A few weeks ago, chef Mirko Paderno was at the Los Angeles Food & Wine festival, doing what he does. This meant serving soul-warming gnocchetti with beef-cheek ragu out of a big, hollowed-out wheel of Pecorino. Paderno, who recently took over the kitchen at Estrella on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, loves slow-cooked meats and grand presentations of classic Italian food. "I don't sous-vide," he says. "I braise."

In the last month, Paderno has also served gnocchetti with lamb-shoulder ragu that was finished in a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano at Estrella. Some nights, he has gnocchetti with lamb-neck ragu or gnocchetti with oxtail ragu. This is a man who knows that the deep cuts can really groove. "I think it's fun," he says. "I use shoulder. I use neck. I don't use tenderloin."