Cecchini uses a grill filled with noble oak wood and lets the steak come to full room temperature. “The best way to cook a bistecca alla fiorentina is the ancestral way,” he says. “No rubs, no salt, no oil, nothing. On the table, the diner should find a good salt and a bottle of good extra-virgin olive oil. But the first bite should be without.”
A good steak doesn’t need anything – no sauces or anything else. Enjoy with an excellent bottle of Tuscan red wine – Dario Cecchini
While Italian restaurant dinners unfold in a symphony of courses – including antipasti, primi (pasta) and contorni (side dishes) – a bistecca alla Fiorentina demands centre stage, and a restrained approach is recommended. “The side dish would be white cannellini beans cooked simply with garlic, sage and olive oil,” says Cecchini. “This is truly the most classic – beans and bistecca.”
In Brazil, steak is an interactive, all-you-can eat event.
Brazil
Brazil’s steak culture is rooted in churrasco, the Portuguese word for grilled meat. The cooking style emerged in the 18th and 19th Centuries among the ranchers who developed a system of skewering beef on long metal rods, seasoning it with salt and roasting it over open fire. The setup, with skewers set over charcoal or live heat, still shapes the way churrasco is cooked today.
Originally a regional specialty, churrasco spread across Brazil and became a national dish as well as a cherished multi-generational event. In restaurants known as churrascarias, churrasco is often served rodízio style – an interactive format in which passadores (skilled servers who slice the meat) circulate through the dining room carving different cuts tableside.
Churrascarias are all-you-can-eat, so pace yourself and stick with your favorites.
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