ROUSES_Summer2021_Magazine_PAGES

SUMMER 2021

S T E A K H O U S E

S I D E S • C O C K T A I L S • S A U C E S

THIS WINE PAIRS WITH FOOD, FUN AND YOUR FAVORITE FEST.

FIND IT AT

O ne of my very first jobs was in the the senior butcher, a great guy named Mike Dupre, taught me all about the different cuts and grades of meat, how to use a knife — we cut every steak we sell — and how to trim our steaks and roasts. Mike also taught me how to make our fresh sausages, as well as stuffed meats and vegetables. We produce all of those items in-house using recipes that go back to my grandfather’s time. My dad learned butchery the same way I did, on the job. Dad started at Ciro’s, my family’s original grocery store, as a teenager. One of his mentors was Leroy butcher shop at our supermarket in Thibodaux. Meat-cutting is a craft, and

PHOTO BY CHANNING CANDIES

Theriot, the butcher at Ciro’s, who later became a meat market manager at our first Rouses Market. We are a family business for more than just my family — Leroy's wife, Geraldine, worked at Ciro's in the deli and bakery; his niece, Lori Simm is the deli merchandiser for our bayou stores.

Leroy set the standard for every butcher who has followed him at Rouses. And because this is so important to our stores and to us, this year we established the Leroy Theriot Meat and Charcuterie Culinary Arts Scholarship at the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, to help create and train a new generation of experienced butchers. We also established a Food Entrepreneurship scholarship in my grandfather’s name. As Thibodaux natives, we have been longtime supporters of Nicholls State, and we’re happy to continue our commitment to the school and to the next generation of culinary and grocery professionals. — Donny Rouse, CEO, 3 rd Generation

Leroy Theriot, meat market manager for Rouses Markets, circa 2008.

If you're interested in learning more about these scholarship opportunities, visit www.rouses.com. Each one gives up to $1,500 per year to part-time employee recipients. SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

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TABLE OF CONTENTS IN EVERY ISSUE ON THE MENU

1 Donny Rouse

31 Bistecca Alla Fiorentina 35 Perfect Baked Potatoes

Marketing & Advertising Director Tim Acosta

5 Letter from the Editor by Marcy Nathan

Creative Director & Editor Marcy Nathan

Potatoes Au Gratin

7 Cookin’ on Hwy 1 with Tim Acosta 9 Ali Rouse Royster

Lyonnaise Potatoes

Art Director, Layout & Design Eliza Schulze

Steakhouse Mushrooms

Steamed Asparagus

Illustrator Kacie Galtier

37 Creamed Spinach

10 In Our Stores

Wedge Salad

Creative Manager McNally Sislo

Cauliflower Steaks with Whipped Goat Cheese Sauce

THE SIZZLE

13 Have Your Steak & Eat It Too by David W. Brown

Copy Editors Patti Stallard Adrienne Crezo

Portobello Mushroom Steak

39 Shrimp Cocktail

17 Ask A Butcher with Nick Acosta

Gin Martini

Advertising & Marketing Amanda Kennedy Harley Breaux Stephanie Hopkins Nancy Besson Taryn Clement Mary Ann Florey

Vodka Martin

20 The Fountain of Ruth by Sarah Baird 27 No Mis-Steak About It by Sarah Baird

41 Chimichurri Sauce

Horseradish Sauce

Salsa Verde

Hollandaise Sauce

30 Bistecca by Sarah Baird

Bearnaise Sauce

46 Wine & Steak Pairings by Julie Joy

32 Show & Patel by David W. Brown

Marbling refers to the white flecks and streaks of fat

MARBLING

43 Read Between the Wines by David W. Brown

within the lean sections of meat. Marbling affects meat's juiciness, tenderness, texture, and flavor. In general, the more marbling, the better.

