Chefs Who Know Their Beef

From the old meatpacking center of the world

Although Chicago is no longer the meatpacking center of the world, it held that title for about a century. So Catersource checked with three chefs in Chicago as to how they do beef today: a major high-end caterer, a chef educator with a catering background and a boutique caterer doing local, sustainable food.

Paul Larson, the head chef at Blue Plate Catering, is on top of beef trends, which definitely includes local, sustainable foods. In fact, he has a farm where he produces vegetables that are used in some of Blue Plate’s menu items. Some of the ways he’s serving beef include:

Beef Carpaccio
Beef Carpaccio is served with micro greens from Larson’s farm, and showcases the closing gap between chefs and farms, with more chefs growing their own items to use. Black truffles are served with this dish. They usually are imported, but now some are grown in the United States. The truffles Larson uses with Beef Carpaccio were grown in Oregon.

Truffles can be expensive; flavored salts can be a good alternative. The variety of salts available, some flavored, with different mineral composition, different colors, are very popular.

Family-style dishes are becoming a trend for caterers; beef carpaccio is often a shared plate for an event.

Beef Tartare
Another way to serve very fresh beef, clean and nearly unadorned. Blue Plate serves Beef Tartare on a round of dark rye, with a quail egg, then garnished with smoked pepper. Clients choose tartar and quail eggs to push the food boundaries of their guests—but in an appetizer, not a main dish.

Steak Spoons
On a ceramic spoon, a tiny piece of braised short rib with brandied cherries, sitting on a sweet potato purée. It’s a great way to use beef—and what could be more comfort food than short ribs?—as part of the meal, without making it the center of the plate.

“Reconstructed” Pastrami Sandwich
Instead of taking apart something, this dish puts them together in new ways. Braised short rib, a pastrami-spiced sea scallop, whole grain mustard polenta and pumpernickel jus with root vegetable slaw. Like no pastrami sandwich you’ve ever seen, but fabulous.

Beef is the perfect choice
Dina Altieri, chef instructor at Kendall College, was named 2011 Chef Educator of the Year by the American Culinary Federation, an award based in part on her doing a culinary demonstration. For her demonstration, she chose beef with a ratatouille.

“Beef was a perfect choice,” she says. “You can really show beautiful sear, the aroma, the brown coloration. I didn’t need an oven for it.”

It’s a relatively traditional dish, she says, but by adding the seasonal, local ingredients, she made it to appeal to today’s diners. And, she says, it’s a great dish for caterers (she was at one time the executive chef of a catering company in Los Angeles):

“You can pan fry the croutons ahead of service and mise en place the ingredients for the ratatouille. Shortly before service, you start building the ratatouille, which will hold in the oven for 20 minutes or so while you start pan-searing your beef. Hold the seared beef on sheet pans or racks and fire a few trays at a time on-site. Have the pan sauce ready and finish with butter right at the end.” She says caterers can do the dish for 200 to 300 people easily.

Beef trends Altieri has noticed include the move to grass-fed beef, different cuts (like hangar steak and the teres major) and overall, an increased desire for healthy food. But, she says, don’t neglect the good old-fashioned cuts and preparations. “At the end of the day, some people are going to be more concerned about nutrition and some are going to be more interested in flavor,” she says. “How else do you explain the rise of pork belly on menus?”

Despite a lot of foam and pearls and other molecular gastronomic tricks, Altieri says, “If I want flavor, I would just as soon throw a skirt steak on the grill or slowly braise some short ribs. People are going to get back to the concept of ‘Wow, this is so savory!’ Give me a braised meat any day.”

DIY beef
Sunday Dinner is a catering company that focuses on local, sustainable foods. Although they can cater large events, the company’s main focus is on smaller dinner parties—including their “dinner club,” a kind of underground restaurant that offers dinner parties about 10 times a month for 20 guests. Beef is definitely on the menu, including short ribs and hangar steak, both especially popular when clients are looking for affordable menus.

But the most unusual thing about beef at Sunday Dinner is that they do much of the butchering themselves. “We source our meats from local farmers, and it’s grass-fed,” says Christine Cikowski, chef and owner. “But we definitely get things in primal cuts; it’s nice to see it in its whole form or half form or quarter form. We’re not professional butchers, but we do enjoy the process of cutting our own meat.”

In general, Cikowski says, “our approach is don’t manipulate a good product.” That means cooking beef correctly and serving it in ways that emphasize the flavor of real beef. Sunday Dinner’s hamburgers are made from whole sides of chuck, butchered and ground in the Sunday Dinner kitchen. The beef is from Piedmontese cattle, a naturally somewhat leaner breed with a tender texture. “We do a coarse grind, then top it with seasonal local ingredients,” she says. The burgers can be “kind of elevated,” made with a mix of sirloin, short rib and chuck meat. Patties are formed and cooked within 24 hours of the meat being ground.

For a steak dinner, Sunday Dinner orders a whole rib roast of grass-fed beef, then butchers it in the kitchen. “We sear it and serve it with a garlic aioli and blanched green beans,” Cikowski says. 

Catersource magazine
September/October 2011

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The recipe for Dina Altieri’s Sautéed Beef Filet with Quick Summer Vegetable Ratatouille and Reconstructed Pastrami