Fine cut: meeting Benjamin Darnaud, the bijou butcher behind Viande & Chef

'Killing an animal is not a simple act,’ says butcher and chef Benjamin Darnaud, ‘so we need to consume it responsibly.’
All of which explains why he stocks only one animal at a time at his bijou butchery Viande & Chef in Paris’s buzzy Canal St Martin quarter. ‘We are trying to work as much as possible with the whole animal,’ he says, explaining why a new carcass isn’t ordered till every cut has been sold or turned into one of Darnaud’s cult favourite savoury sausages flavoured with paprika and roasted garlic, or juniper and rosemary.
‘The modern food model is very weak because the meat industry wants its produce very quickly, so it changes the cattle’s genetics and their feed. Corn?’ he says, letting off an exasperated expletive.
Though just 31-years old, Darnaud wears his old-fashioned insistence that meat, its provenance and treatment deserve respect with an unexpectedly mature – even cocky – confidence that comes from having trained from the start with the very best in the business including Michel Bras and Arnaud Daguin.
And customers – including the Philippe Starcks and David Lynch who are clients of Darnaud’s private catering and consultancy – are responding. All day, regulars stream in from the neighbourhood and greater Paris to inspect the day’s cuts from grass-fed Aubracs and the like, or to pick up some house-made basting fat infused with herbs and spices.
Darnaud is particularly enthusiastic about mature animals for their deeper flavours, colours and textures. ‘Last week, we got an 11-year old cow from a farm in north-west France. The meat isn’t fatty because they move all the time from prairie to prairie. I am constantly discovering different parts of the animal that can be interpreted into tasty food. I want to encourage people to think differently about cooking, local farming, and how they use the animal.’
Consider us duly converted to the cause.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
More of a concept store than a traditional butchery, the shop also offers bespoke advice on how to cook your choice meat, as well as offering tasty, imaginative nibbles to try from the gourmand himself
Darnault’s approach takes the unsustainable, fast-food meat industry back to its roots
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Facebook page: Viande&Chef, or find Darnaud on Instagram @viandeandchef
Photography: Dimitri Maj
ADDRESS
38 rue de Lancry
75010 Paris
France
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
Like a modernist iceberg, this Krakow house has a perfectly chiselled façade
A Krakow house by Polish architecture studio UCEES unites brutalist materialities with modernist form
-
Leo Costelloe turns the kitchen into a site of fantasy and unease
For Frieze week, Costelloe transforms everyday domesticity into something intimate, surreal and faintly haunted at The Shop at Sadie Coles
-
Can surrealism be erotic? Yes if women can reclaim their power, says a London exhibition
‘Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic in Surrealism, 1924–Today’ at London’s Richard Saltoun gallery examines the role of desire in the avant-garde movement
-
Celebrate Lunar New Year with tiger claw buns and coin-shaped dumplings
London restaurant Bao is celebrating Lunar New Year with festive treats, plus seasonal gifts from its online store, and the chance to win a year’s supply of bao buns
-
Vincent Darré reimagines the Cointreau bottle
Cointreau celebrates 170 years of the Art of The Mix with a limited edition bottle designed by Vincent Darré
-
Artist Michael Rakowitz celebrates the humble date in sweet and sticky cookbook
-
Sharjah’s new lagoon-side bookstore weaves literary references into its interior design
-
Wonka meets Gatsby at Compartes’ new Los Angeles outpost
-
Ham-mer time: a slice of Berkel's history goes under the gavel
-
Still life: brandy distiller Christoph Keller explains how art influences his business
-
Against the grain: Brooklyn Bread Lab's experimental baking is a real raising agent