The Steak-out

How a chunk of meat became gourmet

And so to steaks, one of the recurring themes of this column! But this time, I have a peg to hang my thought on.
As you probably know, steakhouses are among the fastest growing categories in the Western restaurant world. They were always popular in America where they tended to be masculine, testosterone-filled places, packed out with men with ruddy faces. The beverages were basic, the servers were all male and middle-aged and sometimes they scattered sawdust on the floor. If you liked steak, you had plenty of choice: strip, filet mignon, T-bone, etc. If you did not, well then, why the heck had you come there to begin with? You could eat a hamburger 
instead — if you were not in the mood for steak — but that was about it.
Those steakhouses still exist. But the new breed of steakhouses is much less macho and more attuned to fine dining. You will be offered non-beef appetisers (tuna tartare, that sort of thing), there will be an 
impressive list of beverages and the staff will not wear butcher’s aprons and call each other “bud”.
In Europe, steakhouses have never been quite as popular. The French like food cooked by chefs, not steaks tossed on a grill. In the UK, steakhouses were seen as either downmarket (Berni Inn) or tourist traps (Angus Steakhouse). Though Scotland is the home of some of the world’s best beef, the Scots were never particularly keen on a restaurant devoted only to steak.
But all that has changed. There are many reasons for this. The first is the non-carbohydrate orthodoxy among rich people. Steaks are perfect for our protein-rich times. The second is the growing awareness of beef quality and breed. Westerners were always aware of the difference between the various cuts. They knew why a fillet made for a good steak, what had to be done to a skirt cut to make it tender, how long a chuck cut had to be cooked for, etc.
But now we talk more about breeds. Until 20 years ago, most Westerners did not know the names of any breed 
except for Angus. Now, the term Wagyu is used so frequently that I’m beginning to wonder if beef has followed electronics as Japan’s greatest export!
The emphasis on breeds and rearing (grass-fed or corn-fed) means that beef has gone from being a commodity to becoming a gourmet item. It helps that the prosperity of the last few decades has turned people who have no experience of haute cuisine into millionaires. Steak is perfect for them. You don’t have to understand what it is. You can pronounce it easily. And most people who like Western food like it.
Which brings me (finally!) to the peg: the meal that got me thinking about steak. Now that Nusret has opened in Dubai, everyone goes on about how it has the best beef in town. I went there for lunch and, yes, the beef quality is amazing. But here’s what I liked: there was no attempt at overselling the beef, and very little reference to the terms Wagyu and Angus that have now become meaningless because of misuse. Instead, there was an attempt to do interesting things with the beef.
Where was the beef from? I don’t know. And I suspect that it came from many different countries and breeds. But the quality of the meat drew attention to two factors we often ignore while judging steaks. The first is the ageing process. This is a complex and slightly tedious subject, but chefs will tell you that the quality of the steak depends on how the meat is aged and for how long. I think Chef Nusret has worked out how to age his steaks perfectly. And the second is the cooking. A steak should be the easiest dish in the world to cook, but so many chefs get it so wrong (perhaps because of pressure in the kitchen) that many high quality hunks of meat are destroyed in restaurant kitchens.
Meanwhile, my search for a perfect steak continues. But what Nusret reminds us is that there are great steaks beyond America, Japan and Argentina.