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Beef is Back by Carole S. Kotkin Beef is back! It seems that Americans just can’t resist a juicy steak—rib eye, sirloin, or filet migon—the sizzling stars of the latest restaurant trend . Over the past three years steakhouse restaurants have shown substantial expansion, bulging sales, and a meaty bottom-line. Prior to 1993, beef consumption was on the decline as health conscious consumers shunned red meat. It seemed as if the downward trend would never end, but steak, that traditional symbol of indulgence and success, is making a comeback—in a big way. The steak dinner has become the ultimate self-gratifying feast, one that may not be a daily habit but is surely a monthly one, especially when we eat out. The steak house is a quintessential American institution evolving from the taverns and chop houses of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It came into its own in the post-Civil War era when beef became an integral part of the American diet thanks to improvements in refrigeration and transportation. After Prohibition ended in 1933, steak houses prospered.
They were an offshoot of the men’s club and continue to appeal to macho taste in both decor and service. The menu became a strategy for success: generous portions of prime beef, lamb chops, lobsters, fried potatoes and cheesecake. According to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, the volume in fine-dining steak houses has increased an unprecedented 22% between 1993 and 1995. This year Americans are expected to consume an average of 66.9 pounds of beef per person. Nine out of ten restaurants have beef on the menu. So what’s going on here? Isn’t beef the politically incorrect food for the 90’s? Have the food police disappeared from the American culinary landscape? One of the reasons for the beef stampede may be that the baby boomers who led the fitness trend with exercise and diet have now come of age and no longer want to be told what to eat. This backlash is labeled "pleasure revenge" by trend forecaster Faith Popcorn in her book Clicking (HarperCollins). "We have come to realize that even if we do everything right, still terrible things can happen," she writes. "And it doesn’t hinge on whether we ate an oat-bran muffin for breakfast. Since life isn’t necessarily fair and just, we reason, it might make us feel better to have those delicious, beer-battered onion rings." Or that porterhouse. They’ve discovered moderation and an occasional steak seems like a wonderful idea. W.W. "Biff" Naylor, Chairman of the National Restaurant Association says, Have the food police disappeared from the American culinary landscape? One of the reasons for the beef stampede may be that the baby boomers who led the fitness trend with exercise and diet have now come of age and no longer want to be told what to eat. They’ve discovered moderation and an occasional steak seems like a wonderful idea. W.W. "Biff" Naylor, Chairman of the National Restaurant Association says, "Restaurateurs have found that, above all, consumers want choice. They want steaks and fish and pasta and salads—and the freedom to choose for themselves." If that choice is steak they want it to be the best steak they can find and they don’t mind paying big bucks for it-- $30 for a steak and a la carte baked potatoes at $5 a spud. Taste memories and a tradition of satisfying American appetites is what steak is all about. Amid all the interest over the latest culinary trends, such as East/West fusion, New World Cuisine, California, Mediterranean and Tex-Mex, there seems to be a swelling undercurrent of nostaglia for the straightforward, simple, ingenuous American foods of earlier generations. The idea of providing lots of hearty food for the money, like the 18 ounce steak, reflects a swing away from the artistic, tiny arrangement of food in a sheer pool of sauce that typified nouvelle cuisine of the 1980’s. The only legacy of nouvelle cuisine is the oversize dinner plate. But now it comes piled to the edge with food. Instead of firing up the grill, steak lovers are lining up at Palm Restaurant of New York, or Morton’s of Chicago, or Smith & Wollensky , or Capital Grille for their steak fix. Steaks cooked properly in a professional kitchen simply taste better than those grilled or broiled at home--something that is even more pronounced today because supermarket shoppers want their meat lean, and lean often means dry and tough. Only about 2 percent of all beef produced in this country is graded prime and most of it is sold to top steakhouses, leaving little available for the home cook. Prime beef is marbled with thin veins of