Gary gained his Master Butchers qualification with Baxters Butchers where he was fortunate to rise through the company becoming district relief manager throughout the south west of England. His job also included opening and establishing new shops before appointing a permanent manager.

In 1986 he was approached to set up and run a farm shop that pioneered breeding, rearing and marketing their own free range, high welfare pigs. They also dry cured their own bacon and made ready cooked pies. He was then headhunted to open Chesterton Farm Shop where he had to find suitable stock from other suppliers, as this farm did not produce its own. This was an important step as he discovered those farms producing rare and traditional British breeds with less intensive systems were a good source of quality produce.

In 1994 he and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (R.B.S.T.) set up a meat marketing initiative with the aim of establishing quality outlets for fully traceable, high welfare British farm animals. He is very proud that, as a result of his efforts, Chesterton Farm was the first R.B.S.T. approved butchers shop. During nine years as manager of Chesterton Farm Shop he liased with rare breed farmers and local abattoirs and helped and encouraged fellow butchers joining the scheme. Not surprisingly, his popularity grew and he supplied pubs and restaurants throughout the country, top chefs, and of course the discerning members of the general public. All this has attracted a lot of media attention and he is well known to food writers, T.V. chefs and a number of celebrities all of whom he enjoys supplying with outstanding quality meat. Due to this popularity Gary and his partner Judy started a mail order meat service called The Cotswold Gourmet. This was set up for people who did not live near an accredited butcher. This year the R.B.S.T. Meat Marketing Company has produced a recipe book, with the help of the Meat and Livestock Commission, called "An Abundance of rare ideas". Gary supplied all of the meat for the project and most of the chefs are his customers.

Judy's parents farmed livestock in Warwickshire. They reared poultry, had an egg round in Leamington Spa, bottled and marketed milk and cream from their award winning pedigree Jersey cattle herd, produced Norfolk Black turkeys for farm door sales at Christmas as well as farming Clun and Kerry Hill sheep and British Lop pigs. All of which, interestingly, are now Rare Breeds.

After school, the family having moved to Gloucestershire, Judy trained as a cook. Her apprenticeship was with the renowned London catering company Searcys also training in their restaurants and wine bars. After this Judy worked as a cook abroad in France (the Alps and Paris) Italy (Sardinia) and Switzerland (Gstaad) over a period of two years. This gave her a wide view of not only different styles of food but also vastly different types and cuts of meat. It is interesting to note that in Europe much more care is taken when purchasing food as to it origin and potential eating quality. On returning to Gloucestershire Judy started her own catering business doing a diverse selection of cooking from directors lunches, teas for Cirencester Polo Club, private parties and large functions of up to 500 people. Judy always kept her interest in farming, breeding and exhibiting chickens and has been a member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust since 1981.