Goodreads Bookshelf
The Butcher
My best friend was recently telling me about a butcher in Tuscany, to whom he took a group of study-abroad students this semester, named Dario Cecchini. A fifth-generation butcher whose parents wanted him to not be a butcher, he ended up pressed into it by necessity. But wow has he made something of it. It's not just the successful distribution of grass-fed beef to gourmet restaurants or even his own restaurant. Here's what was most interesting to me.
As a kid, they couldn't afford to eat the fine cuts of meat they were selling. As a fifth-generation butcher, they had centuries-old recipes for random parts of animals--the bit of meat behind the knee or whatever. These were parts of the animal that most butchers either turn into hamburger or just plain throw out. Apparently, the butcher's own restaurant serves these recipes, and my friend and the students he took with him sampled several of these recipes. In Italy, of course, there are a lot of great restaurants, and my friend has had plenty of good food in Italy and elsewhere. Nonetheless, my friend claims that this 5-course meat-only meal is the best meal he's had in Italy.
Read that again: a great meal made from cuts of meat that are thrown out or ground up. It hearkens back to an earlier time. My aunt told me that when she was growing up (she was born in the early '20s, I think), they would butcher their own hogs and "used everything but the oink." Of course, a lot of that may have gone into sausage (what doesn't, right?), but still, I like the spirit of it, instead of wasting these things, they can be turned into a gourmet meal. If Dario Cecchini ever sells a cookbook, sign me up.