A team of 12 butchers, including Laszlo Biro of Mures, will represent Romania at the World Butchers’ Challenge 2025, which will take place in Paris on March 30 and 31.
„Romania will be the only country in South-Eastern Europe that will compete in this edition of the World Butchers’ Challenge, as a first. It is a great achievement for the entire team and for the Romanian butchery. We started training at the beginning of June 2024, we met two to three days a month in Cluj-Napoca to prepare for the competition. The initiator of the project for the participation of the Romanian team in the World Butchers’ Challenge 2025 is the Stefan Moldovan Foundation of Cluj-Napoca. The foundation sent a nomination, and the Petry company of Targu Mures, where I work, trusted me and asked me if I didn’t want to participate in the pre-selection in Cluj-Napoca. These pre-selections were organised in four major cities of the country, in Bucharest, Iasi, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca. And so, I went to Cluj-Napoca, I tried to give everything I had acquired as experience in so many years of work, and I got lucky to be chosen in the team that will represent Romania. The team will have 12 butchers,” said butcher-chef Biro on Sunday.
According to him, at the world competition, in which experienced butchers from 18 countries participate, each team must slice and transform into attractive dishes half a veal, half a pork carcass, a lamb and five chickens, in just three and a half hours.
„Every month we had two or three days of intense training, where we prepared everything that will be asked of us in France. I trained with 3,400 kilograms of beef, 1,520 kilograms of pork, 1,240 kilograms of lamb and 180 chickens. It took 40 kilograms of spices, eight kilograms of vegetables and fruits, two kilograms of greens and ornamental edible flowers to fine-tune every detail. I worked, together with my colleagues, in an intensive programme and accumulated 120 hours of training to improve the techniques of slicing and presentation. The meat will be sliced and displayed half-cooked in the showcase. We will have a table that is 9 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. Eighteen countries will participate, the hottest in the meat industry – Brazil, Germany, France, Belgium – which have a hard say in this industry and in the entire butchers’ guild.”
Biro has 29 years of experience and entered this trade at the age of 17, although he wanted to become a car mechanic.
„I entered this guild as a child, at the age of 17. I wanted to become a car mechanic, but I didn’t succeed in the first exam, and I said that, rather than wasting a year, I’d rather do a specialization as a deli butcher. I did the first year and I liked this job so much that I stayed. When I learned the trade, the big factories were still running under communism, so I started working at Gloria, the former salami factory. Even back then this job was highly respected and well paid. It brought me satisfaction, so I stayed in the industry and gave up the idea of becoming a car mechanic. I remained a butcher. I also worked abroad, in Germany, at the largest slaughterhouse in Europe, where 20,000 head were slaughtered daily. There I gained a lot of experience at a very young age. At the age of 20, after I finished the army service, after three months I went to Germany and there I really gained a very, very great deal of experience, which continued to help me with the job.”
Biro added that the company in Târgu Mures for which he works has allowed him to develop. He started as a slicer, and continued as a deli butcher, and butcher block worker, and after the opening of the restaurants he was offered the chance to be a chef as well.
„And, look, I’ve been working in the HoReCa field for seven years now, which I like very much. It is a very beautiful job, and I feel that I have developed in several areas”, said Biro.
At the World Butchers’ Challenge 2025, Biro wants Romania to get the best possible ranking and to leave „a good impression.”
