Tony Fortuna, owner of the always-buzzing TBar Steak and Lounge says he spends $34 to buy a 24-ounce, dry-aged cut of rib eye, and if one customer finds their steak overcooked, “we lose money on the whole table”.Īdding to the issue is the fact that many chefs have dispensed with using meat thermometers and just go by feel, says Mr Fortuna, who keeps a close eye on his steaks’ outer char as well as on their inner moisture. So kitchens err on the rare side, knowing the dish can always be rescued with a minute or two more heat.
“If a customer says their steak is overcooked, it can only be thrown out,” says Mr Hanson, the owner of Henry at Life Hotel who previously ran four steakhouses under the BR Guest banner, including the Strip House chain. Every cent counts when eateries are under unprecedented strain from high rents, high labour costs and brutal competition. Restaurateur Stephen Hanson says it’s mainly about money. Even Bowery Meat executive chef Josh Capon says he now orders medium-rare-plus, rather than medium-rare, for himself when he’s out, because “most steakhouses are undercooking”. I now ask for medium-rare-plus to prevent getting steak too raw and tough to chew. Your steak is being cooked wrong on purpose. Only Bowery Meat Company nailed medium-rare as I expect it, although Porter House New York’s slightly underdone, chilli-rubbed rib eye had the best overall flavour and char. Similar cuts that I braved in the last week, at STK in Midtown and at Delmonico’s in FiDi, were nearly as rare. Yet, the “medium-rare” rib eye that I had at salt-spewing Salt Bae’s Nusr-Et was so red end-to-end, it resembled a bloody nose. It “maintains the most flavour and it keeps the juice in the meat,” says Laurent Tourondel, the founder of the BLT Steak chain who’s now a partner in Brasserie Ruhlmann and L’Amico.Īt Porter House New York in Midtown, executive chef and co-owner Michael Lomonaco says more than 60 per cent of his customers order medium-rare. Unlike rare, medium-rare allows time for the outside to caramelise and develop a sear. Most chefs regard beef cooked to medium-rare - with an internal temperature of 130-135F (55-57C) - as the best way to bring out flavour and retain moisture in tender cuts such as rib eye and top loin.
The medium-rare steak has changed over the years. An undercooked steak, on the other hand, can always be salvaged with a touch more fire as my friend’s was. While getting an underdone steak has been a possibility for decades, what’s really given the phenomenon traction is that chefs are under bottom-line pressure to reduce throwaways that occur when customers say a steak is too well-done. What I got wasn’t remotely the medium-rare ideal of red at the centre fading to pink around it, but the near-purple hue known as “blue rare”.īoth incidents reflected the new, medium-rare confusion. “So we sent it back.” It was refired to perfection and she said she’ll go back to Wolfgang’s.īut chew on this, steak lovers: Your medium-rare cut is getting rarer, in both senses of the word.Ī few days after my friend’s experience, I ordered a boneless rib eye medium-rare at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Midtown, New York. The outside was seared - it looked like a normal steak - but when we cut into it, it was practically raw,” says Ms Wagner, a real estate publicist. MY FRIEND Barbara Wagner gulped when the rib eye she and her husband recently ordered medium-rare at Wolfgang’s on East 54th Street in New York came to the table.
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