A man who was mocked for wanting to be a butcher now leads an award winning butcher shop.
Jonny Farrell, a 36 year-old who lives near Ormskirk, spoke of his pride after his business, Butcher Farrell’s Meat Emporium, was awarded the New Butchery Business of the Year. This took place at the Butcher’s Shop awards last month.
Jonny founded the butchery in 2020 in what was a “massive leap of faith” after a spell out of the industry. Jonny said: “I left the industry, I was bored and sick of it.”
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However, Jonny found himself “miserable” at what was supposed to be a dream job for him. Thankfully, he was given a way out when somebody at Warrington Market contacted him and said there was a space free.
He said: “The penny dropped and I thought, ‘I have to do this.’” It was just Jonny for a while, before ex-chefs Sam and James joined the team.
Like Jonny, 21 year-old Sam Bailey and 30 year-old James Shaw both took a risk in transitioning from restaurant chefs, but the gamble has firmly paid off. Jonny said: “I’m just so proud of my boys that work for me, they’re phenomenal.”
He added: “They’re really passionate about the job. They’re the ones that asked to enter for the awards.”
Jonny had always wanted to be a butcher, but that dream took a huge dent after a dispiriting visit to a butchers in Leeds when he was younger. He said: “I went into a shop in Leeds where I was studying, I had long hair at the time and they laughed me out. I said I just wanted a Saturday job, but they said there was no chance.”
Jonny became an audio engineer instead, but that work dried up in 2010 when he moved to Beijing and met the woman who would become his wife. He said: “We moved to Shanghai after that and I couldn’t get any audio work."
By chance, one day he walked past a western butcher, found work there and he soon worked his way up the industry. He said: “The butchers just wanted me to stand in front of the counters and speak to customers, they didn’t teach me how to be a butcher.
“So I taught myself. Then I moved to Hong Kong, working with chefs from all over the word. That gave me some advantage, I worked with phenomenal chefs and learnt how to do things from their culture.”
This has resulted in Jonny’s “fluid” approach to being a butcher. Customers can visit his shop and ask for meat to be prepared a certain way.
He admitted that some butchers have labelled him an “idiot” for his methods, but those methods have been key to Butcher Farrell’s success. He said: “A customer might come in and start describing something they’ve seen on TV, like on an Anthony Bourdain show.
“Me, Sam and James will go, ‘ah you’re talking about this, it needs to be prepared differently,’ and we’ll do it for you. It’s that involvement, you kind of take the customer on a journey.
“It sounds corny as hell, but you work as a team with the customer to get the product they want. That’s what sets you aside.”
As well as his team, Jonny thanked his wife, Amy Farrell, who helped him start the business and helps deliver their products to Liverpool twice a week. He said: “Without her, I couldn’t have done it.”
He also thanked Tom Dodson, the man behind The Smoke Faced Grilla online account which promotes cooking on a barbeque. According to Jonny, Tom has been “a big part of our success” by promoting Butcher Farrell’s products on Instagram.
Butcher Farrell’s started nationwide deliveries of its meat late last year and supplies food to Liverpool venues including the Baltic Market. Jonny is planning further expansion too, including building a bigger shop, hosting barbeques and recruiting a fourth member of the team.
He is hopeful that positive feedback from his customers will continue to come in, which he described as the “crème de la crème” of his work. He said: “I’m getting messages from customers on Instagram who have cooked the meat and are loving it. I love that they take time out of their day to send a picture to me.”
He added: “It’s just an awesome achievement.” Butcher Farrell's Meat Emporium can be found on Rufford Road in Ormskirk.
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