Results of a healthy diet experiment and cost - Page 4

I wouldn't know.

I just don't understand at all when people say filet has no flavor. To me it's the most velvety, delicate flavor of beef. Some fat is fine, but I don't understand people's obsessions with those fat-bomb ribeyes. It's just so... american... and not in the good way. I have cooked both with Cervena and wild venison that one of my hick friends from college sends me every time he goes into the woods with a bow and arrow. Once again that's a lighter, more delicate flavor that I think far surpasses most meats. Keep in mind I love braising fatty cuts as well but there's something special about barely touching a sensational lean protein... to me it's like great sushi (though of course you cook venison or filet... and a little more so pork though it should always be med-rare). Seeing how the individual muscle fibers just sort of flake off or can be peeled away effortlessly is very attractive to my taste.

sounds like some really fine dining establishments you've worked in....

I'm with you on venison and pork, just not so much on filet. Like I said, I will give it a shot soon. Also, from what I can tell, all of my close European acquaintances loooove fatty ribeye in the US. Every person who comes to visit us wants to have it first thing, and some of these are people who know more about cattle than any of us ever will. Personally, I like it but not more than once or twice a year. Like I said, though, I tend to eat things that aren't ruminants more than those that are.

I've seen the same phenomenon. I think I eat a small piece of wagyu more often than I'd eat a regular beef ribeye at a restaurant, to be perfectly honest. I want to get much more into game, as I think that interests me a lot.

Pasture-fed rib eye will probably always be my favorite. During the summer I can eat a grilled rib eye with grilled asparagus every day and be happy. Filet is #2 for me... after that it's all just beef to me.

What do you think of wagyu as a product?

Considering that such a label can encompass such an incredible gamut of quality it's hard to say. At this point, food in the US has "jumped the shark" with wagyu very much like they did with scallops, balsamic vinegar, fucking truffles, mac n' cheese, and that time when people seemed to be using miso for everything. I have always appreciated the wagyu I've gotten at great places. Most recently Alinea, Tru, and Savoy come to mind. Both similar preparations, cooked slightly below medium to activate the fat. I remember some place served it as carpaccio which was slightly retarded, not to mention a lower grade product. I do think it's a special product but it's prohibitive price, for me, doesn't make it special enough. I realize that I am from a french background and have worked at places which have absolutely no shame in charging customers several hundred euro for a meal, but I simply do not believe in paying so highly for a single product when the return for your dollar is not at a decent margin quality wise and as far as the experience. This is kind of what has destroyed truffles for me. I'm all about great product but there's a point where preparation, creativity, and technique cease to matter because there's like $40 of shaved fungus on top of something. In some ways I think stuff like truffles and wagyu ruin food. (but much more so truffles). To me even the greatest truffles or wagyu lay in absolute ruins at the feet of a wonderful, yet humble tomato.

Possibly, very slight change, but I might have some interest in working there.

This is what I don't get. You don't understand fat bomb ribeyes, but you respect Wagyu. You even said you'd be more willing to order Wagyu in a restaurant than a ribeye. So what's the difference? The fact that in America the fatty meat comes as a full steak rather than a 2 oz piece?

Anyway, Wagyu is a strange product. It's so fatty, 90% of places that put it on their menus undercook it b/c they think that they don't want to ruin it, but by cooking it mid rare and leaving the fat solid, they are effectively ruining it. And A5 is supposed to be the better product but IMO sometimes A4 can have a better flavor than A5 which can sometimes be a little on the overly-fatty side. I don't know how I feel about wagyu.

Totally agree with this.


Kind of agree with this. I think truffles were ruined in the US as soon as every restaurant had truffle oil, and was offering to shave truffles on your dish for an extra fee. If you mean food, as in cuisine rather than a dish, then yes, they sort of did ruin food. Still, truffles are probably my single favorite thing, or at least top three. There is nothing better, when we are in France, than going over into the neighbor's yard with him and his dog, digging up a truffle, taking it home and making something perfect and simple with it.


Also on my short list of favorite things.

Yes, portion is one of them. I think that even good chefs are sometimes completely unimaginative when it comes to beef because america is full of troglodytes who want a fred flinstone sized portion of ribeye on their plate with no real thought or deed going into it. Almost every time I've been given a ribeye it's been incredibly bland, boring, stupid, and aimed at some obese glutton from middle america who somehow managed to get enough money to pay for it.

Context is incredibly important. I have no problem with the actual product itself, just in how it is used. I have no problem with any product really, just in how they are commonly used.

If you've ever been to Tru or to Alinea, for example, you might understand why I'd love to have their wagyu. Ever had that A1 powder at Alinea?

Keep in mind my context, which is the restaurant. Things like truffles have taken the soul and creativity out of more dishes than I can count. It's gotten to the point where even fat people in minivans know what they are, and food companies are lying to innocent people like that telling them the microwaved popcorn they're eaten has truffles in it.

Haha. I know what you mean. This neighbor, much to our chagrin, has started taking people on truffle hunts in the summer (for summer truffles, obviously) to make his income more year round (he is a big melanosporum "producer.) Most of these folks seem to be the minivan set, though perhaps the monied range rover set with the same sort of taste in food. Eventually, he had to start stocking Italian truffle oil, truffle salt, truffle paste and truffle flour because what these people wanted were not truffles, but to buy truffle products while standing near a place where people gather truffles!

You've actually made me a little depressed. And I'm not trying to be funny.

I agree then, re: the products.
I have not had the A1. They didn't have a wagyu dish when I ate there. It's all the different components powdered w/ Malto right?
Have you been back since they started the dessert mat where Achatz plates at your table? That was maybe the coolest course in any restaurant I've ever eaten. Grant Achatz, two feet away from you, doing what he does best.