Art of Meat - West & Son, The (Cambridge)

Art of Meat are on Channel 4's Great British Food Map
Read the article and watch Jon West making sausages

We are now starting our fourth year of trading, here at the Art of Meat and thankfully we are still enjoying continued success with our range of novel and contemporary products made from the finest locally sourced meats.

Our unique selling point is that we provide all the traditional skills of the family butchers but to combine them with novel technical food design to create gourmet meat products with an innovative twist.

After leaving a career in Molecular Biology, owner Jon West has created a modern take on the traditional butcher's shop. His enthusiasm for the best quality local produce is complimented by the talents of his colleagues. Resident Master Butcher Barry has over 50 years of experience in the trade, and ex-Chef Paul, who has trained in three different Michelin starred restaurants, adding professional flair to our food preparation and displays. Between us we have over 80 years experience in the meat and food industry.

By remaining the only purely retail butchers shop in Cambridge we want to maintain our high standards of quality, sourcing the best local meats and using free range produce whenever possible.

Our purchasing policy means that whenever possible we buy locally from suppliers that we know personally and trust. From the free range pig farmer to the director of the local abattoir we believe that good suppliers are people who are passionate about the food they produce, and who understand that the best meat comes from healthy, happy livestock, raised with care, slaughtered sympathetically and presented with care.

We use Jimmy Butlers Blythburgh Pork the finest free range pork producers in East Anglia and which is supplied to restaurants run by Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes and the Roux family.

We stock free range chickens produced by James Murdoch at Duck Lane Farm, Cardington in Bedfordshire. James is a small scale producer who is committed to the highest levels of animal welfare.

Our beef is sourced from across the East Anglia region and is hand selected for us by our suppliers for quality and depth of flavour, and we buy the finest lamb twice weekly direct from both Suffolk and Smithfield Market in London.

Our range of multi-award winning sausages contain a minimum of 85% free range pork, and unlike the vast majority of butchers we do not use commercially produced seasonings, but had blend our own recipes, even grinding the individual spices for each mix. This attention to detail was rewarded by a favourable review of our Hobsons Choice Sausage by the respected food critic in The Guardian.

We also hand- produce our own award winning dry cured bacon, our cooked hams come from the Norfolk based Broadlands farms, and we also stock R.S. Irelands prize winning Black Pudding.

Our range of innovative meal ideas include: Porchetta (rolled loin and belly of free range pork marinated with fennel rosemary, lemon, garlic and chilli), chicken breasts stuffed with Italian sausage and wrapped in bacon, barded pheasant breasts, chicken thighs stuffed with pork and apricot wrapped in our specially cured collar bacon, beef olives, beef crowns with mushroom and pork stuffing, chicken crowns with chilli and citrus stuffing.

Our turkeys are from Burltons Farm in Meldreth and this Christmas we are exclusively stocking their Golden Promise-free range Bronze turkeys, which are hung for ten days and individually boxed.

We want to help all those customers who are tired of supermarket pre-packed meals with our innovative range of contemporary meat products, made with the finest fresh ingredients and which are simple to cook. From a straight-to-oven homely supper to that special dinner party, we can not only supply you with great quality meat but suggest recipe ideas too!

We can give discounts on freezer and BBQ packs and can also source rare breed and organic meats, if you want it we can find it!