Mario Batali On Chi Spacca: Whole Animal Butchery Is How We're Supposed To Eat Meat (VIDEO)

Mario's Meats on Nowness.com

Think charcuterie is just a foodie fad?

Chi Spacca, a new restaurant by Mozza business partners Mario Batali, Nancy Silverton and Joseph Bastianich, may convince you otherwise.

The charcuterie-focused restaurant opened in February and is now the subject of a pretty little film by Alison Chernick, published Wednesday by Nowness.

Some of the film's more interesting tidbits include the fact that Batali only keeps opening new restaurants because his talented sous chefs need a place to keep growing and expand their skills.

In Chi Spacca's case, that's chef Chad Colby. LA Times food critic S. Irene Virbilia points out that Colby is responsible for Scuola di Pizza's "fabulous" family-style pig dinners.

Also noteworthy is Batali's deeply familial, nostalgic relationship to whole-animal butchery and cooking. The chef says he grew up eating his grandmother's calf brain ravioli and oxtail stew.

"I thought it was because we were exotic," Batali muses in the video above. "it was in fact because we were poor."