A cut above the rest

Dierendonck (right) and his chef Timon Michiels cutting beef at his butchery and restaurant in Sint-Idesbald, Belgium. — Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times

HENDRIK Dierendonck, a second-gene­ration butcher who has become, as he describes it, “world famous in Belgium” for his curated local beef, thinks Europe’s way of raising cattle results in varied and delicious cuts that European consumers prize.

“They want hormone-free, grass-fed,” Dierendonck explained recently as he cut steaks at a bloody chopping block in his Michelin-starred restaurant, which backs onto the butchery his father started in the 1970s. “They want to know where it came from.”