Capital Campaign Sunday Dinner Series Kicks Off with Tuscan Butcher-Chef Dario Cecchini

On Sunday, January 12, 2020, Italian Consul General Lorenzo Ortona and Mrs. Sheila Pierce Ortona hosted a special luncheon with the Museo featuring world renowned Tuscan butcher-chef Dario Cecchini at the Tosca Cafe in North Beach.

Cecchini, who was featured in 2019 in the sixth season of the Netflix series Chef’s Table, is known all over the world for his over-the-top style and his ‘no waste’ philosophy. His family has been in the butchery business for eight generations in the small town of Panzano-in-Chianti and doing whole animal butchery since before it was in vogue in the culinary world. “A butcher represents the most delicate link in the food chain. He must take the responsibility to show and teach respect for the animal that has given its life to sustain us,” he says. Cecchini believes that “no cut is any better than another, the cow is not made up of only the filet and steak. Every bit can be great, from head to tail, if cooked properly.” His philosophy of ‘no waste’ is applied in his butcher shop and his restaurants Solociccia and Officina della Bistecca.

While currently closed, Tosca Cafe will re-open in spring 2020 with a new management team led by luminary San Francisco Chef Nancy Oakes, who is also the Executive Chef and Owner of Boulevard in San Francisco and who grew up in North Beach. We are thrilled that Nancy and her Tosca team hosted us and the more than 80 guests who joined us for this event.

The Sunday Dinner Series is inspired by one of the anchor features of the new permanent history exhibit planned for our future home, and it gives us the opportunity to introduce our capital campaign while breaking bread with strangers who soon become friends. Stay tuned for stories on future Sunday Dinners!