fat throughout the meat, making it more juicy, flavorful, tender and expensive. Although most steakhouses age their beef, there is a lively debate about the best aging process. Both dry and wet aging adds taste and tenderness to the meat by allowing the enzymes to break down the connective tissue in the meat, but the two processes impart distinctly different flavors. Dry aging, in which the meat is hung in cold lockers for an average of 21 days, is essential for flavor. During the aging time, the connective tissues holding the muscle deteriorates, increasing tenderness, and moisture evaporates, resulting in a firmer texture and more concentrated beef flavor. Dry aging is an expensive, time-consuming process. Fresh meat is stored without packaging under controlled temperatures, humidity and air flow to ensure flavor and tenderness. Drying times vary from 14 days to four weeks, depending on the cut of meat and personal preferences. The end result is that there is less beef to sell. Wet aging is accomplished simply by keeping the meat in Cryovac bags at controlled temperatures. This method is becoming more prevalent as economics begin to favor slaughtering, butchering and packaging beef where it is raised, and then shipping it direct to restaurants. The moisture loss is not as great as dry aging and the taste tends to be fresher tasting than dry aged. Some people swear by the dry-aged "nutty" taste of steak; others don’t like it. It’s all a matter of personal taste. The intense heat of a restaurant grill (1000 degrees or more) sears and caramelizes the surface of the meat in the way a home grill cannot. The steak has a crusty exterior and a rare, juicy center. The rest of the typical steak dinner also includes foods that are unlikely to be prepared at home, like cottage fries or hash-browns, rich creamed spinach, thick asparagus spears drenched in hollandaise, crunchy fried onion rings, and creamy New York style cheesecake. Great beef goes beautifully with full-bodied red wines and each of these steakhouses offers serious wine lists. The menus are nearly identical, but surprisingly, each restaurant retains its own unique personality. In an effort to serve consumers looking to splurge on the best USDA prime beef, New York’s 70 year-old, family-owned Palm restaurant has cloned 14 others spanning the country from Miami to Los Angeles. According to Christopher Gilman, Managing Director Palm 1 and 2, New York, "There are many great steak houses in New York, but none can match the Palm for making the staff and customers feel like they are part of the family. Regulars are greeted with a handshake or a kiss on the cheek—not just ‘how many?’. To many New Yorkers, the Palm is like a comfortable private club with those "in the know" ordering the $19.98 prix fixe lunch four or five times a week. Ninety per-cent of the out-of-towners have been to Palms in other cities and want to come home to "Mama" when they visit New York. " Pio Bozzi and John Ganzi, entrepreneurs who began Palm in 1926 specialized in cuisine from their native home of Parma, Italy. According to Palm folklore, the name "Palm" originated when the proprietors obtained a business license. They wanted to call it "Parma," but because of their Italian accent, it translated into "Palm." Every time a customer asked for a steak, John Ganzi ran up to a nearby butcher shop, bought a steak and cooked it to order. Journalists, artists, writers, musicians and politicians who frequented Palm are immortalized in caricatures on the walls of the flagship restaurant on Second Avenue. "We try to capture the atmosphere of the original Palm in each new one, from the cartoons on the walls to the steak, which is exactly the same in each place. At the same time, we give the local chefs a chance to show their talents—as long as the portions are big," says Ray Jacomo, manager of the Bay Harbor Island, Florida branch. Palm runs its own meat wholesale company to ensure the quality of its steak. All the beef is prime and wet-aged before it is shipped except for the steaks served in New York which are dry aged. Palm has a core wine list of about 100 choices at reasonable prices featuring well-known California labels. There are still Italian specialties on the menu like veal Milanese or linguine with white clam sauce, but it’s the steak, caramelized and crusty on the outside and bursting with juice within, the crisp hash browns, cottage fries, thin sweet fried onion rings (ask for half and half—cottage fries and onion rings) bubbling hot creamed spinach, and cheesecake flown in from New York that you’ve come to eat. The average Palm restaurant generates $4 million in revenue annually