Chef Buys Whole Steers to Slash Food Waste and Costs

When Dom Aboud needed a dozen Scotch fillets for his restaurant, he couldn't stop thinking about the other 200 kilograms of meat left behind on the animal. So the executive chef at Union Bank in Orange, NSW, decided to buy the whole steer instead.

"From a sustainability and chef's sense, I don't want to see great produce go in the bin," Aboud said. As a business owner, watching food waste pile up just didn't make sense anymore.

The numbers tell a striking story. Only 8 percent of a cow carcass becomes prime steaks like Scotch fillets and sirloins, according to Meat and Livestock Australia. The rest often ends up as pet food or worse, despite being perfectly good meat.

Aboud now receives whole carcasses every four to six weeks. He's discovering cuts most people have never heard of, like the Sierra steak from the shoulder muscle, which grills beautifully but usually gets tossed aside. He's creating Lebanese-inspired corned beef, veal schnitzel, and using chuck roll that would normally become mince.

"People have been literally eating it up," Aboud said. Even the fat gets transformed into tallow and sauces, ensuring nothing goes to waste.

The approach makes financial sense too. Chefs get a lower price per kilo and can utilize 59 percent more meat from each animal. Sam Burke from Meat and Livestock Australia says it encourages creativity while supporting sustainable eating practices.

The Ripple Effect

While high-end metropolitan restaurants have practiced whole-animal cooking for years, the trend is slowly spreading to regional areas. Burke says more chefs are realizing they can put diverse, exciting beef dishes on their menus while reducing waste.

Local farmers are embracing the model too. Jason Ryan from Tilda Chianina, which provided Aboud's first steer, says small-scale producers can't afford to ride unpredictable cattle markets by selling only prime cuts. "We want to look after and use the whole beast in our operation," Ryan said.

His farm raises Italian Chianina cattle, one of the world's largest and oldest breeds, originally used to pull ploughs. Only a handful of Australian farms carry this distinctive breed known for tender, lean meat.

Aboud hopes more restaurants will adopt the whole-carcass approach instead of ordering boxes of sirloin and leaving butchers with unwanted meat. Australia's reputation for great steak deserves the care and creativity that comes with honoring the entire animal, he believes.

The win-win solution supports local producers, saves money, reduces waste, and introduces diners to delicious cuts they never knew existed.