Antica Macelleria CECCHINI

"This year’s best meal wasn’t in Miami, but it’s one I’ll absolutely never forget. Early on in the year I was in Tuscany and got the chance to eat at Antica Macelleria Cecchini. It’s Dario Cecchini’s restaurant above his butcher shop (he’s known as the world’s best butcher) and he happened to be there that night doing the cooking. This spot is basically a beef omakase situation, where you never see a menu and course after course of fancy steak is made in front of you and piled on your plate. It was insane and amazing and I can’t wait to find my way back." - Olee Fowler

"At Antica Macelleria Cecchini, Dario Cecchini’s butcher shop and restaurant in Panzano, Italy, the words to live by are 'carne diem.' As he stands behind the counter slicing enormous sirloin steaks Florentine-style, Cecchini puts his philosophy plainly: 'Eat meat and do not think too much to the future,' he says. 'Enjoy the moment.' Enjoying the moment looks like a lot of things, but at Cecchini’s canteen, meat preparations like bone marrow-braised beef and Florentine-style T-bone steak are the essence of carne diem. With a cut of high-quality beef, Cecchini believes that the divine is possible. The Chianti 'sushi' he makes for his class for YesChef, a subscription-based streaming platform offering cinematic cooking classes taught by world-renowned chefs, is no exception. 'We’re not artists, we’re artisans, so what we create doesn’t remain,' Checcini’s wife, Kim Cecchini, translates for him. With simple ingredients from animals who are treated ethically, you don’t need much more than some lemon, garlic, and olive oil to make a dish worth remembering. Simplicity is an important pillar of Cecchini’s restaurant — simple ingredients, paired well with perfectly aged beef make up dishes prepared a dozen ways. For the 'sushi,' all you need is a will to tenderize, then serve it raw with thin slices of lemon or lemon peels. Easy, simple, and delicious." - Dario Cecchini for YesChef

"The Maestro of Meat Dario Cecchini is the most famous butcher in Italy and is probably the only one who recites Dante while carving up his carcasses. His small shop on the outskirts of the medieval village of Panzano is a Mecca for carnivores seeking quality meat (plus curious tourists), and he also has a restaurant—Solociccia—where you can sample some of the best bistecca in the region. If you visit his Antica Maccelleria Cecchini on a Sunday morning, when he works to a background track of jazz and opera, you'll be offered a glass of wine, a hunk of pecorino cheese, and a nibble of some of his meaty products (like the fennel-flavoured salami called 'finocchiona') to ease the waiting time."

"The Maestro of Meat Dario Cecchini is the most famous butcher in Italy and is probably the only one who recites Dante while carving up his carcasses. His small shop on the outskirts of the medieval village of Panzano is a Mecca for carnivores seeking quality meat (plus curious tourists), and he also has a restaurant—Solociccia—where you can sample some of the best bistecca in the region. If you visit his Antica Maccelleria Cecchini on a Sunday morning, when he works to a background track of jazz and opera, you'll be offered a glass of wine, a hunk of pecorino cheese, and a nibble of some of his meaty products (like the fennel-flavoured salami called 'finocchiona') to ease the waiting time."

"“I’ve always done this for the pleasure of it,” says master butcher Dario Cecchini at his shop Antica Macelleria Cecchini in Panzano, Italy." - Terri Ciccone