with their ample servings of steak and lobster. In the 1970’s, third generation owners Wally Ganzi and Bruce Bozzi, began serving gargantuan 4 to 8 pound lobsters and disproved the theory that large lobsters are tough. Almost overnight, Palm went from selling 150 pounds of lobster per week to 25,000 pounds per week. While some might criticize the huge portions, most of Palm’s devotees like them that way, and besides doggie bags are always available. The Big Apple has more than its share of great steak houses. Many think that the ultimate is Smith & Wollensky. Allen Stillman of The New York Restaurant Group (which in addition to Smith & Wollensky owns Manhattan Ocean Club, The Post House, Park Avenue Caf�, Cite, and Maloney and Porceli) and TGI Friday’s fame opened the restaurant 20 years ago. He now plans to build on the success of the New York Smith & Wollensky, the third-largest grossing restaurant in the nation with $32 million in volume (behind Tavern on the Green and Rainbow Room), by opening look-alike restaurants in Miami, Chicago, New Orleans and Las Vegas. "Nothing seems to slow down its phenomenal success, " says Arthur Forgette, Manager of the Miami outpost of Smith & Wollensky. "The appeal of steak houses with their warm, boisterous turn of the century ambiance and great beef has never waned, especially in New York. The rest of the country is now catching up," continues Forgette. The steaks are dry-aged to delicious perfection on the premises. A blackboard lists the daily specials which might include their signature smoked pastrami salmon, crackling pork shank with firecracker applesauce, swordfish London broil, or other selections of fish, seafood, poultry and lamb. Customers make no attempt at diet as most order beautifully rich desserts made by the pastry chef on premises. The New York restaurant’s extraordinary wine collection valued at more than $1,000,000 includes domestic and imported labels from a 100,000-bottle cellar specializing in one of the largest selections of Bordeaux and California Cabernets in the world. Twice a year (this year April 13-17 and again in September) Smith & Wollensky offers a wide variety of fine wines as a complimentary accompaniment during lunch…costing the company about $100,000 but giving the customer an opportunity to taste some of the world’s finest wines. Among the wines poured during a recent Quintessential Wine Week were Cuvee Dom Perignon Vintage 1988, Laboure Roi-Puligny-Montrachet 1993 and Veuve Cliquot. Wollensky’s Grill, a small and cheerful room adjacent to the restaurants features signature foods from the larger main room menu, but at lower prices and slightly smaller portions—old-fashioned pea soup, steak, rib lamb chops, boiled lemon-pepper chicken and humongous portions of cheesecake. If you want Smith & Wollensky to go, you can purchase hefty steak knives with the Smith & Wollensky logo, it’s own brand of steak sauce created by David Burke, the consulting chef, and even the restaurant’s own steaks (minimum of 4, please). Cigar smokers may light up in the polished wood paneled cigar bar. Smith & Wollensky hopes to take the company public this year, an action that would raise funds for the company’s expansion into international markets. Chicago’s reputation as a great steak-and-potatoes town lives on despite the fact that the stockyards closed in 1971. Even though the city’s best beef now comes from regional midwest packing houses, there still are lines at the door of steak houses like Morton’s of Chicago. According to Tammy Firestone, Director of Marketing for Morton’s of Chicago,"People still care about nutrition and health. They believe in exercise. But they’ve found a middle ground and they’re saying, ‘I want to treat myself, I want to indulge myself, I deserve pleasure.’ Morton’s offers everything for life’s simple pleasures—quality food, fine wines, single malt scotch, cigars, and attentive service.Most people can’t agree on what to eat—sushi, Mexican, Asian—but they will usually all agree on a steak house. You’re not taking chances here--it’s the place to take visiting clients for a power lunch or dinner." With 38 locations nationwide since it first was opened on North State Street in Chicago in 1978 by Arnie Morton and Klaus Fritsch, former Playboy Club executives, the restaurants in Morton’s chain all share the same menu and masculine, clubby atmosphere, exhibition kitchen, LeRoy Neiman seriographs, and Frank Sinatra sound tracks. A bit of theater is thrown in as young enthusiastic servers bring a display of raw steak, veal, lobster, bright green jumbo asparagus and football size Idaho potatoes tableside to illustrate the day’s