When Monique Zammit was still a child, her father Noel would wake up at 5am on Saturday morning and marinate enough rabbit to feed 30 people for lunch. 

“I had a separate kitchen installed at the back of the house,” he recalled. “That way I kept out of my wife’s hair. But boy, was that rabbit good!”

A woodworker by trade, Mr Zammit, has lost count of how many piglets, langoustine and steaks he’s cooked and served up in his life.

“I’ve always loved cooking. Helping my mother in the kitchen as a little boy, then growing up and trying to steal her recipes… I’ve mastered some of them, but I still can’t quite nail her pie,” he says with a twinkle.

Mr Zammit no longer gets up at the crack of dawn to prepare lunches. These days, he lets others don the apron and instead spends his time hunting down some of the finest ingredients on the planet.

“I recently discovered a particular type of anchovy that has none of their usual saltiness,” he confides. “Sweet anchovy! They’re caught off a small section of the Spanish coast for just a couple of weeks a year, so they’re not exactly in abundance.”

Sciacca Grill's signature meat - Galician Blond Fillet.

His quest for culinary nirvana eventually led him down the path of restaurant ownership, and Mr Zammit now keeps an eye on his Sciacca Grill eateries in Valletta and St Julian’s.

The restaurants reflect his passion for grilled meat.

“I would go to Italy on business trips and eat at these fabulous places where you could literally choose your own cut of meat, and I’d always wonder ‘why don’t we have this sort of thing back home?’ So I figured I’d do it myself.”

The restaurants have no set menus or pre-prepared meat dishes. Instead, diners are taken to a display section with dozens of meat cuts on display. There, a server walks them through the differences between them and helps them pick an appropriate one – as well as its size and cooking method.

“Not everyone knows the difference between a brisket and a sirloin,” notes head chef Karl Enriquez, “so aside from serving them a delicious meal, it’s also our job to help educate them.”

Mr Enriquez gives the Mibrasa charcoal oven he uses an affectionate tap. The mercury in the specialist oven first rises as high as 300 degrees Celcius before being allowed to cool. 

“That’s when we add the wood, which gives the meat that distinctive flavour,” Mr Enriquez says, as he points to logs of various hardwoods –birch, cherry, oak – stacked beneath the oven.

A few metres to his right, meat loins hang off metal hooks in a dry ageing fridge.  The meats lie in the controlled environment for up to 140 days, their flavour intensifying as they dry out and enzymes break down the tissue.

At the back of the fridge lies a massive cut of Galician Blond – arguably the finest beef in the world. The meat is derived from cattle in the north-west of Spain which are left to graze for up to 15 years longer than your average cow. The Sciacca Grill team sourced the meat during one of their overseas culinary expeditions, and are now its exclusive local importer.

Having been to London and Spain, Mr Zammit is now planning a visit to Sweden.

“I’ve heard about a special breed of cow that I’d like to check out,” he says.

The talk is all red-blooded, but chef Enriquez is keen to stress that his team also cater for vegetarian, vegan and coeliac diets. 

“We also provide fish on request,” interjects Mr Zammit, “though you can’t beat the St Julian’s Sciacca Grill for that.”

And what if customers aren’t hungry in the least?

“Well,” beams Mr Zammit as he turns to face the bar, “I’m sure one of our 200 single malt whiskeys will be to their liking.”