Like most chefs, I have mixed feelings about steakhouses. I envy their ability to command top culinary dollar. I admire the consistency of the best ones, places like Peter Luger’s or Smith and Wollensky. And occasionally, I will indulge my craving for a big piece of charred prime beef — especially if someone else is paying.
But, like most of my peers, I’m depressed by their institutional lack of creativity. In the restaurant business, steakhouses have a reputation that’s second only to country clubs as graveyards for culinary talent.
Steakhouses tend to run counter to most positive trends in dining in the past 30 years.
The movement toward seasonality? Look at the menus of the top-rated steak houses and you’ll find the same pencil asparagus from Chile, the same Florida hothouse tomatoes and the same anemic wedge of iceberg lettuce every month of the year.
The trend toward smaller portions and tasting menus, a change that has been confirmed by neurological research on the way the brain processes tastes? If anything, portions in steakhouses have gotten bigger.
The trend toward using the lesser-known parts of the animal, a trend that wonderfully links the best-known chefs of today with the anonymous frugal cooks of yesteryear? Forget it: It’s always some version of filet mignon, rib-eye or New York strip.
I have to say I’m also not crazy about the preferred method of meat cookery in a steakhouse, charring the meat in a 1,200-degree broiler and drowning it in melted butter.
I’d rather cook my meat in a cast-iron pan and gently baste it with a handful of herbs (and a little butter, too). And if it’s hot outside, I like to grill one of those slightly chewier, but more flavorful, butcher’s cuts — the hanger, flank or flatiron — but not before immersing it in a zippy marinade like the one here.
John Broening cooks at Duo Restaurant, .
Marinated Grilled Flank, Flatiron or Hanger Steak
Makes about 6 servings
Ingredients
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
Few shots Tabasco or other hot sauce
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 shallot, minced
1 flank, flatiron or hanger steak, about 2 1/2pounds, trimmed
Directions
Whisk together oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, Tabasco, thyme and shallot in a large mixing bowl. If using the flank steak, score the meat along the grain with a sharp knife before marinating.
Immerse the meat in the marinade, cover with plastic, and refrigerate at least two hours.
When your grill is hot and burning evenly, rub off the excess marinade, lightly season the meat with salt and pepper, and grill about 4 minutes each side for medium rare.
Rest the meat for about 4 minutes, loosely covered with foil, and slice thinly across the grain before serving.
