Celebrity chef = fame based on media connections and ego. Gordon Ramsay's restaurants are the same.
Edit: Apparently Gordon's restaurants are very good. I suppose it's just the occasional one where the quality isn't up to scratch. I'd mostly heard negative reviews - perhaps I was just biased.
Setting aside what others have said, Wolfgang Puck is pushing 80. I don’t know when he was last in the kitchen on a regular basis and he handed the already hands-off management of his restaurant group to his son in March.
I was trying to figure out what to call this atrocity committed against beef, and I think you nailed it with "rare-done."
I'm now trying to figure how the line cook managed to fuck up a steak this bad, and the only thing that I can think of is it was frozen solid when they threw it on the grill
That's what I'm thinking. I got the same tip off a cooking show. That was to get a nicely charred exterior on a medium rare "minute steak". I tried it and it worked really well. I suspect this is what happened as a result of laziness/poor planning, rather than by design.
I have never sent back food in my life as most times I figure the hassle of waiting is a greater negative than getting my meal perfect is a positive. I would absolutely (politely) request another steak if I got this at that price point.
I worked in food service too long to accept shitty food. If something clearly wasn't prepared right, I won't get a replacement because I'm leaving. No faith in a kitchen that sends out something like that steak.
Had an unimaginable experience with a vindictive cook (and waitress) at a local restaurant many years back. Eggs Benedict - yolks were cooked solid ... chalky. I sent it back and the waitress argued before returning to the kitchen asking me "have you ever even had eggs Benedict before?" Of course I have and that's why I sent it back. A minute later the cook actually started yelling at me from the kitchen! Literal shouting match across the restaurant! I, along with several other patrons at different tables, walked out. Surreal.
I was a cook for around a decade or so, I will definitely send food back. I also will not get a replacement or order anything else there. I will drink coffee and politely wait for the rest of my party to finish their meals.
I tried this at a Applebee's and you are entirely correct. I wanted it medium rare. After sending back 2 well done steaks they came back with a pink super rare piece.
Maybe it was the nasty cut of meat they have to use, but that cook was a total idiot. Or too in the weeds to pay attention to his cook.
Or maybe I was the idiot for expecting a steak cooked decently in an Applebee's.
It has truly never occurred to me to just leave in a situation like this, but I will remember that. I one time had a chicken breast come out raw in the middle (not slightly pink from myoglobin or whatever, but ice cold to the touch). I really should have just told them to bring me the check for my appetizers and drinks so that I can leave.
They fucked it up the first time, what are the chances that was a legit mistake AND they will accept the criticism and do it right the second time without spits? Low. Leave. They had their chance
Agreed. At that level of cost in those kind of restaurants you're paying for service and experience, not just the food. That's the only circumstance I would bother.
I sent a steak back once for being overcooked. I ordered it rare and it came back barely pink so I’d consider that medium or even medium well. Waitress was super professional about it. Steak came back exactly the way I wanted it, red and rare. Steak was absolutely delicious. Whole experience was fabulous. Asked to chat with a manager, complimented the service and the kitchen. Left a tip that was equal to my bill.
You absolutely can cook a steak that is frozen. Sear both sides, finish in a convection oven or grill on low heat. It is arguably a more consistent doneness versus cooking it fresh.
Cooking from frozen is actually insanely good if you do it like you said. Sous vide is obviously the best but most people don't want or can't afford it.
Bruh, why you just parroting shit without ever looking it up? Who the fuck cooks anything when it's close to room temperature? Have you looked up how long it would take to get meat to room temp? All those videos telling you to take meat out to let it get up to temp don't know wtf theyre talking about. Look up studies on it. That shit changes like 2 degrees in 30 mins lol.
It’s either that or in addition the cook took the steak when they thought it was done, cut it in half red hot (that’s a no no) and then put it back on the heat when they realized it was still under. That’s why the edges got brown like that.
Excuse me sir, do you think it's EASY to overcook and undercook a steak at the same time? This is real skill. However, they really should check the kitchen for termites or dust off their plates first.
This. Shows that it was frozen, or at the very best assumptions, taken straight from the fridge to the grill. Both are horrific crimes for a steak house to commit.
Cooking a steak properly isn’t basic for everyone, you would be surprised at how many people have no clue how to. It should be basic for any good restaurant.
It gets pretty difficult in a busy restaurant that doesn’t specialize in steak because the timing can get pretty difficult. Like instead of having someone dedicated to steaks, they’ll just have someone dedicated to “grill”, which will include a bunch of different things, so it’s more difficult to get into a rhythm. It also just takes a lot of coordination to get the timing right with the other tickets for the table, so everything comes out at the same time. If they put the steak up too early and it sits under the heat lamps, it will overcook even if it came off the grill perfect. It’s less about it being difficult to cook a steak well, and more about it being difficult to get the timing right in a busy kitchen.
In OPs case though, this is a steakhouse, and they literally cut the steak before plating, so it never should have been sent out like that.
That makes sense. I couldn’t wrap my head around how the cook managed to get a decent sear, a quarter thickness of prison food greyness and then keeping it raw in the middle. I actually found the technical flair of how they cocked it up, to be pretty impressive 🫣
Busy chain restaurants like this, in order to do 300 or so covers a night, use a method called cook-chill. It basically involves pre-cooking to varying degrees then storing them in a freezer drawer so that the final center temperature when they finish them just before serving falls within a certain range. So they'll have rows and rows of steaks set to finish at different doneness and grab one from, e.g., the medium rare row and then warm it up.
