Macellaio RC x Lake District Farmers: Soho's most exciting new collaboration
- James Massoud
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Macellaio RC has launched a groundbreaking partnership with Lake District Farmers, bringing together sustainably reared British meats and the Italian steakhouse group’s acclaimed butchery craft. This new collaboration, centred on Heritage beef, Herdwick lamb and rare-breed pork, highlights the Lake District’s regenerative farming practices while showcasing Macellaio RC’s signature dry-ageing and fire-led approach. It marks a bold move toward transparent sourcing, zero-carbon ambitions and a deeper, farm-to-fork dining experience across London.
It's not the cow
Walk into any Macellaio RC and you feel it instantly: the theatre of butchery, the quiet precision of ageing rooms, that unmistakable perfume of dry-aged Fassona – nutty, mineral, almost sweet. Few London restaurants wear their sourcing on their sleeve as confidently as Roberto Costa’s cult Italian steakhouse group. And now, in 2025, the brand takes its boldest step yet, entering a partnership that stretches far beyond menu development. This is a statement of intent.
Macellaio RC has joined forces with Lake District Farmers (LDF) – one of Britain’s most respected meat cooperatives – to champion a new chapter of sustainable, transparent, farm-to-fork dining. It’s a collaboration that feels both inevitable and quietly revolutionary; the meeting of Italian craft and English provenance, of slow traditions and generative farming, of terroir and technique.
As Costa puts it, “It’s not the cow, it’s the how.”
It becomes the thesis for everything that follows.
Partnership
Lake District Farmers are not simply suppliers; they’re custodians of some of Britain’s most biodiverse farmland. Supplying more than 250 of the UK’s top kitchens, they work shoulder-to-shoulder with a cooperative of Cumbrian farmers devoted to ethical husbandry, regenerative land management and the preservation of the Lake District’s natural tapestry.
That means Heritage beef raised slowly on grass and clover-rich pasture. It means Herdwick lamb – a fell-bred icon of the region – known for its deep, gamey sweetness. It means rare-breed pork from small, mixed-farming systems where old genetics thrive.
To see these meats on Macellaio RC’s tables is to understand what both partners do best: take what is already extraordinary, and elevate it with obsessive craftsmanship.
Italian Technique, English Landscape
The result is a menu where English terroir meets Italian instinct.
Cuts from LDF’s slow-reared cattle meet Tuscan olive oil, sea salt from Trapani, and Macellaio RC’s signature ageing and carving methods. Sharp mountain air from Cumbria meets Ligurian heat and hospitality.
Expect to see:
Thick, ruby-red steaks dry-aged on-site with the precision Macellaio RC has perfected through its Fassona programme.
Herdwick lamb handled with the same reverence usually reserved for bistecca alla Fiorentina, kissed by flame, dressed with almost nothing.
Pork treated nose-to-tail, highlighting the rare-breed characteristics that industrial farming sandpapers out.
It’s not fusion, it’s a conversation. One built on respect for craft, ingredients and the landscapes that shape them.
A New Statement Cut
Alongside the partnership with LDF, Macellaio RC is unveiling a major new addition to its butchery programme: Marango Beef, a premium crossbreed that represents the restaurant’s most ambitious step forward in years.
Marango is born from the marriage of Black Angus, prized for its intense marbling and buttery texture, and Maremmana, the ancient Tuscan cattle known for its wild, robust flavour and centuries-old presence across the Maremma marshlands. The result is extraordinary: beef that balances richness with structure, tenderness with depth, finesse with rustic soul.
It is the kind of meat that demands attention, not because it’s novel, but because it feels inevitable. A natural evolution for a restaurant that has long celebrated heritage breeds and the craft behind them.
Macellaio RC sees Marango not as a special addition, but as a new cornerstone of its identity. It represents the group’s ongoing commitment to quality, transparency, and authenticity – a promise that every plate tells a story deep-set in tradition yet elevated by modern culinary artistry.
For diners, it means one thing – an unforgettable experience, whether you’re a faithful regular or discovering Macellaio RC for the first time. This is beef that tastes of place, of history, of intention.
Telling the Story of "How", Not "What"
For years, diners have demanded to know what they’re eating and where it comes from. The Macellaio RC x LDF partnership pushes the conversation further: how it was raised, how land is cared for, how farming communities survive, and how restaurants can champion better systems without romanticising them.
This collaboration aims to peel back the curtain with:
Behind-the-scenes insight from farmers and butchers
Exclusive cuts unavailable elsewhere
Story-driven menus connecting diners directly to place and process
A long-term move toward zero carbon emissions
In a dining culture often obsessed with novelty, this is a rare shift. A focus on lineage, geology, husbandry, labour. It’s food as storytelling, not in a contrived marketing sense, but in the quiet, necessary way that real provenance demands.
A Shared Future of Responsibility
For Costa and his team, this is only the beginning. The partnership with Lake District Farmers is designed as a long-term journey into deeper sustainability. A commitment not only to better ingredients, but to better systems.
It feels fitting for a restaurant group whose signature steaks already showcase what meticulous sourcing and time-honoured technique can achieve. Now, with LDF’s farms behind them, Macellaio RC steps into a new role: a bridge between two food cultures equally obsessed with quality, tradition and the land that feeds us.
In the end, this story is not about a cow, or even a cut. It’s about stewardship, of craft, of ecosystems, of old knowledge, of the future.
And on London tables this season, you can taste exactly what that looks like.
