In honor of Dario’s visit to Kansas City this week, I’m reprinting this article. Do yourself a favor and book a dinner with him at Michael Smith while he’s here!

If you are in Tuscany, make whatever detour necessary to get to Panzano. A tiny town in the middle of Chianti, it’s home to a world-renowned butcher–Dario Cecchini.

Dario ought to be in the movies. He’s a huge presence; full of charisma and warmth, holding court as he does from behind the counter. Walking into the shop, a staff member immediately greets customers and offers up a glass of house Chianti. He then points to a long table laden with a lovely spread of antipasto–cheese, lardo on toast, salami and fettunata (grilled bread drenched in olive oil.) It may have been 10 am when we visited, but we happily sampled their offerings.

I had read quite a bit about Dario before our trip. He’s been featured in several national magazines and the New York Times. He’d also participated in a special dinner at Michael Smith a few years ago, and Michael suggested I look him up and use his name. The minute I mentioned Michael’s name, Dario broke out into a huge grin and yelled that his wife should come out to say hello. He urged us to eat, eat, eat, and quickly cut up some chunks of the most gorgeous porchetta I’ve ever seen. He spooned some red pepper jam onto a plate, stuck toothpicks in the bite-sized pieces of pork and gestured to us to please sample it. It tasted as good as it looked, which isn’t always the case with porchetta. This was moist, tender, meaty and, except for the outer ring, not at all fatty. The jam, which I’d had before because my nephew brought me a jar after visiting Dario a couple of years ago, was the perfect condiment.

We bought a hunk of porchetta to take back to our rental house and, of course, a jar of that pepper jam. Dario asked us to stay for lunch at his restaurant next door, but since it’s an all meat affair (he does run a butcher after all) and we had too many non-meat eaters in the group, we regretfully declined. It undoubtedly would have been a lively experience and I’m sorry we didn’t stay no matter the fare.

There are actually two butchers in Panzano. The other one is in the old section of town, but ask anyone for Dario’s shop and they can direct you to his doorstep. It’s one of those memorable experiences you won’t want to miss.