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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!