Dario Cecchini loves animals, even though his job entails their ultimate demise.

“I cook, but I’m not a chef. I’m a butcher,” he said in his native Italian, speaking alongside his wife and translator Kimberly Wicks on board Princess Cruises’ newest ship, the Sun Princess, during a media sailing in October, while discussing his new restaurant The Butcher’s Block by Dario.

“That means that I have a responsibility that a chef does not have because I’m working with killing animals,” he said. “When they have been killed on my behalf, I take responsibility for their death, and this is something that no chef feels on their shoulders. It’s my responsibility as a butcher.”

It’s a mentality that has brought him success and fame, starting with a small butcher shop called Antica Macelleria Cecchini in Panzano, Italy. The Tuscan venue has allowed him to pursue a mission to take care of the animals, which he does on nearby farmland, even though they will ultimately be the source of food for his customers.

“I have to guarantee them the best life possible. I have to be sure they’re taken care of,” Cecchini said. “I have to be sure their well-being is taken care of before I worry about the well-being of any human.”

The same sourced meat has now found its way on board Sun Princess, and it’s the driving force for his approach to family-style Italian dining.

“My philosophy is to use the whole animal well and to have the correct quality for all the ingredients,” he said. “So there’s two ideas, two concepts — nose to tail, and that simple is best.”

It’s a concept that Princess Cruises president John Padgett welcomed, even though the ship already has its own popular brand of steakhouse on board.

Padgett, echoing the culinary world in general, called him “the world’s most famous butcher.” He welcomed him alongside other celebrity partners, bringing new dining concepts to the cruise line’s newest ship, which is now sailing out of Port Everglades in Florida.

Cecchini said his dining concept is a good fit at sea.

He said the most difficult difference in comparing his land-based operation to this new venture was just the hoops that had to be jumped through to ensure his Italian-sourced products made it onto the ship.

“Yesterday, we sat down for dinner, and everything was executed perfectly, exactly as it is when you sit down in our restaurant,” he said.

The Sun Princess venue features an open kitchen where meat is prepared in full view of two long lanes of family-style tables, although it’s still a little more segregated than he’d prefer.

“One of the things that I consider a fundamental importance in the experience in Panzano, and that ‘convivio’ — from the Latin ‘convide’ —  “living together,” he explains. “We need to take one more step inside that space to create a sense of community. We need to get people who don’t know each other sitting down side-by-side together at the same table.”

He said that’s how they have always done it in Panzano.

“You sit down at a big, long table,” he said. “You don’t know who you’ll be sitting next to, who you’ll be chatting with.”

It still feels like dining with a crowd, though, as five meat courses, such as beef tartare and seared carpaccio, plus a surprise extra bit of belly, make their way to the table along with plenty of chianti. Wait staff present the cuts, sometimes overflowing off the plates, with simple salt, butter and oil offered up as dining accompaniments.

It’s part of his belief in using the whole animal and letting it shine by the cut of the meat, the cookery, and minimal seasoning.

“It’s not extravagant what we need to do; this idea of sitting down together is our way of giving thanks to the animal,” he said.

Paper place settings display the cuts coming the table’s way under the whimsical catchphrase “carne diem,” a play on the Latin phrase “carpe diem,” meaning “seize the day,” but substituting the Italian word for meat — “carne” — a favorite word of Cecchini’s.

“I think that it’s not just cooking T-bone or a porterhouse or a filet that we get the best food,” he said. “I believe that every single part of the animal can be equally as delicious and important.”

He wears his heart on his sleeve when talking about the animals he’s helped raise for decades. He wants the people who come and join him in this dining experience to understand just what they’re undertaking.

“Because we’re talking about the death of an animal that nourishes our lives,” he said. “And by sitting down together, this is the way that I see us giving thanks for this sacrifice.”

On those same paper place settings are verses from Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” which mirrors how he feels about his approach to food.

“It’s a moment in the poem where the poet talks about losing his path in the deep forest,” he said. “We are looking for the right path forward.”

Richard Tribou, a senior content editor for the Orlando Sentinel’s Audience team, reports on the space and cruise industries. He also covers hurricanes, travel and the occasional Florida man story.