables to London’s leading restaurants, including the River Café.
C Lidgate, 110 Holland Park Avenue, London W11
lidgates.com
The celebrity butcher. Nigella has endorsed it, as have Gordon Ramsay and Richard Branson. It’s famous for its marbled wagyu beef — its ribeye steak costs £60.79 for 250g.
Advertisement
HG Walter, 51 Palliser Rd, London W14
hgwalter.com
A favourite among London’s most celebrated restaurants. It supplies Jeremy Lee’s Quo Vadis, Frog by Adam Handling and Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred Fat Duck. Its bestseller is its grass-fed rib of beef, £49 for 1.4kg.
Todenham Manor Farm Shop, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire
todenhammanorfarm.co.uk
Award-winning cuts from the Cotswolds. This butcher supplies the celebrity haunt and members’ club Soho Farmhouse. Free-range bronze turkeys from £64.
Provenance Village Shop, various London locations
provenancebutcher.com
Prizewinning shops in London’s most expensive postcodes and a website that delivers UK-wide. Buy the grass-fed rib of beef, £55.19 for 1.2kg, from Yorkshire.
The Farm Shop, Chatsworth Estate, Derbyshire
chatsworth.org
A traditional butchers housed in a farm shop. Beef, lamb, venison and pheasant all come from the estate.
Balgove Larder, Strathtyrum Estate, Fife
balgove.com
Showcasing some of Scotland’s finest meat. Buy its award-winning pork, sage and thyme sausages, £11.25 for eight.
Advertisement
Knitsley Farm Shop, Co Durham
The farm shop butchery specialises in cured treacle and pork pies. The beef is butchered in house and expertly hung.
The Ginger Pig, various London locations
gingerpig.co.uk
One of London’s best loved butchers, famous for its sausage rolls, £6. Specialises in British and French meat and poultry, such as its Label Rouge chickens, £27.45, reared in forests.
William Rose Butchers, London SE22
williamrosebutchers.co.uk
Founded in 1862, this is one of the oldest butchers in London. The queues are as famous as the meat the shop sells.
