“Your body is like shaking:” Texas Roadhouse’s meat cutting competition demonstrates techniques for providing quality beef

HARRINGTON, Del.- 10 local meat cutters, nearly 40 pounds of beef, and $25,000 up for grabs.

The stakes were high as Texas Roadhouse’s annual Slice on Ice Qualifier Competition made a chilly return at the ice skating rink on Delaware State Fairgrounds.

Product Coach Steven Loper says behind the knife lies a true art form. “It’s a lost art. You don’t see many concepts like this unless you go to your town butcher but you don’t see any concepts like this any longer. It’s not cost effective but it’s what we do,” Loper said.

Each challenger gets 60 minutes to cut a sirloin, filet, and a ribeye. They’re judged on quality and speed. “Just by when I cut it, just by the way it feels and looks tells me that it’s a good cut. I can feel it in the weight,” Texas Roadhouse Camden’s Jason Edwards said.

There’s much practice involved before these cutters compete, but they say nothing can mentally prepare you to do it in temperatures as low as 34 degrees.

They work daily in meat coolers that are typically just as cool. “It’s a little cold. Your body is like shaking,” Texas Roadhouse Millsboro’s Mario Aguilar said.

“Yesterday I just stayed their all day, like 12 hours just practicing for today’s competition,” Edwards said.

These butchers aren’t producing trays just for the competition, it’s allowing them to hone in on essential skills they’ll need to do their jobs daily. “I want to be the best meat cutter I can be for the company. They’re a very great company and they take care of me. That gives me a positive attitude towards wanting to go to work everyday,” Edwards said.

Top performers go to compete nationally for that cash prize but that’s no match for what these butchers say is the true reward: providing customers with a quality product. “Happy customers make me happy. People start complaining about my steak and it makes me sad because I try to do my best everyday,” Aguilar said.

“The better I cut, the better they cook, the better the experience,” Edwards said.

All 10 butchers completed their cutting in those 60 minutes.

Scores have been tallied and Jerry Lopez from Lexington Park Maryland will go to the national competition in March.

The national challenge is actually part of the Meat Hero program that celebrates the hard work of Texas Roadhouse butchers and also allows them to qualify for bonuses.