Italian superstar butcher Dario Cecchini sings a nose-to

Italian superstar butcher Dario Cecchini sings a nose-to-tail oper...
http://www.kansascity.com/living/food-drink/article603808.html
Italian superstar
butcher Dario
Cecchini sings a
nose-to-tail opera in
KC
BY ANNE BROCKHOFF - SPECIAL TO THE STAR
06/23/2014 5:20 PM | Updated: 06/24/2014 4:25 PM
In the cooler at Bichelmeyer Meats in Kansas City,
Kan., the man who is perhaps the most famous
butcher in the world, Dario Cecchini, recently sized up
sides of beef. Cecchini was in Kansas City to co-host
a trio of dinners with local restauranteur Michael
Smith. DAVID EULITT/THE KANSAS CITY STAR
Dario Cecchini arrived at Bichelmeyer Meats
(http://bichelmeyermeatskc.com/)earlier this month as
the world’s most famous butcher arrives most places —
with a big voice ringing out in Italian, big arms spread
wide in greeting and an even bigger smile.
Cecchini had spent most of the previous day traveling
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from Panzano, in Italy’s Chianti region, to Kansas City at
the invitation of chef Michael Smith, but there were no
signs of jet lag. Just an eagerness to reconnect with Joe
Bichelmeyer, whom he had met on a previous visit, and
begin selecting beef and pork for a series of private
events at Smith’s eponymous restaurant
(http://www.michaelsmithkc.com/).
The trip was more than a celebration of carnivory,
though. It was an opportunity to demonstrate Cecchini’s
conviction that the entire animal deserves a place on the
plate.
“We need to use the gift of meat well so that each cut is
turned into a wonderful dish,” Cecchini said, as his wife,
Kim, translated. “It shows respect for the animal, respect
for the gift of its life.”
Nose-to-tail eating is easy to talk about, but hard to do
given that certain cuts — the nose and tail, for instance —
are wholly unfamiliar to modern cooks. That’s where the
butcher comes in, Cecchini said.
The best butchers know not only where and how animals
were raised; they’re also well-versed in how each cut of
meat should be prepared and are passionate about
helping cooks do it well. It’s a consistent message, one
that Cecchini’s delivered not only here but around the
world.
“It’s truly important and the job of a butcher to aid the
people who are eating, to aid the people who are
preparing the food,” Cecchini told an international
crowd of culinary tastemakers at the third annual MAD
Symposium last August in Copenhagen.
People didn’t always need such help. Eighteenth-century
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cooks grew most of their own food or bought it from
within a few miles of home and so possessed an intimate
understanding of how it should be used, according to
“Kitchen Literacy” (Island Press, 2008). But as
America’s food systems modernized in the late 19th
century, that accumulated knowledge slipped away.
“Knowing about the lives of animals that became meat
had been considered essential kitchen lore until the
1880s, but then the big Chicago meatpacking plants with
their tidy cuts and wrappers made this knowledge
obsolete and memories of it repugnant,” author Ann
Vileisis wrote.
The trend continued through the 1900s as supermarkets
supplanted small shops, the meat packing industry
consolidated and branded products emerged. By the new
millennium, scores of independent processors (who
harvest animals and prepare the meat for further
processing) and butchers (who cut and package meat for
retail sale) had gone out of business.
Bichelmeyer knows that history well. His greatgrandfather worked for Swift & Co. after emigrating to
Kansas City from Germany in the 1880s. His grandfather
was also well-regarded in the trade, and his father
opened Bichelmeyer Meats in Kansas City, Kan., in 1946.
Bichelmeyer, his brother Jim and his son Matt, are now
partners in the business. Most of the beef the family sells
comes from its ranch in Franklin County, about an hour
southwest of the store at Cheyenne Avenue and South
7th Street Trafficway. Hogs are purchased from longtime
local suppliers. All the animals are harvested at the
company’s own processing plant; it also does custom
processing.
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The Bichelmeyers have endured long enough to see
things come full circle — the number of artisanal butcher
shops is now growing nationwide as owners, many of
them chefs, strive to meet demand for locally produced
meat.