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MUST-HAVE STEAK HOUSE SIDES

ORGANIC KOMBUCHA

I’m a huge fan of mushrooms in any form, but burgundy mushrooms are my steak sidekick of choice. The combination of tender portobello mushrooms slow-simmered in a thick, garlicky wine sauce is sure to make even a mushroom hater change their tune. – Kacie Galtier, Designer & Illustrator

SIX NEW FLAVORS!

I LOVE potatoes. Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato wedges … I could live off potatoes alone and be perfectly happy. My favorite style of potato as of late has been oven-roasted golden potatoes with lots of garlic and onion powder. We’ve got some great potato recipes starting on page 35. – Eliza Schulze, Art Director

Every time I go to my favorite Brazilian steak house I know exactly what I’m getting from the salad bar: the apple salad. Juicy, crunchy pieces of Granny Smith apple, combined with raisins, diced pineapples and celery all mixed up with light yogurt. It is the perfect bright cooling bite after eating a piece of unctuous red meat. – McNally Sislo, Creative Manager

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR BRANDS AT WWW.ROUSES.COM

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR By Marcy Nathan, Creative Director

S hortly out of graduate school, I was hired as creative director for the advertising agency that handled the Ruth’s Chris Steak House account at that time. When I was growing up, my family were Sunday regulars at the restaurant on Broad and Orleans. Ruth Fertel, the owner, who lived next door, often worked the dining room alongside the female servers, who called themselves the Broads of Broad Street. (Fertel’s servers were primarily single, hardworking mothers like herself.) Our server, Lois, knew my parent’s drink order, which sisters wanted the house dressing on their wedge salad, and which wanted the blue cheese before we even sat down. It was the Galatoire’s of steak houses. One of my responsibilities as creative director was writing and producing the radio commercials for 70-plus Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses; today there are more than double that number. Ruth was the face — and the voice — of the brand. As a single mother, she’d mortgaged her home in 1965 to buy a restaurant, Chris Steak House, that she saw for sale in a classified ad. No one could tell that story, or how

she gave away all of her steaks during Hurricane Betsy, as well as Ruth could. And her smoky voice just sounded like a steak house. Our creative team always went out to lunch with Ruth after those recording sessions for the radio ads, usually to Chris- tian’s (a restaurant in Mid City owned by the grandson of Jean Galatoire, founder of Galatoire’s), sometimes to Mona’s on Banks — Ruth loved hummus, and even she could only eat so much steak. The meals were always memorable, but none more so than my first, when the account executive with us announced to the table that she was a vegetarian. To which Ruth replied, “Never trust a vegetarian.” I’d been thinking about having the Shrimp Madeleine a la Christian’s all morning, but just in case she also didn’t trust pescatarians, I decided to order the veal. NEW ORLEANS-STYLE STEAKS My friend Aaron Burgau, the local chef and restaurant owner, is one of the new owners of the venerable Charlie’s

Steak House on Dryades Street Uptown. Charlie’s is the oldest steak house in New Orleans and one of the oldest restaurants in the city. Its oversized, butter-sizzled steaks are served on metal plates, as they have been since 1932. Crescent City Steaks on North Broad has been serving sizzling steaks since 1934. It is Louisi- ana’s oldest family-owned steakhouse. Like Charlie’s, Crescent City Steaks lays claim to cooking the first steaks sizzled in butter. But it was Ruth Fertel who intro- duced this New Orleans style of cooking to the rest of the country, long before Paul Prudhomme blackened his first redfish.

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look for local Louisiana beef in Rouse’s today

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MIKE STRAIN DVM, COMMISSIONER

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Ain’t gone no more!

