Celebrity butcher Dario Cecchini has a beef with Singapore

DARIO Cecchini is arguably the most famous butcher in the world. 

He has starred in Chef’s Table on Netflix, featured in Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and recites Dante at the drop of a hat. For many, his butcher shop and restaurants in Tuscany’s Panzano in Chianti are as much a pilgrimage as a gastronomic outing. 

For all his international exposure, Cecchini famously doesn’t speak much English, beyond his showy tagline “To beef… or not to beef!”, often shouted at the top of his lungs as he toots a four-piped horn.

But on the morning that Cecchini sits down with The Business Times in Bottega di Carna, he is pensive and soft-spoken. His American-born wife and full-time interpreter Kim Wicks, on whom he relies at events outside of Italy, for once doesn’t have to be his voice. It quickly becomes clear that she isn’t just the translator but an integral part of the message. “This wouldn’t make any sense if we weren’t together,” says Cecchini.

His tendency to wax lyrical means that this is no scripted double act. “I follow him, I translate,” Wicks says. “But I never know where he’s going.” Part of the challenge for Wicks is that Cecchini is a modern-day Renaissance man who refuses to be identified as just an artisan butcher. “My dad was a butcher, but he took me to museums. He was passionate about art. He loved literature,” says Cecchini.

He cherishes that heritage from his father, whose death when the younger Cecchini was just 20 years old thrust the then-veterinary student into the family butcher shop.  

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Though he has been a butcher in Panzano for 49 years, he is still uncomfortable with that honorific. But he accepts the responsibility that comes with it and has gone on to train over 200 students. His idea is simple: plant the seeds of ethical, respectful butchery for the next generation. 

“We give them a month of experience, completely free,” he says. “No one knows where the tree will grow, but the hope is that something good will come.”  

He doesn’t have children of his own. Instead, his students and staff, 70 per cent of whom are women, will be his legacy. He sends his pupils out into the world not just as skilled artisans, but as his personal messengers. And that in a way is why he’s here to open Bottega di Carna. “Artisans must bear witness with their lives,” says Cecchini.

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“I realised that I could no longer explain the food and the recipes from the other side of the block,” he says about opening his first restaurant. “I had to finish my work, sit people down at the table, and explain what grandma’s cooking was.”

After Panzano, Dubai, the Bahamas and a post-World Cup pop-up in Doha, he has now brought that mission to Singapore. He understands that raising awareness is not going to happen overnight. “I (can’t) resolve everything right away, but we are starting down a path,” says Cecchini. 

Wicks chimes in. “There are many ways that Dario’s philosophy can infiltrate a menu,” she says. “There are dishes that are less bling-bling, like the francesina” leftover boiled beef simmered in tomato and onion. “Or the tenerumi that is made with a practically forgotten cut of boiled beef knees.”

Earlier, Cecchini separated a beef quarter into various cuts, including his signature etrusco or oversized rib steak, while recounting anecdotes from his life. He dramatically compares butchers to a “priesthood of death”. Even though slaughtering an animal is an act of violence, responsible butchery shouldn’t be morbid or taboo.

“We all talk about sustainability, not eating meat anymore, carbon emissions, vegetarianism and fake meat. (We can’t) go forward without asking why we eat meat. I am looking to make responsible carnivores.”

When the hotel’s owner came looking for him, Cecchini knew that he’d found a platform from which to talk about these subjects. “The owner wanted something that ‘didn’t stink under your nose’,” he laughed, using an Italian expression for something with no airs and graces. That suited Cecchini just fine. 

Executive chef Alastair Clayton and head chef Kenny Huang, a native Singaporean and fluent Italian speaker, made the process easy. “The concept of the Bottega di Carna is a butcher who works with chefs. The fillets and steaks are great, and it’s clear that when people talk about Dario Cecchini they expect that. But from my point of view as the butcher, you need to use every part of the animal well, without curbing the creativity of the chefs.”

The “fifth quarter” or offal such as tripe and other offcuts will be coming soon. “The idea is to start a journey, even if we don’t do everything all at once.”

The Cecchinis plan to return to Singapore soon, not just because they have work to do, but because they love it here. “We promised ourselves that we would only do fun things from now on,” says Wicks. “Maybe it’s a post-Covid reaction: today we’re here, tomorrow who knows? It’s very liberating.”