Iron Chef Marc Forgione is many things: a Michelin Star recipient, the winner of the Food Network’s “Next Iron Chef,” a restaurateur, a celebrity and (perhaps most importantly) a man who can make a jawdroppingly good steak. Like, “hot dammn” good.
Let’s put it this way- you can buy custom Marc Forgione steak knives. Again, the dude’s got his own brand of steak knife… just saying.
Chef Marc’s mission in the kitchen is to “deliver fine dining cuisine without the bullshit,” a philosophy we appreciate as much as the perfect piece of meat. His latest project is American Cut, a series of top-notch steakhouses designed to make us drool, stuff our faces and then drool some more.
Iron Chef Forgione has graciously taken on the most esteemed role we could bestow upon him: the “Wine Awesomeness Honorary Master of Meat.”
He gave us his tips on making the perfect steak. We wanted to keep them all to ourselves but our conscience got the better of us. All hail Marc Forgione! All hail the perfect steak with the perfect glass of wine. Without further ado, an Iron Chef’s tips for making a steak to die for:
1) Fat is delicious!
Buy a 10 oz. strip steak or rib eye- both have a nice fat cap (look for one at least 1/4” thick) surrounding the steak, which will protect the muscle from drying out and toughening up when you expose it to high heat.
2) Use high heat.
Cranking up the heat helps steaks adopt a steakhouse-worthy crust. The problem is that the average cheap saute pan can’t take the heat. So break out a heavy-bottomed metal pan or cast iron skillet.
3) Don’t play with your meat!
When you place the steak on a hot grill or pan, leave the steak alone until you begin to see a crust forming on the side of the steak that’s in contact with the skillet, around 3 to 4 minutes.
4) Baste your steak.
Add a few springs of thyme and a few unpeeled garlic cloves to the oil in a pan. Baste the steak by tipping the pan and using a spoon to pour the seasoned oil over the steak.
5) Let it rest.
Remove the meat from the pan and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before slicing across the grain so that the juices redistribute inside the steak. Slice and sprinkle with additional sea salt. Serve.
6) Season with fat
All animals should be cooked and seasoned with their own fat. When we cook steak we use our MOP which is dry-aged beef fat that’s been rendered and cooked with butter, thyme, rosemary and garlic.
Don’t just sit there… GET COOKIN!