COOKIN´ ON HWY 1 By Tim Acosta, Advertising & Marketing Director

I f the steaks in this issue look especially good, it’s probably because I cooked them — on the rooftop of our store in Downtown New Orleans, no less. When most people cook for the camera, they aren’t concerned about flavor. But we always eat everything on shoot days, so the steaks need to taste as good off-camera as they look on-camera. The steaks themselves were perfect — hand-cut by our butchers, with that deep red color and just the right amount of fat — so I kept the seasoning simple, the way I do when I cook on Highway 1. I brushed them with a little bit of our Rouses Sicilian Olive Oil, then added a layer of our coarse-ground kosher salt and our butcher’s blend of black pepper. It’s a basic yet tasty seasoning that enhances the flavor of the steak rather than competing with it. Once in a while, I like to jazz my steak up with some crumbled blue cheese on top; it makes for a richer, more complex flavor. Different cuts cook at different rates, and a lot depends on the thickness of the steak you are cooking, but you also have to take into account the total size. That 12-ounce New York strip on page 12 cooked up differently than the 40-ounce tomahawk on our cover. Both were delicious, by the way. So how do you really know when your steak is just right? Some people swear by the touch test to determine the right amount of doneness; different spots on your hand correlate to rare, medium- rare, medium, medium-well and well-done on the steak. Basically, the firmer the steak is to the touch, like the firmer the spot on your hand is to the touch, the more cooked it is. I’ve found the touch test useful in making sure I don’t overcook meat, but a much better and safer option is to take the internal temperature of your steak with an instant-read meat thermometer. We’ve include a handy temperature guide in this issue. One more note about internal temperatures: If you’re a stickler about having a rare or medium-rare steak, remember: Thicker steaks like the porterhouse on page 31 keep cooking for a few minutes after they’re removed from the heat, so watch the thermometer closely as it gets near your preferred temperature. CAST-IRON I cooked some of these steaks directly on the grill, some in a heavy cast-iron skillet. Cast-iron heats very evenly and holds heat extremely well. You can set it right on the grill or place it on a stovetop if you have good ventilation. A hot cast-iron skillet lets you sear the steak so you get that great crust, which to me is one of the best parts of the steak. Get the skillet good and hot before you add the steak. Pour a little bit of oil in the hot skillet — if the oil beads and shines when it hits

the pan, you’re ready to cook; if it smokes, that means your pan is too hot. Use a paper towel or napkin to spread the oil around and lightly grease the bottom of the pan. Sear the steak in the hot pan, then finish it in the oven with a pat of butter on top for even more sizzle. I also like to add some garlic and fresh thyme when I cook steak in cast-iron. As the butter melts, I like to baste the steak with the melted butter that has picked up flavorful notes from the garlic and thyme.

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W hen my phone rings and I see the word “Dad” on the screen, he’s usually calling about one of three things. It could be: 1) work related — Tommy is retired, but that grocery brain doesn’t really just turn itself off; 2) a weather event is coming, and he wants to make sure my husband and I are prepared — have we closed our shutters, picked up our patio furniture, wrapped our pipes, covered our plants, etc.; or 3) he’s cooking and wants to know if we want any — the answer to this is almost always yes, and then there are the follow-up questions… Should he drop it off? Or are we picking it up? Can we bring our own containers? (Of course we can. Is it still super-hot? Then we’ll bring a pot to transport it.) If it’s gumbo or beans, do we need rice? (No way! What kind of house in South Louisiana doesn’t have rice at the ready?!) If Dad is barbecuing and says he’s making steaks, I have some follow-up questions of my own: Does he (and/or my mom, but let’s be clear, she needs to be on board for this one) want us to bring the kids and eat over there? If Mom is participating in this cookout, I know there will be a spread of sides — at least rice dressing, pork and beans, and Texas toast. The only real addition I usually want is something green, so I’ll probably bring salad fixings. If it’s just my dad, there will usually be just steak with a side of sausage and jalapeño poppers — and maybe even another kind of sausage, if he was feeling adventurous at the butcher counter at his Rouses down the road. Meat with a side of meat. It’s… good , don’t get me wrong, but we’re really only hitting one note here. The pepper in the jalapeño popper doesn’t really count as a vegetable, especially since it’s stuffed with sausage and cream cheese, plus wrapped in bacon. (No, I didn’t hear any stomach grumbling. You did? OK, OK, it was mine.) Thetruthis, Iwillabsolutelynot turndownagood steak, especially one that I don’t have to prepare — the best kind! Especially if Dad is the chef.

