Portland Blog

A Day with Dario: the Butcher-Philosopher by Cynthia Nims It doesn’t take much to motivate me to hop on the train and head south to Portland. Though some motivations are more pronounced than others. As was the case last week when rock-star butcher Dario Cecchini was in town. Soon as I’d heard word of his pending visit a few months back, I’d been inspired to see the man work. Not because I’m a butchery fanatic. But because I’ve come to relish any opportunity to gain first-hand, direct insights into the character and craft of a person as singularly talented and accomplished as Signore Cecchini. Another example, another genre — but I had similar feelings about the opportunity to hear documentary filmmaker Ken Burns speak in Seattle last summer. I found it fully invigorating to hear the bright, thoughtful, inquisitive, creative man talk about his work, the process of research and telling stories, the human aspect that he and his cohorts employ to bring understanding to large and complex themes of American history (Jazz, Baseball, Prohibition, among many). I’ll admit right here that I really didn’t know a whole lot about Dario and his butcher shop, the Antica Macelleria Cecchini and the bucolic little nook of Tuscany that it inhabits. I haven’t been following his career for years, I haven’t even cracked open that copy of Heat that I own, in which author Bill Buford treks to Tuscany to learn from Dario (among other apparently colorful culinary adventures, it’s rising on my reading list). But I knew as much as I needed to: that it was going to be well worth a couple days away from home to see him in action. And it was. Was it ever. And not only for the baseline value that I’d anticipated: a greater appreciation of the art of breaking down a pig. I really wasn’t prepared for being taught about life along the way. For the rest of the story see: http://www.monappetit.com/2872/chefs/a-day-with-dario-the-butcher-philosopher/