“What’s really driving this trend is people looking for
local food,” said Kari Underly, the principal of meat
industry consultancy Range Inc. and author of the James
Beard Foundation Award-nominated “The Art of Beef
Cutting” (John Wiley & Sons, 2011). “When you’re
talking about carrots and green beans, it’s easier to find.
But when you’re talking about meat, that’s hard.”
Modern butchers of course sell steaks and roasts, but
they realize marquee cuts account for only a fraction of
the meat produced by each animal. Some operate
adjacent restaurants to help manage inventory — Kansas
City’s Alex Pope opened Pigwich to complement his East
Bottoms shop, Local Pig (http://www.thelocalpig.com/).
Others make value-added products like sausage (Pope
and Bichelmeyer do this, too).
Consumers are increasingly adventurous, thanks in part
to celebrity chefs’ embrace of previously little-known
parts like beef cheeks and to a spate of meat-centric
cookbooks including “The Great Meat Cookbook”
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), “Meat” (Ten Speed
Press, 2010) and “Michael Symon’s Carnivore” (Clarkson
Potter, 2012).
Certainly, there are plenty of odd bits to experiment with
at Bichelmeyer Meats. Tripe, pig and ox tails, beef
shoulder bones and tongues, ribs and shanks — these are
what captured Cecchini’s attention as he strode the
length of Bichelmeyer’s 60-foot meat counter.
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They’re the foods of his childhood, the meat his
grandmother cooked for the family because customers
didn’t buy it. She grilled kidneys, made soup from
intestines and cured pigs’ trotters (feet) with garlic,
rosemary and salt before cooking them with beans.
Cecchini was 18 before he ate his first Florentine-style
T-bone steak.
“I’d been dreaming of what that steak might taste like for
years,” Cecchini said as Kim’s daughter, Martina
Bartolozzi, translated. “And when I finally tasted my first
juicy T-bone, I said to myself, ‘Really? That’s all there is?’
“That made me realize that all the things my
grandmother had been cooking for years were truly
exceptional,” Cecchini said.
Michael Smith traveled to Italy in search of such
exceptional flavors in the 1990s and then again ahead of
the opening of Michael Smith in 2007. He met Cecchini
both times at his shop, Antica Macelleria Cecchini. Then,
in 2010, Smith asked mutual friends to invite the eighthgeneration butcher to Kansas City.
By then, Cecchini was a celebrity of sorts. Bill Buford, a
writer for The New Yorker, had chronicled his
apprenticeship to Cecchini in “Heat” (Alfred A. Knopf,
2006), and Panzano had become a required stop for food
cognoscenti. That didn’t prevent Cecchini from accepting
the invitation, and he came for a series of dinners in
collaboration with Smith and other local chefs.
“If people like me don’t bring people like him here and
involve everybody, it’s no good,” said Smith, a James
Beard Award winner who also owns Extra Virgin. “If we
inspire some kid to cook, that’s what it’s all about.”
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After four years, Smith figured it was time to invite
Cecchini back. And again, he came. Cecchini spent his
first morning in KC in Bichelmeyer’s meat locker,
selecting sides of beef and whole hogs for the three
dinners and one lunch co-hosted by Smith, Pope and
Jasper Mirabile Jr. of Jasper’s Restaurant. Cecchini and
his assistant, Riccardo Ricci, then cut the meat
themselves, working quickly with knives and cleavers
while eschewing the band saw many American butchers
favor.
Most of the work was completed in advance of Smith’s
first private dinner event, save one small pig that would
be broken down during a demonstration with Cecchini,
Pope and Local Pig general manager Adam Northcraft.
The real performance, however, had nothing to do with
knives. Cecchini’s fondness for Dante’s “Divine Comedy”
is well known, and Smith hired actor Robert Gibby
Brand to recount a portion of the epic poem. Cecchini
mouthed the verse silently as Brand spoke; he then
delivered his own version in Italian.
What does Dante’s philosophical wrangling have to do
with butchering? Plenty, it turns out. Cecchini speaks
frequently about the moral quandary that eating meat
presents. The solution, he said, is to ensure each animal
lives a good life and when it comes to an end, that every
part is used well.
“I need to eat meat, but I have this dilemma of how to do
it in a conscious way without guilt,” Cecchini said. “To
beef, or not to beef? It’s important.”