CREAM CHEESE

- Ali Rouse Royster, 3 rd Generation

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR BRANDS AT WWW.ROUSES.COM

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Rouse In-House Tastes Like Home

We have delicious options for you to enjoy in-store or to take home. Our soups, entrees and side dishes are ready to eat or be reheated, which can really save time. We also have fresh salads and sandwiches. Look for our $5 Weekday Deli Deals.

Hand-Cut & Handcrafted in-store Each Rouses Market features a full-service meat market with butchers who cut to order and are available to answer your questions about cuts, grades and cooking. Stuffed meats and vegetables and fresh sausages are made fresh in store.

The best prices on the items you want now. We know saving money is always first on your shopping list. We make it easy to save with store brands that are as good as national brands, and unique products developed in partnership with local producers.

We Grew Up Boiling on the Bayou Get live Louisiana crawfish by the sack and hot boiled Louisiana crawfish by the pound (weather permitting).

“My great-grandfather, J.P. Rouse, founded the City Produce Company in 1923, bringing fruits and vegetables from local, independent farms to the rest of the state and eventually stores around the country. Ninety years later, my family is more committed than ever to supporting our farmer neighbors. We work directly with each farming family to bring you the first

and freshest of every crop.” - Donny Rouse, CEO, 3 rd Generation

Save on Your Favorite Brands with Digital Coupons Create a free account today at www.rouses.com and use your mobile number to redeem digital coupons at our in-store checkouts.

Professional Sushi Chefs We offer fresh, great-tasting, conveniently packaged sushi, wraps and rolls, as well as made-to-order sushi and sushi platters. And don’t miss our $5 fresh Sushi Specials every Tuesday.

DELIVERY & PICKUP Shop online at www.rouses.com and get everything on your list the same day.

12 ROUSES SUMMER 2021

I t's steak season and the time has come to fire up your grill. It has been a hard, lonely, interminable year, but as vaccines are doled out and the pandemic recedes, the fullness of summer promises to bring together our friends, families and neighbors at long last. In 2021, we might eat and celebrate as though we never knew what wonders could be created by applying heat to meat. To keep your grill busy, Rouses maintains a robust stock of choice and prime beef— the two highest grades of beef by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Grades are de- termined by marbling (fat spread through- out the beef), tenderness and cattle feeding practices. “Other companies will buy select beef and ungraded beef—which is the low- est quality beef that you can buy—and then push it cheap,” says Nick Acosta, the meat director for Rouses Markets. “For us, it’s only choice beef—which tends to be most popular—and prime beef, both sold at great prices every day.” Once you choose a cut and buy it, it’s time to prepare and cook your steak. The big three options are charcoal, propane and stovetop. (Sorry, smoker people. Maybe next time.) No matter which method of heat you choose, general steak preparation is universal. Never poke your steak with a fork or use a fork to flip it. It’s tongs or nothing in this game, as puncture wounds will cause moisture loss. You didn’t go all the way to Rouses to buy the best steaks in town just to eat the dry stuff some other stores sell. And just as certain grill, oven and stovetop tem- peratures are vital, so too is the temperature of the raw meat. “You don’t want to take your steak directly from the fridge and put it straight onto the barbecue pit,” says Nick. You want to let the meat reach room temperature before cook- ing it. “If it’s still cold when you put it on the grill or cooktop, it will burn by the time you reach your desired doneness.” SWEET LADY PROPANE As Hank Hill would happily tell you, the best way to prepare a steak is on a propane grill, using propane accessories. In terms of cooking accuracy and even heating, you just can’t beat a gas grill. The secret is to give the grill a good half-hour, at least, to reach the proper temperature. Preparation of the gas grill in many ways is the same as

