The Popular American Steakhouse That Hosts Its Own Meat Cutting Competition

One popular American steakhouse chain has a butcher at every restaurant that hand-cuts all its steaks, which it touts as demonstrating the freshness and quality of the meat it serves. The butchers cut about $1 million worth of beef into steaks each year per location, and they do it while working in 34-degree Fahrenheit coolers all day — not the easiest working conditions. To celebrate its butchers, Texas Roadhouse holds a National Meat Cutter Competition every year, giving them an opportunity to win a $25,000 grand prize.

Texas Roadhouse butchers compete in several rounds, beginning in local or state contests, with winners moving on to regional semi-finals. The 30 top finishers then face off in the national championship. Butchers are given one sirloin, one ribeye, and one filet, for a total of some 20 to 30 pounds of beef. They have one hour to cut the meat, and are judged on the quality of the cut steaks (including being the correct size), the amount of steaks they yield, and their speed.

The winner is awarded the Meat Cutter of the Year title at an annual Texas Roadhouse conference that honors its top "Roadie" hourly workers. The meat-cutting competition was created as part of the chain's Meat Hero program, which was founded in 2001 to recognize the work its meat cutters do.

Steak is a big part of Texas Roadhouse's business, making up 43% of the Louisville, Kentucky-based chain's menu. There are 10 types of hand-cut steaks on offer, including sirloin, New York strip, filet, two types of ribeye, and Porterhouse T-bone — and yes, you can hand-pick your own steak. The 6-ounce sirloin is the restaurant's top-selling item, and prices are kept affordable by serving USDA Choice steaks. While still high-quality, Choice beef is different from Prime beef.

In addition to a butcher, each Texas Roadhouse also has a baker, whose duties include turning out fresh-baked rolls every five minutes that are served at each table with honey cinnamon butter. (Should you take some home, there's a way to reheat the iconic rolls for first-day fluffiness.) Employing a butcher and baker is part of the chain's system of making its food fresh from scratch, which it says it does even down to the bacon bits, croutons, and dressings. This also helps reduce food waste. For instance, after the butchers cut the steaks, the trimmed beef is used in other dishes like kabobs and as the ground meat for chili.

What Texas Roadhouse is doing seems to be working, since it surpassed Olive Garden in 2024 to become the biggest casual dining chain in the U.S. by sales. The chain, founded in 1993 in Clarksville, Indiana — not Texas! — now has more than 725 locations in 49 states and 10 other countries.