Steak Frites

In the spirit of mastering French classics, today we made steak frites. (Simply, steak and fries.) It was possibly the most instructive class to date. Not only did we practice our emulsion-making skills with a Bearnaise sauce, but we learned to prepare steaks in a range of donenesses. (If that’s not a real word, I am hereby officially coining it.) Chef B. prepared 4 steaks in demonstration, one each cooked to "bleu," rare, medium, and well done. I was duly impressed with his exactness.

I should note here that French standards for doneness are a bit different from North American ones: a rare steak here would be called "alive" back home; French medium is our medium-rare, and French well done is our medium-well. They don’t really do well-done, and when they do, it’s with a side of mashed contempt.

My own attempt to grill three steaks to the required doneness produced the anticipated result: I overcooked them a smidge. Unlike the roast beef class, I failed to remind myself to waaaay undercook the meat to meet LCB standards. As a result, my steaks were a nice range of North American medium-rare, medium, and medium-well, and would have been at hit at our house (especially with a side of perfectly creamy Bearnaise, which will unfortunately fill your kitchen with a nauseating stench while the vinegar and herbs reduce). My steaks didn’t quite meet codified French norms, however, though they featured a perfect network of grill marks. A couple of minutes less on the stovetop grill would have done the trick.

More beef

My favorite new kitchen trick is learning to tell when a steak is cooked medium: droplets of blood will start to appear on the surface of the meat. This is the blood that has run out of the center, and it's the reason why the middle of the steak is no longer bright red.

Chef Clergue, a.k.a. Mr. Bean

And now, as the award frenzy that is the Academy Awards is upon us, I'd like to bestow the award for my favorite chef at LCB: that would be Chef Clergue, whom everyone calls Mr Bean because of the resemblance, but who makes me think more of the aspiring young chef in Ratatouille because of his freckles and upturned nose. Chef Clergue is the winner of this prestigious distinction because he is so refreshingly calm and helpful. Instead of yelling at students when they're doing something wrong, as many chefs do, he gently explains that it would be better if we used a different knife to peel the artichoke, or used tongs to turn our steaks to get nice grill markings. Thank you, Chef Clergue. It is a pleasure to learn from you.