HAVE YOUR STEAK & EAT IT, TOO

preparation for the charcoal variety. It’s a good idea to clean the grates before grilling, and to oil them up so your steaks flip easily. If you trimmed fat from the steaks, you can use the fat to grease your grill, which is the sort of next-level grill master move that will impress your friends and earn the respect of your enemies. Paint a little avocado oil on both sides of your steak before grilling and season them with rosemary. If barbecue sauce is your thing, have at it, but there’s no need; the whole point of steak is to taste the steak. Save the sauce for the burgers. When grilling on a propane stove, be sure to avoid laying your steaks directly over the flames, as dripping fat will cause flames to well up and singe the beef, undermining the whole point of your gas grill: an even cook. For a standard-issue inch-and-a-half thick steak, grill it for five minutes on each side on a propane stove to get it to rare. For medium, you’re looking at nine minutes on each side. For well done, find some other free grocery store magazine for advice, because I want no part of your awful decision-making. Some people swear by charcoal, because making fire is fun and cooking meat is fun and cooking meat while making fire is just the cat’s pajamas. As with a propane grill, make sure you get those grates extra clean before slapping on the steak, and the steak fat grease method is still a winning plan. As for the charcoal itself, we need to talk about charcoal chimneys. Growing up, I had never heard of such a thing, but somewhere along the line, charcoal chimneys became ubiquitous: the avocado toast of the grilling world. (I blame Food Network for this, but I bet social media hasn’t helped.) In short, rather than heat your charcoal in the grill, you heat it in a big metal canister. Note: Be sure to buy an actual charcoal chimney from the hardware store; do not just find a big metal container and improvise. We don’t need a repeat of the Thanksgiving fried turkey emergency room visit. Once the charcoal in the chimney is totally ashed, dump it into the pit. I do not know why a chimney is necessary for this, but it seems to be the consensus, and who am I to argue CHARCOAL AND MEAT: A LOVE STORY

By David W. Brown Photos by Romney Caruso

Marchand de Vin Sauce Makes 1 cup This red wine reduction sauce only takes a few minutes to make.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 tablespoon butter ¼ cup chopped shallots 1 tablespoon garlic Salt and pepper, to taste ¼ cup dry red wine Sprig of fresh thyme 1 cup demi-glace or beef stock

HOW TO PREP: Melt the butter in a saucepan over

medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté for 1 minute. Add the red wine and thyme, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the demi-glace. Simmer for 2 minutes and remove from the heat, keeping warm until ready to serve with steak. Remove thyme before serving.

FLIP TO PAGE 41 FOR MORE GREAT STEAK SAUCE RECIPES!

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with charcoal people? (#teampropane.) I have seen it recommended that rather than spread your charcoal evenly once in the barbecue pit, you will want to dump it all to one side so that half the grate is over direct heat and half is cooler. While all this is going on, your steak has reached room temperature and you’ve seasoned it as above. Do you have a grill thermometer? If not, you’re going to want a grill thermometer. Before slapping steaks on metal, you want the grill at 500 degrees. Be sure to keep the grill covered so that the heat does not escape. When ready to cook, we are going to go for four bursts of two minutes each for a medium-rare steak. (You can take it back to a minute or one minute and 30 seconds for rare, though the height of the grate from the charcoal and the size of the steak are going to have a say in all this. It might take experimentation, so if there is someone at the cookout that you don’t like, cook theirs first.) The process of cooking on a charcoal grill will look like this: Once the pit reaches 500 degrees, open the lid, add your steaks to the charcoal side, close your lid immediately, and grill for two minutes. Then open the grill, give the steaks a quarter turn, and close the grill again. Two more minutes. (The point of the turn is to get that perfect grid of grill marks on the meat.) After two minutes, flip the steaks. Cook two minutes. Again, open the grill and give the steaks a quarter turn. After two minutes, remove them from the pit. If you find the steak is too rare for your liking, place it on the cool side of the grill. (See, there was a point to that!) This will allow you to get the heat without the burn. Grill to your liking, though since I don’t know how over- or undercooked your steaks are, you’re going to have to use instinct here. I believe in you. IN THE KITCHEN I live in an apartment with no balcony, so any attempt to light a grill in my home would result in the fire department chopping down my door with an ax, eviction and possibly negligent arson charges. As all three of those things happen to appear on my Do Not Want list, I am forced to use my stove. As it turns out, though, I might be ahead of the curve. When asked his favorite way to prepare a steak, Nick doesn’t hesitate to answer. “In

