Dario Cecchini: The
Man Who Started
The Nose-To-Tail
Culinary Movement
Walk into Carna and you’ll be
introduced to the eatery’s meat
programme before you pick the
cut that you’ll be eating later.
Carna is Dario Cecchini’s first
steak house that opened last
year in the Bahamas, and his
first venture out of Italy. He’s the
famed butcher-chef who has
been championing the nose-
to-tail culinary programme for
more than three decades.
Today, it’s adopted worldwide.
Dario, 64, believes in
working with farms that
give animals a good life and
compassionate death. He uses
every part of the animal in his
cooking, to give thanks for the
sacrifice they’ve made.
With no premium or
lower cuts of meat in Dario’s
menu, every part is delicious
when well-prepared, he says.
His philosophy was inspired
by his late granny, who used
leftover cuts of meat from legs,
snouts, tails and everything in
the belly. Dario, who starred in
Netflix’s 2019 food documentary
Chef’s Table, says butchers
have “the most important task
in educating people to value
everything they eat”.bouillon. The sauce is made
from duck legs and wings
fi nished with red wine, foie,
and the heart and liver of
the duck.
The menu at Salted
and Hung on Purvis Street
revolves around the usage
of the entire animal from
protein to innards, skin
to bone, all cooked to
perfection using culinary
methods like smoking,
curing, pickling and grilling
for its contemporary
Australian menu.
After the dish is
conceptualised, leftovers
are mainly skin and shells.
Chef Drew Nocente says: “I
work from there on how we
can use the by-products for
another dish or to enhance
the main dish I’ve created.
After eliminating about
95 per cent of wastage, the
dish fi nally goes on the
menu.”
Here, the most popular
dish is The Pearl Grouper
($58), where the whole fi sh
is used. The bones of the
grouper play an integral
part in the creation of
the varying fl avours and
textures.
It is fi rst infused with
soy for 30 days to make
the aromatic sauce, then
dehydrated and ground to
a crispy crumble to garnish
the dish.
The remaining bones
are turned into stock to
steam-bake the grouper.
The result: a sublime and
incredibly inventive fare
that builds the appetite.NARRATING A
CULINARY STORY
While diners today have
more sophisticated
palates and seek out
more interesting food
experiences, it still boils
down to restaurants
educating consumers on
what they’re paying for and
eating now.
And it is the element
of storytelling, about howthe dish came about, that
sparks diners’ interest,
notes head chef Kenneth Oh
of the upscale Gattopardo
Ristorante di Mare, which
serves contemporary Italian
and Mediterranean cuisine.
On one Christmas,
this Tras Street eatery
purchased a fresh, whole
swordfi sh, and the culinary
team used the innards to
make a swordfi sh mousse
after smoking the loins.
Kenneth recalls: “This
was served as a small
amuse-bouche for guests.
We use diff erent parts
of the same animal in
diff erent dishes across the
menu, not just one dish.”
He adds: “It was
fascinating for people to
hear about the dishes, for
example, the diff erent parts
of the fi sh that were used
for which aspect of the dish.
This is one way to engage
diners to get them to take a
greater interest in the fi ner
aspects of their food.”109 1178113