Butchers play an essential role in helping consumers
address this question. People often envision the different
cuts of meat as a pyramid, with the “best” at the top and
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the “worst” stacked along the bottom. Cecchini sees meat
differently.
“It is a circle. It is harmonious,” he said. “Everything is
good if it’s cooked well.”
Anne Brockhoff is a freelance food writer and a regular contributor to The
Star’s Food section. She blogs at ninemilefarm.com
(http://ninemilefarm.com/).
BRASATO AL MIDOLLO (MARROW BRAISED BEEF)
Michael Smith learned to make this dish during Dario
Cecchini’s 2010 visit, and it was featured on one of the
pair’s dinner menus when Cecchini returned to Kansas
City earlier this month. It’s unusual in that the beef
shank is butterflied, the bone removed and split
lengthwise (see note below) and the marrow returned to
the meat before braising. The result is what Cecchini’s
wife, Kim, called a magical dish. “The marrow melts
down into the meat, the shallots soften until they’re
sweet. All that cartilage becomes soft and sweet,” she
said. “There’s just a sweetness to all aspects of this dish.”
Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 beef shank, about 3 to 5 pounds, butterflied, bone
removed and split lengthwise (see note)
Kosher salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh rosemary
4-5 sprigs thyme, leaves removed from stem and
lightly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
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Kitchen twine
6 large shallots, cut in half
1 (375-milliliter) bottle Vin Santo (Tuscan dessert
wine) or other sweet white dessert wine
2 cups beef broth
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Warm the shank bones
slightly in the microwave, about 30 seconds, to soften
the marrow. Scrape the marrow out and reserve; it’s OK
if it breaks into chunks. Save bone for making beef stock,
or discard.
Place the boneless shank on a cutting board and season
generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black
pepper. Sprinkle rosemary, thyme and garlic over the
meat.
Place chunks of bone marrow down the center of the
shank (where the bone was). Roll the shank and tie
tightly at 1-inch intervals with kitchen twine.
Place rolled shank into a Dutch oven or other braising
pan. Add shallots, wine and beef broth. Cover and braise
for 4 to 5 hours, or until meat is tender.
Remove from oven, remove from cooking liquid
(reserve) and allow to cool slightly before serving. Or,
cool braised beef shank completely and refrigerate
overnight. To serve, slice thinly. Reheat cooking liquid
and serve alongside, together with mashed potatoes or
steamed rice.
Note: You need an intact piece of beef shank for this
recipe, rather than the ossobuco-style slices often served
in restaurants. Ask a butcher to butterfly the shank, and
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then remove the bone and split it lengthwise. You can
then easily remove the marrow at home.
Per serving, based on 6: 367 calories (46 percent from fat), 17 grams total
fat (6 grams saturated), 90 milligrams cholesterol, 8 grams
carbohydrates, 38 grams protein, 88 milligrams sodium, trace dietary
fiber.
TONNO DEL CHIANTI (CHIANTI ‘TUNA’)
Dario Cecchini cooks from memory, not recipes, but
Michael Smith closely watched his method for making
Chianti ‘Tuna’ out of a pork roast and shared it with The
Star. Cecchini prefers to boil the meat in wine for several
hours; Smith recommends using a slow cooker instead.
Be sure to choose a good-tasting olive oil, and serve this
as a spread or dip with crostini for an appetizer.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 pork butt roast, boneless, about 4 pounds
1 to 2 (750-milliliter) bottles Italian white wine
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 cups quality olive oil
Crostini, for serving (see instructions below)
Place pork roast in a slow cooker. Add enough wine to
cover the roast, and then add rosemary, bay leaf and
peppercorns. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until
meat is tender.
Remove roast from cooking liquid, allow to cool slightly
and then shred meat. Liquid can be reduced and used to
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add flavor to soups and other recipes or discarded.
Place meat in a large bowl and pour olive oil over it.
Serve with crostini.
To make crostini: cut a baguette into 1/4-inch slices,
arrange on a baking sheet and brush lightly with olive
oil. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes; turn over, and
then back another 5 to 10 minutes, until crostini are
lightly toasted.
Per serving, based on 6: 809 calories (45 percent from fat), 38 grams total
fat (10 grams saturated), 206 milligrams cholesterol, 40 grams
carbohydrates, 65 grams protein, 672 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary
fiber.
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