14 ROUSES SUMMER 2021

the skillet,” he says. He is a big fan of searing steaks in avocado oil because it has a high smoke point. First, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. “Next, get a cast iron skillet sizzing hot, and sear the steak on both sides for four minutes each.” After that, he likes to add but- ter and rosemary to the steak and put it in the oven for a couple of minutes, to the desired doneness. (This depends mightily on the size and type of the steak.) WHAT AM I BUYING HERE? A casual stroll through the meat department at Rouses will reveal a surplus of options, but when it comes to steaks, the classics tend to be ribeye, filet mignon, strip and porter- house. But what does it all mean? This little guide should light your way. The ribeye is the king of steaks—by far the most popular of its brethren. It is cut from the loin along the ribcage. It is well marbled— there’s a lot of fat and that textbook “steak” flavor in there—and because of that, will

cook evenly throughout, and will get that classic, crispy texture. If you are throwing a fancy party and need good steak that everyone will love, this is your cut. The filet mignon is among the leanest and tenderest cuts of beef you will ever enjoy. This is because the part of the cow where it lives before… well, you know… is from the tip of the tenderloin, next to the backbone and beneath the ribs. Basically, this tiny part of the cow doesn’t actually do anything, so it never develops a toughness. It is also largely devoid of fat, and thus less juicy and flavorful, making it the perfect canvas on which chefs the world over can create culinary works of art. The strip steak is a lot like the ribeye, found along the same muscle. The strip is nearer to the back of the cow, while the ribeye is found at the front. This is “middle ground” steak; not tender like the filet mignon, and not as marbled as the ribeye. If you are throwing a party but don’t want to spend as much money, this is a good choice.

Lastly, let’s say you want a filet mignon and a strip, but you don’t want to order two things. Well friends, let me introduce you to the T-bone steak (sometimes called a porterhouse ). One side of the steak is a filet mignon. The other side is a strip. The two are connected by a bone shaped like a T. That bone makes preparation something of a challenge, because as any steak cooks, it shrinks, but that big bone doesn’t, making it hard for both types of beef to maintain contact with a skillet. Go for the grill with this one and you can’t go wrong. David W. Brown is a freelance writer whose work appears in The Atlantic , The New York Times , Scientific American and The New Yorker . His next book, The Mission: A True Story, a rollicking adventure about a motley band of explorers on a quest to find oceans on Europa , is in bookstores now. Brown lives in New Orleans.

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FROM RARE TO WELL DONE

Use an instant-read thermometer to check steaks while they cook. Insert the probe sideways towards the thickest part, not touching bone or fat. Remove steaks from heat when thermometer registers 5°F lower than your desired doneness.

Rest your steaks once you remove them from the grill or broiler, because the temperature will continue to rise. This also lets the juices go back into the steak, which makes it even more flavorful.

Cooking times and temperatures vary with cut, size and method of preparation, as well as your preferred degree of doneness.

RARE: COOL RED CENTER 125°F

MEDIUM RARE: WARM RED CENTER 130°-135°F

Why do you only sell Angus beef?

Why is marbling so important to red meat?

A USDA grade is a representation of marbling and age, but other things go into how beef tastes. Certain breeds like Angus produce better-tasting meat. Angus

Marbling, or fat, doesn’t just

add flavor; as it melts during cooking, it also makes your steak

richer, juicier and more tender. A well-marbled steak is going to be your best eating experience.

beef has more marbling than most, and the distribution of the marbling is even. Quite simply, this is the best steak. Whether you choose USDA Prime, Choice or Select, Angus is going to be a more tender, juicy and flavorful steak.

Why do you hand-cut your steaks?

