Tucked along the wall next to the ice rink, a long row of butchers in hoodies, hats and latex gloves slice, tenderize, measure and weigh cuts of raw meat.
Across from each cutter, another person watches the scales to make sure steaks meet weight requirements before they’re collected and delivered to judges waiting at the end of the rink.
“Cutting meat in an ice rink — you never seen that before? Come on," laughed Jason Mennie, senior director of Legendary Food at Texas Roadhouse.
Mennie was in town last week to help oversee the second round of Texas Roadhouse's Qualifier Meat Cutting Challenge for its restaurant steak cutters. A few dozen butchers from all over the Midwest came to OhioHealth Chiller Easton hockey rink last week for the challenge.
Mennie said more than 2,000 cutters started in this year's annual competition in August. That number was shaved down to 25 competitors from each of the five regions.
Winners of regional challenges – including the one in Easton – head to the national championship. There, $25,000 is on the line in the high-stakes competition.
“You know, what they're doing is butchering. It's an art. They have the shape. They have the form. They have to use their knives correctly. You know, the thickness is important," Mennie said.
Competitors came to the Chiller from around Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia.
Each competitor had to cut 20 to 30 pounds of beef including sirloin, ribeye and tenderloin. That amounts to 30 or 40 steaks per competitor, according to Mennie. Butchers had just 70 minutes before the rink's hockey buzzer signaled the end of the contest.
Steaks were judged on quality, dimension and weight.
“I always feel good until the judging," said Michael Bacha of Columbus.
Like the other competitors, Bacha hoped to carve out a place among the winners. He’s a cutter at the Hilliard Texas Roadhouse, and he’s been to the regional competition plenty of times. He’s made it to nationals a few times, too, he said.
Bacha was a restaurant manager when his cutter walked out. He got thrown into the job.
“I was like, okay, I'm kind of good at this and just stuck with it,” he said.
That was 15 years and many, many steaks ago.
To be a good meat cutter, you have to know knife safety, Bacha said. You also have to be okay with the cold. Cutters typically work full days in walk-in coolers that are kept around 35 degrees.
“Yeah. You're going to be working in the cold a lot," Bacha said. "I tell you, like that kind of self-motivation, you got to kind of keep yourself going.”
The cold is why the contest is held at a hockey rink. The conditions are similar, and the chill keeps steaks fresh so they can be sent to a nearby store for grilling when the competition is over.
Bacha said it makes a difference to customers when they know they can come in and have a fresh steak cut any way they want. He said he’s cut a 100-ounce steak for a customer. It was for a Hilliard regular, who comes in on Saturdays.
Contrary to some beliefs, Bacha said most meat cutters are pretty mellow. The job takes concentration, skill, and a bit of endurance, but it’s not so brutal.
“It's not just blood everywhere, you know? It's not," Bacha said. "We've had a couple of customers ask us if we've actually had, like, cow carcasses hanging in the back. We don't do that."
Bacha said the meat comes to him already quartered, or cut into four pieces.
When the judging wrapped up in Easton, five winners took home “golden tickets” advancing them to the final round.
Among them: Hilliard’s own Michael Bacha. He’ll go on to compete at the national competition in March in St. Louis.
