On my December trip to my home country of the Czech Republic, I went to a pig slaughter with my father. I enjoyed the all-day-long family gathering as I had not been to a Czech pig slaughter for years. When I was not making sausages, I was running around with a tripod documenting the happenings. When editing the photos and videos, I began to wonder if it was too much for viewers to see a pig slaughtered and disassembled to be later feasted on. Then I remembered watching an Italian butcher on Netflix.
Netflix’s original documentary series Chef’s Table features a different chef in each episode. Each of them has a unique background and experience and they all share a tremendous amount of talent. One of them is Dario Cecchini who “is not a cook but a butcher that cooks,” as he says. He particularly piqued my interest as I watched my way through the series. His philosophy of butchering and cooking meat reminded me of my grandparents.
Cecchini’s journey goes back to his childhood in Italy. His grandmother cooked every part of an animal. What a customer didn’t want, the family ate. That’s why Cecchini had never had a steak until he turned eighteen. His father treated him to a steak dinner but Cecchini wasn’t impressed. He though that everything his grandmother cooked tasted better.
Cecchini started working in his father’s butcher shop when he was 13. He was always expected to be a butcher, even though he wanted to be a veterinarian. He wanted to cure animals, not kill them. He ended up following his father’s footsteps and continuing the family trade but he always treated the animals with respect. Faith Willinger, the author of Eating in Italy, says that butchery had almost disappeared in Italy, cows were fed such crap that they would get the Mad Cow Disease, and the Florentine steak was no longer served. Back then, Cecchini showed his humorous personality and threw a funeral to the Florentine steak by putting the meat in a coffin, much to the entertainment of others.
Netflix’s Chef’s Table was created by David Gelb who also directed the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi about an 85-year-old sushi master and owner of a 3-Michelin-star Japanese restaurant. Both documentaries show how far can one go with a passion for food and cooking. You don’t need to be a master chef and know every recipe to have a successful career in the industry. You can focus on just one thing, execute it better than anyone else, and take the culinary world by storm. Chef’s Table shows every kind of chef. They come from different countries and various cultures. Their upbringing shaped their attitude towards food. Their tastebuds and passion made them outstanding cooks who inspire others.
“To beef, or not to beef,”says chef Cecchini with a smile. He opened a restaurant in Panzano in Chianti, Italy and named it ‘Just Meat’. He didn’t want to kill an animal just for a steak so he decided to cook anything but steak. The public was thrilled, people felt inspired. They say he has more respect for the meat from the knee than the steak. He would cook a piece of meat with no oil or salt, just meat and fire. “Cooking with no ego – it’s about the meat, not the chef,” says Faith Wellinger. His philosophy is that he should not offend an animal by throwing any piece of it away. When he cooks, no piece of meat gets wasted.
Dario Cecchini’s approach to butchery is inspirational as it creates no waste and makes people appreciate everything an animal has to offer. If an animal should be killed, why not use all of it? Some guests might be hesitant at first but are soon to realize what they have been missing out on by eating steak their whole life. There are so many other delicacies, such the tongue or blood to name a few. Once he makes it into a sausage or pâté, it is so irresistible that no one knows what they’re eating.
Using all the meat an animal has to offer shows respect to the animal and saves our wallets as it eliminates waste. What it also saves is the environment. Cows produce methane as they digest food, which contributes to global warming. In some countries, cattle is raised on pastures created by deforestation. Eating less meat would help save the forests and lower greenhouse emissions. With that said, if we do eat meat, we should eat all of it and not kill a cow just for steak. These days, during the coronavirus pandemic, it becomes more necessary than ever to use everything we have and think twice before tossing any leftovers. Many people buy the least expensive meat, like bone-in skin-on chicken thighs or chicken liver. Luckily, there are many delicious recipes that make us appreciate those cuts of meat as if they were filet mignon.
Dario Cecchini did not aspire to be a chef and yet, he has become an extraordinary “butcher that cooks”. I do wonder, though, if he ever had any doubts about his style of cooking and opening the ‘Just Meat’ restaurant. There were no unhappy customers in the episode but I bet there were skeptics who didn’t believe such a venue would be popular. It’s like opening a ‘Just Cricket’ restaurant. I wouldn’t expect people standing in line on the opening night. When one comes up with a new concept there have got to be “what if’s”. I wish I could ask the chef this question.
My grandparents taught me that we feed animals to eat them. It’s a circle of life. We feed them, they feed us. Perhaps that was why I didn’t mind watching my grandma catch a chicken and decapitate it, or watch my grandpa kill a rabbit, skin it, and roast it for Sunday lunch. I knew it was supposed to be this way. Just like Chef Cecchini, we cook every part of the animal. Now I feel inspired to work on my pig slaughter footage. It shows that everything from head to feet is used and made into delicacies that feed a village.