Linda Gassenheimer talks with Layfette Restaurant Chef Kylian Goussot about what this means and how we can easily make top quality French style steak at home. Jacqueline Coleman has wine suggestions to go with it.
Food, News & Views with Linda Gassenheimer
Food, News & Views, Ep 235: Modern French Cooking and Steakhouse Quality Steaks
(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Linda Gassenheimer, and welcome to Food News and Views. Glad to have you joining us. Modern French cooking. Well, I saw this note about a new restaurant, Lafayette, in Miami, and I thought, well, what is modern French cooking? Here's a hint. The restaurant features what they call Steakhouse Quality Stakes. And the Lafayette restaurant head chef, Kylie and Gusso, is here to tell us all about it. And he's also given some tips on how we can make perhaps some modern French cooking at home. Also joining us is Somalia's Jacqueline Coleman, and she's gonna be talking about, I guess, what wines to have with Steak? - Steakhouse wines. - Steakhouse wines, yeah. - All right, well, welcome, Chef, Kylie. - Welcome, thank you very much. - Thank you for joining us. Chef, just to start with, the name Lafayette is a very interesting name for a restaurant. Tell us about that. - So Lafayette's the cows, it's like a no-marsh, because the owner, Matrimasa, need to call the restaurant Lafayette, because the market Lafayette helped the American army to fight against the inhabitants. So for him, it was like a no-marsh, and we are very proud of that. - Well, okay, so tell us then, what is the concept of the Lafayette restaurant? - Lafayette Steakhouse is based on a foundation of a classic American Steakhouse with French entryants. So you can find traditional American dishes, like parquet or even cheeseburger, but with a personally zed French twist. That's why we choose Lafayette as a name of the restaurant. - To combine, well, that's very interesting, to combine the French hero with the Americans. - Correct. - Right. So when we think about French cooking, we don't often think about steak, so why did you pick a steakhouse? - Because for me, the steak is very international, and you can do like international recipe with the steaks, because you can pair the steak with maybe a French sauce or an American technique. So for me, it's the perfect combination. - Okay, so you call it a Steakhouse quality steaks, what does that mean? - So for me, a Steakhouse quality is about offering high quality steaks here at Lafayette. It's a place where we have done extensive research to provide our customers with the best possible experience. We made no less than 17 different farm tests, sampling over 150 different cuts of meat to find the best farm, and we found it. - Sorry, I'm just going to stop you for a minute. You tested 100 and how many cuts of meat? I didn't know there was that many. What a comedy half here. - We tried 150 different cuts. - Different, 150 different cuts of steak. - Correct, so it was a lot. It was very heavy in some of work, but we chose the meat, and we decided to work with just one farm in particular. So we are very proud of the quality, the kind of first. - Okay, so you decided on the type of steak you wanted, and then you decided on the farm where you can get the... What are the cuts that you're talking about at the restaurant? - So we are talking about the Tumau, New York Street Dry Age 35 days with the bone, the filet mignon, the rib eye, and of Prodesker's stage. It's a classic in Miami. - Well, here's another point I think many of us don't understand. When you say it's dry aged, what does that mean and what happens to the steak? - So, for example, with my strip player, we decided to do a dry edge cuts. So I just asked him to take the whole muscle and pull it into a dry edge room into his warehouse. Like that, we can provide a better flavour profile, the Tondon acid better too. And we are like a very interesting flavour in the project, like very buttery and some nuts flavour. So it's very, very interesting for us to have this cutter on the menu. - So to understand it, then you take the meat and you have a special room where it just hangs and dries out. - Correct. - So that takes, or does that make the steak kind of very dry? - I mean, absolutely. So yeah. - I mean, when I say dry, I mean, not tasting very good dry. - No, no, no worries. But it's very popular because some very famous chef like to use this technique because he changed totally the flavour profile of the steaks. And like that, it gives you like a better quality. It's more tender, more juicy and more flavorful in terms of flavour profile. - That's interesting because as I was saying, because it's dry, it means it's more juicy, not less juicy. - Yeah, it's more actually. - Right. And so what are the special ways to cook this kind of steak to make sure it's perfect? - I know it's a good question because here at Lafayette, we decided to work with two different types. So first, we start, we season the steaks with mild on salt. And then we put the steaks on the plancia, which is a walk like the top table. It's very, very high temperature. So like that, we can start to do a perfect crust