selection. What you’ll see is larger-than-life mouth-watering beautifully marbled steak cuts –24-ounce porterhouse, 20-ounce New York strip and 14-ounce double cut filet migon. To insure uniformity and quality, prime aged beef is butchered , wet aged for two to three weeks and shipped fresh from Chicago. The smoked salmon comes from Seattle, the lobsters from Boston, and the cheesecake from New York. A typical Morton’s dinner might also include lump crabmeat with mustard sauce, broiled sea scallops wrapped in bacon with apricot chutney, then the beef with hash browns or Lyonnaise potatoes, or sauteed spinach and mushrooms, followed by a chocolate or Grand Marnier souffle for two. Wood paneling, brass fixtures, and VIP private wine lockers with engraved plaques are all part of the show. Morton’s wine list offers over 200 selections including mature Bordeaux and stylish California reds. The intent is to create "a timeless place of refuge" said Paul Owens, general manager of the new Morton’s in Miami. Morton’s caters to business customers who appreciate attentive service, plain food of high quality and a quiet setting in which to close a deal. "Our customer probably doesn’t eat much red meat at home," explains vice-president Klaus Fritsch, a European-trained chef, "but when he wants a steak, he comes to us." Now under the leadership of president Tom Walters, Morton’s of Chicago, a subsidiary of the publicly traded company’s Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc. with gross sales for 1997 estimated at $134 million, is the fastest growing fine dining restaurant operation in the United States. Analysts expect Morton’s to expand to more than 50 restaurants in the United States and Asia over the next five years. It’s obvious that this reassuring blend of comfort and consistency is a winning formula. At the entrance of The Capital Grille, a Rhode Island-based high-end steakhouse chain (best known for its Washington D.C., operation, a couple of blocks from the White House), patrons are greeted by slabs of beef, moldy with age, on hooks in the glass-enclosed meat lockers. Just past the door stand shiny-brass-plated lockers that hold the personal wine collections of regular patrons who lease the lockers annually. The opulent interior design of Miami’s Capital Grille features high ceilings, custom made lights, dark hardwood paneling, and gleaming brass and glass. Hunter’s trophy stuffed heads and oil paintings of Miami’s founders hang on the walls of the visually striking blend of dining areas. Rows of the day’s newspapers line the bar, and televisions tuned to C-SPAN and CNN are prominently displayed above an electronic scroll reporting the latest stock market action. Corner booths and private rooms provide maximum privacy to discuss business deals while digging into no-nonsense dry aged steaks. Reportedly House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s favorite steak at the Washington, D.C. branch is the 24-ounce dry aged porterhouse. The service staff sustains the air of luxury with enthusiastic and knowledgeable young men and women who never miss a beat. All the accouterments are here: huge martinis, straight up, with olives; salmon and caviar appetizers, oysters on the half shell, crab and lobster cakes, Caesar salads, sinfully thick steaks, four-pound lobsters, double cut lamb chops, and grilled swordfish. Steak and potatoes go hand-in-hand, and Capital offers Sam’s mashed potatoes, cottage fries and onion strings, Lyonnaise potatoes, and one pound baked potatoes. They take wine seriously and have built a wine list of over 400 selections from around the world. When Edward P. "Ned" Grace III opened the first upscale Capital Grille in a rundown section of
Providence in 1989 just as the country was moving toward a recession, his friends thought he had made a big mistake. Nine years later the first Capital Grille sits on prime real estate in a renovated railroad station and takes in more than $4 million in annual sales. Besides the Providence and Washington D.C. locations, the Capital Grille has locations in Boston, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; Troy, Michigan; Chicago and Miami. Other planned sites include Houston and San Francisco. Now the CEO of Rare Hospitality International Inc., Grace says he has always trusted in the stability of steak. "Steak is not a trendy food. It’s like a Brooks Brothers suit. It has always been in style." John Martin, the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. unit says, "Cigars are back in style, wine is back in style, and everyone likes a good steak. People want simple, high-quality food and a comfortable atmosphere, and that is what we sell."  Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins and the winningest coach in National Football League history, opened Shula’s Steak House in Miami Lakes in 1989. It immediately became the hub for visiting sports celebrities and teams. Although other sports heroes have opened restaurants, Shula is proving to be the most successful at it—perhaps by applying the same principles of integrity, honesty, determination, and dedication to operating a restaurant that he used in running a football team. Shula was still coaching when he went into the restaurant business with David and Sandy Younts of the Graham Cos., the developers of Miami Lakes and the owners of the Graham Angus Farm, one of the nation’s top Angus beef ranches . It took some persuasion on the part of David Younts to convince Shula to own a restaurant. "I was so involved in coaching that it just consumed all my time. I wasn’t thinking long-range," said Shula. "But it has turned out to be a great success." Shula’s Steak House has ventured beyond Shula’s home turf of Miami to other cities with locations in Tampa, Florida and Troy, Michigan; with a Baltimore location to open shortly. A new Miami Beach post just opened in The Alexander Hotel. The plan is to open between four and eight new restaurants within the next year. Shula’s son, Dave, has joined the company and will oversee the expansion. "Obviously, NFL cities are a natural," Dave Shula said. These restaurants have discovered a strategy offering customers exactly what they want: quality, dependability, no surprises, a soothing reflection of a bygone era; and at a price that represents value.
Macho Steak
This recipe and the Crispy Jerk Fried Onion rings is adapted from MMMiami—Tempting Tropical Tastes for Home Cooks Everywhere by Carole Kotkin and Kathy Martin to be published by Henry Holt, fall 1998.
(4 servings)
With its large Latin population, Miami can be a mucho macho place, and this juicy, spicy steak reflects that facet of the city. If you don’t eat red meat very often you want it to be a real treat, and Macho Steak fits the bill. It takes only about 20 minutes to cook, but the key is to have all the ingredients measured and ready to add to the pan.
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1� teaspoons ground cumin
� cup dry white or red wine
� cup beef broth
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 8- to 10-ounce, 1-inch-thick New York strip steaks
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
Stir the jalapenos, garlic, and cumin together in a small bowl, and set it near the stove. Set the wine, broth, tomato, and a large platter nearby, too; leave the cut butter in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Pat the steaks dry with paper towels to ensure even browning, and season them with salt and pepper.
Put 2 steaks in the skillet and cook to the desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium rare. Transfer the steaks to a platter, and cover loosely with foil to keep them warm. Cook and cover the remaining steaks in the same way.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of drippings from skillet, and reduce the heat to low. Add the jalapenos, garlic, and cumin and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Increase the heat to high, stir in the wine, and bring it to a boil, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Boil, stirring constantly, until the liquid is reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 2 minutes. Add the broth, return it to a boil, and cook until reduced to � cup, about 2 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low, stir in the tomato, and simmer 1 minute. Pour in any juices that have accumulated around the steaks, and simmer 1 minute more.
Add the butter, 2 pieces at a time, swirling the pan until it melts.
Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the cilantro, taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper to taste.
Transfer the steaks to dinner plates, and spoon on the sauce. Crispy Jerk-Fried Onion Rings
(4 servings)
2 medium-large onions, peeled
Milk
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons Jerk Seasoning blend (available from McCormick’s on supermarket shelves)
Vegetable oil
Salt
Slice the onions into thin rings. (Use a mandolin or the slicing attachment of a food processor if you have one.) Pile the rings in a bowl, and add milk to cover them. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Drain the onions well, spread them on a baking sheet, and refrigerate them while making the coating mixture.
Stir together the flour, cornstarch, and Jerk Seasoning in a large bowl.
