How do the people at the big table
interact with one another?
People who come here
are already prepared;
they know the rules,
so they don't ask
for a table for two.
They have fun,
they meet people.
It's not necessarily
a lasting friendship,
but making friends at the table is positive
for as long as you're with the others.
Being positive with the others.
I find that this conviviality is the seasoning and
the best taste at the butcher's table.
Why the name " The Officina"
for your other restaurant?
What does that symbolize?
Because the "Officina" has a forge,
it uses fire,
but at the same time comes
from the Latin "ficium"
"offizium", the workshop.
The rite of steak in Tuscany
is our secular mass.
It's celebrating mass with the
most important symbol of sharing food.
The Florentine steak is precious: there are
a very few of them in a whole cow, only 6.
Sharing the Florentine
steak with others,
participating in the rite
that is dividing meat,
breaking bread, pouring wine, dividing
the most prized part of a cow
is our secular mass.
It's the "ritual of the Florentine steak".
I would never use a Florentine steak
for a table for two or four
it's offensive to the animal
that has been killed.
And it doesn't make sense.
It's about sharing
the goodness of the food.
I am convinced, seriously,
that I'll be reincarnated as a cow.
I think the Buddhists are right,
that we have a series of rebirths.
I'm fine with being reborn as a cow.
I'm not afraid.
But I want a good life,
a merciful death
and a good butcher.
My nightmare is to end up as
a "product" of the food industry.
The last couple
of questions.
Given that most people didn't eat
much meat until very recently,
is meat really part of
Tuscan gastronomic culture?
Sure.
Why?
Probably because we were
more fortunate than others,
we had a more benign nature,
or it was the Etruscans and Romans.
The Romans were the occupiers,
when there were Etruscans and
the name of Tuscany was "Etruria felix ",
and the countryside produced goods,
they administered themselves
on their own.
There was no central state,
it was a marvelous form of anarchy.
Everybody lived in peace
and there was plenty of food.
We had the good luck to be born here
and have a tradition like this:
let's enjoy it.
Is it important to know
where this meat came from?
If so, why?
It is very important to know this!
I raise my animals in Catalonia
with an old family of butchers;
it's a part of Europe that's particularly
suitable for this kind of farming
because they have
green pastures and
countryside that's not industrialized,
but well-preserved kept.
I did a short interview for an Italian
newspaper for landscape architects.
Their article was about this area,
which is like a garden,
and they said, "The place is so nice that
Dario Cecchini breeds his animals here."
By law I have to declare
the source of my meat,
and I don't make an issue of?
the beauty and importance
of this...
the beauty of the source of this romantic
story about this family of butchers.
By law I have to declare whether my meat is
Italian, Spanish, or from somewhere else.
I don't have to say whether the meat is
from an artisan or from an industry.
The law tells me I have to declare this,
so I put it on all my menus
and all over my website
that the meat comes from Spain.
Because the guarantee
of the quality of my product is me,
not where it comes from or?
what kind it is.
When I use Chianina,
I never say that it's Chianina.
Because for me this isn't important.
Doesn't that mean anything?
That's not what I think about quality.
I think in another way.
But the law tells me
to do that and I do.
I don't see anything wrong with that.
In the beginning people would say,
"Ahh, but it's not Italian meat,
Cecchini. I'm surprised at you!"
And I said, "Be surprised."
Surprise and wonder are
always good things.
You have your choice,
you don't have to marry me.
You have to say
whether I'm a good artisan,
and I make quality products.
I don't understand this
problem of "zero miles".
Because it takes a lot more?
CO2 bringing in food to feed the animals
in certain areas of the world
for example, bringing in
barley from Canada,
than to raise the animals where they are.
and then move them
after slaughtering,
just once.
Even because they don't get stressed.
They have a better life.
Perfect, I don't have any other question.
Thank you for the time.
The only thing that I feel bad about is that
I thought I had big hands,
but when we shake hands,
mine disappears!
Thank you, Dario!