and then we rest the meat for five, 10 minutes, depending on the temperature. And we finish the steaks into a juice per oven, which is a chocolate oven to give this smoky flavour at the end of the steaks. - Well, so first you see the steak on its very hot plancia and then put it into the oven and get a smoky flavour. - Absolutely. - Now you're making me really hungry. - I know. And do you do this for all cuts of meat or just for particular cut? - For the hot cuts instead of the scare steak, because the scare steak is the same, and it takes like literally five minutes to cook. So we just seared the scare steak on the plancia and then we sent it straight away. - Okay. So now if we were going to be looking for meat at our local markets, what should we look for to get, we probably won't be able to find dry age, but what would we look for? What's the best cuts to be buying? - It's a very, very interesting question. So for me to ensure the quality of your steak, I recommend choosing prime of choice grades 'cause these two grades are a guarantee of quality because here in America, sometimes it can be difficult to find like best quality products. So those two grades, like that you share the best. And after that, to cook the steak at home, I suggest you to taking it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before. Like that, it can be room temp in the middle and it's gonna be easy for you to cook it at the perfect temperature. - Right, because very often when we're cooking the steak, if we wanna get a nice crust on it, then we go back and try to get the inside cooked and then it becomes overcooked. - Correct. - So how will, what's your advice there? - So my advice, it's like to have like a very, very hot pan, like that you can start to do the syringe and have the crust, the perfect crust. This also will give you like the best flavor profile. The nutty flavor or the crunchiness for me is the best. And I love to cook my steak with better thyme and garlic. So this is nothing inside, but for me, it gives you like the best flavor for the-- - So you put some butter and some thyme and some garlic in the pan with the steak. - Correct. - And that comes the sauce for it. The sauce for me, the perfect sauce is just a beef juice. So you have to take, you have to take some beef trimming, just pan seal it. Then you add water, carrots, thyme, onion, and garlic. And you cook it for many, many hours. I would say, make minimum five hours. And then you have to strain it and reduce the juice until the perfect consistency, like a syrup. - So you're making really a brown stock, a brown juice? - Absolutely. And that becomes the basis. - Yes. - I think we have to start a day ahead. But you know, actually, if you do something like that, you can do that and then you can put it in the freezer and have it ready for you whenever you want it to cook. - Exactly. - A really hot steak. Right. - Exactly. - Yeah. Well, let's bring Jacqueline in Jacqueline Coleman, Somaliae. So Jacqueline, what are we gonna be drinking now when we have all this beautiful steak with-- - Honey, really hard. - Honey, but I don't know, like a vegetarian. - I'm listening to all of these cuts, but you know, Linda, you said steak and French food, maybe not so much all the time, but all I can think about is a really good steak for eats. And that's basically all I want. - Oh, we didn't get to the free part. We'll have to ask chef after we get drinking. - Yeah, I mean, the best friend tries to give me steak. That's all I need in life. - Okay, all right. All right, so when I was at Lafayette, I noticed on the list, there were lots of American wines and French wines, which makes a lot of sense, now hearing the story of how the restaurant came to be in the name. So when you're eating a steak, say at home or maybe at the restaurant, what is your go-to French wine? - To be honest, I know well the French wine, but I'm very interested about also the worldwide. So for me, the best deal is American steaks with a red wine from a Nata value, for example, because you can have like a strong flavor, very, very tart and can be the perfect match with a steak. - All right, well, I'm still gonna go French, but you can have your Nappa wine, although I did see a lot of both of those on the list. I think I would probably stick with maybe something in the Rhone Valley, like a spicy Saint Joseph or something from the Northern Rhone with Sarat. I think that sounds good. What about you, Linda? What do you think? - Well, I think that sounds delicious. Especially with the dry age. - Right, I happen to love a really good French wine, but I mean, that's not to be snobby about it, but it's just, it's very nice. But they are producing some French style wines in the Nappa Valley. - And as Chef said, I think it's important because we wanna keep it affordable. - Yeah, well, I would probably stick with French if you want an affordable. There's not much affordable coming out of Nappa, but traditionally Nappa does, is the steak wine capital of the US. So that makes a lot of sense. And there are some great cabernets and blends coming out of Nappa that would pair perfectly with any of these steaks, any of the 150 different cuts, but we're tasting. I'm wondering, you know, I'm thinking of all these cuts and I'm thinking that maybe we need to do a wine pairing with each individual cut of steak and see actually which wine goes with which cut the best. I wanna tell everyone that Chef is sitting here and is nodding his head up and down. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, I already have meat sweats, but it sounds like a really fun night as long as there are lots of fruits. That's all I know. It's a great pleasure. We can do whatever we want. We can do a perfect wine pairing with all these cuts. I mean, we make a lot of steak at home and I'm just curious what cut of meat and what wine should we be drinking? It's an amazing experiment. It's a good question. For me, I like the steak with a little bit of fat. For example, like the ribeye, because you can have, again, the perfect crust. It's gonna be very juicy, very tender and a lot of flavor. And I think for me, the best deal with this cut is like a bottle from France because I like the very strong flavor of the wine and then for me, it's the perfect match. Well, Linda, you know my rule for all food and wine pairings? Well, go ahead and tell us. When in doubt, champagne. Oh, oh, we hadn't got to the bubbly yet, of course. Sorry, even with steak, even with steak, you can have champagne with steak. And I know that Lafayette, you guys also have a great caviar service, right? Absolutely, yeah. We are working with... We are working with two different types of caviar. The first one is the bester and the second one is the acetyl. The caviar has come from Bulgaria and it's a brand from Switzerland. And we are able to work with them because the quality and the consistency so far is perfect and I'm pretty sure we can do, like, perfect things within the future. So if you're not ready, Linda, to have champagne with your steak, you can always have it with your caviar. I was just gonna say, of course, we have the champagne with the caviar. Yeah, we can. Yeah, can eat anything. And what I thought was very interesting at the restaurant is that before we order, you come out with a tray of all the different steaks and show us the different cuts, which I think was very unusual way to choose but if you want it to have. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's cool. It's like dinner and a show. Right. Exactly. And we decided to do that because for us it's very important to show the quality to our customer because, like, that's like in total transparency. You can feel the meat, you can smell the meat, you can see the meat and the marbling. So for me, if you are sure about the quality, you want to serve to your customer, I think it's important to show them before. Well, and also I thought it was for people to know that there are a lot of other types of, as you mentioned, this crab cakes. There's different types of fish that one can order. So there is a lot of variety in the menu, which is very nice. And I also liked very much the fact that you were saying that when I started talking with you, we said, what is modern French cooking and Lafayette, the name? So what you're doing is you're marrying the Lafayette, Colonel Lafayette, the French with America and bringing the two together. So I thought that was really very interesting. No, absolutely. Because, yeah, for me, the modern French cooking, it's a blend of traditional French recipe, which I often know for being rich and heavy and transforming them into something lighter, perhaps by adding a different ingredients that change the texture, while keeping the same functional elements. For example, here at Lafayette, as you said, we are using the beurre blanc, with the shouldn't see bias dish. And inside, we had this cured salmon roe, Persian lime and shives. And this ingredients gave a lighter flavor to the beurre blanc, something more light and less heavy. - And explain just for a minute what beurre blanc is. - So beurre blanc, it's a reduction with white wine, shallots, thyme. So you reduce the white wine until almost dry, and then you had cold butter in it, and you do like an emulsion. And at the end, you will have like a creamy texture. So then you have to strain the shallots, and you keep only the liquid. So this is the beurre blanc. And this is also the reason why it's sometimes it can be easy for some people. So adding some ingredients in it can be like more lights and more easy to eat for the customer. - Wow, okay, that really made me hungry now. How about you, Jacqueline? - I mean, I already suggested myself champagne, so I'm about ready to open a bottle here. But it's that I-- - Well, it didn't invite me over yet. So yeah, I already got myself excited about it. - All right, well, Chef, tell us how can we learn out more about you and about the restaurant? - So if you want to contact me, you can do it directly through the number of phone, or by email, and also, of course, through Instagram. - And the name by your name is-- - Shireen Elguso. - Right, very good, wonderful. Okay, well, I'm Linda Gassenheimer, and please join me next week for more food news and views. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)