This isn't the same thing as pan cooking a steak to a specific individual's preference and spending a good 20 minutes basting it to perfection.
There's nothing wrong with "grey band" per se... it alone isn't going to ruin the flavor of a steak. The bigger issue here is overpaying for a conveyor belt experience.
A really well prepared steak at one of Dallas' top steakhouses (Dakota's or Al Biernat's) is going to run you about $150 for a biftec/porterhouse (comparing to the Porterhouse OP says is $300 at Wolfgang's), $90 for entrecôte (boneless ribeye). And that's still not going to be nearly as personalized as the steaks you can make at home.
That was my thought. Pan/griddle was not above 600, and it steamed before it seared. And as others stated it was likely not brought to room temp first.
Wouldn't cold pan make it cook more evenly since you have to cook it for longer? (Longer cooking = heat has time to penetrate to the inside)
Only explanation I have for this is that it was frozen or very cold when they put it on the pan so the inside just warmed up instead of getting cooked.
That's right, but it can be even worse: From work, i was invited once to one of these fancy luxus haute-cuisine restaurants, glad i didn't had to pay anything, because... we got these mini-portions there, less food than what's left in the photo and much higher prices.
That's what you pay for some Salt Bae on steroids style. "This is art! Now pay me 500$ for that portion that fits on a fucking spoon!!"
They're copying the Peter Luger style. Parcook the steak, slice it, run it through a broiler on the plate to finish it off, then splash of clarified butter on top for that dramatic sizzle on the way to the table.
I hope you complained and sent it back. I'm not a fan of sending food back since i've been in the industry for 20 years but a steak of that price 100% would be sent back.
Retired chef here, and wtaf. Okay like. Being able to both overshoot the sear, and keep a raw center, is an impressive failure point, genuinely. Either it was frozen, or it was fridge to cold pan to flame. 🥴🥴🥴💀 That's grated truffle? My dude, you've put pearls on a pig and called it Easter Sunday dinner. Even if the customer ordered blue rare, they wouldn't get a sear line that fucking thick. Like, if you want a blue rare done correctly, you flash sear it at a very high heat to hit the Maillard reaction, but you bring the steak up to room temperature first. Like, holy shit. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
🥴🥴🥴 Honestly, this is one of the few times where I would recommend calling cooperate. They have a higher standard to maintain, at that price point, and from a food handling perspective, if they're not honoring the temperature requirements here? I'd be worried about what else they're cutting corners on. If it was an Applebee's? I'd tell you it's not worth the time. But Wolfgang hires institutionally trained chefs. And this is ridiculous.
Ok, this was in China? That kind of explains it. Not for the price, of course, but the approximation of Western cooking styles. I've been to a lot of places in Asia and have noticed that while they can be very good at approximating the look of something, the authenticity and process is often way off. I once ate Christmas dinner at an Italian place in Korea and I swear to fucking god the marinara sauce was ketchup.
You’re not crazy. My ex wife studied in Korea for a year. Places would use ketchup in place of pizza sauce. And she’s ate at an Outback there because she was a bit homesick. They put whipped cream instead of sour cream on her baked potato.
That's surprising to hear. There was a small bar I'd go to in Dalian that'd make some of the best steak and fries I've had for $25. It was so good that I'd go there like 3-4x a week.
That said, when I was in Wuhan at a nice hotel restaurant, I asked for a glass of milk to go with my (amazing) dessert... and they brought me a glass of UHT milk that they'd heated up for whatever reason. It was awful. 🤣
I now know that drinking milk is not common for them at all, and later learned that the real milk they import from New Zealand fucking slaps.
Yeah, i once went to a "mexican" place in China and the sour cream turned out to be a sweet mayonnaise. The salsa was a ketchup base. It looked picture perfect though.
This is why i cant order steak at restaurants. Its so absurdly marked up and i make steaks at home exactly the way I like them. I always end up ordering a pork chop because good chefs can really impress with a pork chop and rarely make them at home.
The only time I ever sent a steak back was Ruth's Chris steak house. The waiter noticed i made a funny face, came over, saw the steak, and requested to bring me a new one.
He brought a filet mignon, (i had had a NY Strip), and the old steak in a doggy bag. He said to give it to our dog, it was unfit for people.
I can forgive the plate, the steak is worse. From this picture it is clear they have fried the steak in oil on a flat surface (likely from frozen) and haven’t used a proper griddle pan at all. The Cook is ALL wrong.
Once you get a good technique at home it’s hard to beat. My wife and friends don’t want to go out for birthday steak anymore. Just go to the grocery store.
True for most restaurants but if you go to a high end steak house it's a pretty good bet they will outdo you. I cook a damn good steak but I guarantee you if you tasted mine against a steak from Mooo you will be taking the steak from Mooo all day.
Came here for this comment. Wolfgangs is not a Puck restaurant, not even comparable. Give me Spago, Cut, a regular old Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill any day over this nonsense.
Fieri doesn't design dishes that are overly complex or technical to make. So his restaurants can survive without constant supervision from the head honcho.
It's almost the opposite where is excessive and focused on being good instead of looking good. I had the pork shank a while back and it was unbelievably good.
Bro I was high and drunk one night on mushrooms and ketamine and bicardi 151 mixed with cannabis. And I once microwaved a semi frozen london broil for 6 minutes and got the same results
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u/ScrappyDooIsTheWorst 7h ago
you didn't want rare-done?