The butcher is a staple of traditional retail. But with the shakeup of COVID, plus the new possibility of imported U.S. pork, the meat industry has had a tumultuous time lately. Many butchers are trying out new formats, to coax new and old customers instore. One traditional butcher has even opened a luxury kitchen, where you can get your meat cooked to take home.

Choosing beef or pork here is like investing in a luxury item. The butcher can tell you where the animal was raised, its quality, and exactly how to cook it. All the butchers working in the store have backgrounds working as chefs. If you didn’t catch the gist of their instructions, they can cook it for you too.

Butter is spread on a T-bone steak, which is smoked with longan wood charcoal. The aroma is enough to whet your appetite.

Then it’s into a 500-degree oven to be roasted.

This traditional Italian dish uses “diamond pork” from Taitung’s GuanshanTownship, which undergoes a special processing regimen for three days and nights, before being roasted in olive oil.

These Italian-style crispy-skinned pork rolls hide a tender center underneath their crispy outer layer, rich with a special sauce.

Fang Kuan-chung
Chef
We spread special herbs over every layer, for example, sage, thyme and rosemary, and some lemon zest.

In the hands of this accomplished chef, an ordinary-looking piece of meat is transformed into haute cuisine.

Fang Kuan-chung
Chef
We’re a butcher’s, so we have many cuts which can be opened up in many ways. We find appropriate ways to cook each cut, and then discuss them with the customer.

This Taiwanese butcher has been in business almost 60 years. Why the transformation into trendy destination store? It’s because of the legalization of U.S. pork imports containing ractopamine. Customers are more hesitant, and COVID has also shaken up consumer habits. Coming here, you can buy freshly-cut frozen meat, but you can also get pre-cooked cuts. This “Five-star chef’s kitchen” cost the company NT$3 million to build. For customers wanting a convenient lunchbox made with local ingredients, and cooked under their watchful eyes, the kitchen is perfect. Pick up pork chops, marbled pork, or spiced sausage, all made with Taiwanese pigs. The store is making NT$3 million a month.

Amber
Butcher
In the past, consumer demographics were perhaps more limited to the top of the pyramid. Because of the pandemic, customers who normally wouldn’t use a kitchen are more willing to come and shop at a new-style butcher with frozen meats. I think this will gradually become the norm in the future.

Whether this new style of butcher will catch on nationwide remains to be seen.