Top apprentice cuts it with best

TIMES FILE

MEAT-ING THE MARK: Hamilton's Damian Hanley won the Retail Meat Industry Training Organistion butchery apprentice of the year.

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Damian Hanley's a humble sort of bloke.

So when the spotlight began to shine on him after he was named New Zealand's top butchery apprentice last week, he could only think of doing one thing – heading into the bush to go hunting.

"Things kicked off with an explosion," Mr Hanley, who was named the top apprentice at a glitzy Retail Meat Industry Training Organisation awards evening last week, told the Waikato Times, after a few days deerstalking in the Pureora forest.

"I really had to get out of it and back out into the bush."

The 30-year-old, who is only five months into a three-year-long apprenticeship, won a spot as a finalist after claiming the title of apprentice of the year in the central districts region more than six weeks ago.

At the final in Auckland nominees took part in a 40-minute written exam ("which I've never studied so hard for"), an interview and a cut test, which involved cutting four different cuts of meat.

Mr Hanley's personal touches, which involved cutting up fruit pieces to be used alongside a pork shoulder, helped win the favour of the competition's judges.

Mr Hanley counts his specialty cuts as gourmet roast and barbecue cuts.

"I made my display off what my friends like to eat and how they like their meat," he said.

Yet while the former freezing worker's victory could be described as a bit of an upset, Mr Hanley believes it's his life experience, and genuine passion for his job, that got him over the line in the final. "It proves there are people out there like me," he said.

"I've come from a pretty rugged background, but I've done it."

Mr Hanley, whose goal is to open his own butchery one day, received prizes of a study tour of Australia and an impressive Dunninghams' knife set.

- © Fairfax NZ News