Meat cutters compete for chance at $20,000 prize

PEORIA, Ariz (KSAZ) - It's 38°F (3.33°C) inside Arizona Ice Rink, on a day when temperatures were forecast to reach the triple digits, and these nine men have an important job to do.

They're cutting meat, 30 to 40 pounds of it, in a competition to see who can do it the best.

"The least waste and the more nice to looks... that's what we look for," Julio said.

Julio and all of the other meat cutters work for the restaurant and event sponsor Texas Roadhouse. They're from all over Arizona and Southern California, and in an average year each one cuts about $1 million worth of meat.

Today, they're given a sirloin, filet and ribeye and are judged not only on the quality of their cut, but the time it took them to do it.

The top two finalists here will to go Florida to go against the top 80 in the company and they'll have a chance to win $20,000 next March in Florida.

They'll also get a fancy belt and the very importatnt title of meat cutter of the year.