Heat 2 to 3 inches of oil to 360 degrees in a deep fryer or a suitable pan. If you don’t have a deep-frying thermometer, check the temperature by dipping the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil; brisk bubbles will spring up around it when the oil is hot enough.
Line a baking sheet with several layers of paper towels, and set it on the counter near the stove. Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Remove the onions from the refrigerator and set them on the counter near the stove, with the bowl of coating mix nearby.
Using tongs, scoop up a small handful of onion rings, dip them in the coating mix, shake off the excess, and release them gently into the hot oil. (Bring them right down to the surface of the oil first; don’t drop them from above or the oil will splatter.)
Fry the onion rings, turning once, until golden brown, about 45 seconds. Transfer them to the baking sheet to drain, and put it in the oven to keep them warm. Let the oil return to 360 degrees between batches. Serve warm. Hashed Brown Potatoes
Serves 4
2 pounds all purpose potatoes
4 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Boil potatoes in skins until just barely done through. Let cool and peel.
Chop coarsely. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat.
Add potatoes, sprinkle on onions, press down with spatula, and fry over medium heat. Salt and pepper liberally.
Reduce heat to medium and cook slowly, pressing down several more times, until browned on the bottom, about 15 minutes. As the potatoes cook, shake the pan to make sure they are not sticking. Cut the potato cake down the middle and turn each side over. If the pan seems dry, add more oil before you return the potatoes. Cook the second side until golden brown and crusty. Serve at once. It might as well be 1972 at Shula’s Steak Houses. All the glory and grandeur that was the 1972 Perfect Season of the Miami Dolphins is on display in the restaurants. All the trappings are there--huge martinis, straight up, colossal shrimp cocktail; Caesar salads; obscenely thick steaks; and four pound lobsters. The bar is called the "No Name" Lounge for the 1972 Dolphins defensive team, whose pictures line the walls. The football theme pervades the restaurant. Managers are called coaches, servers are called players, and customers are called fans. The entree menu is printed on the side of an official NFL football signed by Coach Shula, which is placed on a tee in the center of the table. The wine list is bound in a pigskin-pebbled cover with the Wilson logo on the front. From the look of the decor—the clubby dark wood, the brass fixtures, the large black and white gilt framed of the championship season, the big tables and glassware and steak knives—you’d say this is restaurant with a decidedly masculine tone. The restaurants’ philosophy is to serve the biggest and the best. Cholesterol be damned, one comes to eat meat, of course, although fish dishes also grace the menu. Shula’s steaks are wet-aged certified angus beef. One of the featured menu items is a 48-ounce porterhouse fit for a Larry Csonka, which, if eaten by one person in one seating, earns that macho man or woman membership in the 48-ounce Club and a plaque at the front of the dining room. To date, there are over 5,000 members in the 48-ounce Club. Each entree is accompanied by sauteed whole mushrooms and a mixture of red, yellow and green bell peppers. Of course, there’s more to Shula’s menu than slabs of meat and fish: barbecue shrimp wrapped with bacon, creamed spinach, potato skins, hash browns and key lime pie or chocolate souffle for two. Evidently, Shula’s has focused on ways to enchance the dining experience with ambiance, decor, football nostalgia, good food, and fun. What a concept. Tenderloin of Beef au Poivre
Serves 4
4 beef tenderloin steaks (filet mignon), each 1-inch thick (about 4 ounces each)
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
� teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Cognac
1 tablespoon grainy Dijon mustard
Pat steaks dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt over steaks. Press peppercorns into both sides of steaks. Heat nonstick 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add steaks and cook 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, for medium-rare, or until desired doneness. Remove steaks to plate; keep warm. Add Cognac and mustard to skillet and heat to boiling; stirring frequently; boil 30 seconds. Add any juices exuded by meat. Taste for seasonings. Pour sauce onto 4 plates. Cut each filet into �-inch slices and fan out on plate. -Updated 8-20-98- Back to TravelLady Magazine |
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