Trainee chefs from a top military cookery school gained an insight into the secrets of butchery when they visited Walter Rose & Son in Devizes.

The chefs are all training at the Defence Food Services School at Worthy Down, near Winchester, and they learned how a butcher can enhance high-quality meat.

Walter Rose owner Steve Cook led the workshop last week, showing them what happens to the carcass, how the butcher decides when it is at its optimum condition for cutting and demonstrating the skills needed to ensure the finest cuts arrive at the chef’s kitchen.

Mr Cook said: “We think it is very important that the people we supply understand the immense amount of care and hard work that goes into delivering a first class piece of meat to the kitchen.”

Eight trainees from the Army school were shown round the company’s state-of-the-art cutting rooms under the watchful eye of their specialist instruction officer, Ross Anderson.