Our butchers hand-cut and hand-trim our steaks to guarantee their quality. With hand-cut, you get just the right thickness and just right the amount of exterior fat, which adds extra juiciness and flavor.

What is dry aging?

Most of our stores have humidity- and temperature- controlled dry-aged beef lockers, where we age USDA Choice Angus Beef for at least 25 days. The dry-aging process draws moisture out of the meat, giving it a richer, beefier flavor. (This is also the reason why dry-aged steaks cook faster than fresh.) Because enzymes break down most of the collagen during the aging process, a dry aged steak isn’t as chewy as fresh. It’s so tender, in fact, that you may not even need a knife.

So, what is the best thickness for steak?

It depends on the cut, but thick is almost always better than thin. With a filet, especially a USDA Prime Angus beef filet, you want at least one and a half inches, if not a full two inches. For a ribeye or strip, I’ll cut it somewhere between one inch and one and one half inches so it stands up to the heat, and you can be very precise when it comes to doneness. A thinner steak — less than one inch — is easy to overcook. There are some cuts, like flank and skirt, that are naturally thinner. The trick is to keep the cooking time to a minimum so the heat doesn’t have time to penetrate much further than the surface.

When should I splurge on Prime?

You really can’t go wrong with any of our steaks, but for true steakhouse quality, our USDA Prime Angus beef ribeye, New York strip and filet mignon are always worth the splurge. The abundant marbling in USDA Prime makes a real difference in the taste and texture of these cuts, and guarantees a steakhouse experience.

PHOTO BY JO VIDRINE

MEDIUM: WARM PINK CENTER 135°-145°F

MEDIUM WELL: SLIGHTLY PINK CENTER 140°-150°F

WELL DONE: LITTLE TO NO PINK 155°F

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T he concept of steak as a “masculine” food has been seared into America’s public consciousness for decades, back-slapping and handshaking its way into the culinary zeitgeist ever since the first cowboy novels depicted their rootin’-tootin’ heroes as steer wranglers who butchered beef by hand then cooked it up around a fire with their fellow Stetson-wearers. Steak- houses—the first of which was established in Manhattan in 1868—soon followed suit, marketing themselves over the course of the 20th century as spaces where men could mingle freely, wheeling and dealing over expensive filets in burgundy-and-leather clad rooms thick with cigar smoke and the clink of highball glasses. Can you imagine, after all, Mad Men without Don Draper frequenting Keen’s Steakhouse or The Palm for a ribeye and a martini (or five)? Didn’t think so. Even through the mid-2000s, the trope that women do not order red meat—particu- larly on a first date—was still so prevalent that The New York Times believed it to be worthy of a trend-piece that women were (gasp!) springing for steak over a few limp lettuce leaves. “Salad, it seems, is out. Gusto, medium rare, is in,” writes Allen Salkin in a 2007 piece with the galling headline, “Be Your- selves, Girls, Order the Rib-Eye.” One par- ticularly riveting passage from the article: “[Some] say ordering a salad displays an unappealing mousiness. ‘It seems wimpy, insipid, childish,’ said Michelle Heller, 34, a copy editor at TV Guide. ‘I don’t want to be considered vapid and uninteresting.’ Order- ing meat, on the other hand, is a declarative statement, something along the lines of ‘I am woman, hear me chew.’” “I’ve been shocked at the number of women actually ordering steak,” Michael Stillman, vice president of concept develop- ment for the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, says further down in the same article. “The meat is appealing to them, much more than what I saw two or three years ago… they are going for our bone-in sirloin and our cowboy-cut rib steak.” In New Orleans, though—a city with serious old-school steakhouse culture, from the bright neon of Crescent City Steaks on Broad to 1930s neighborhood gem

THE FOUNTAIN OF RUTH

Charlie’s Steak House—women have long been central to the furtive, curtained booths and carnivorous appetites of the city’s meati- est establishments. And chief among them is the whip-smart, tenacious founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Ruth Fertel. “New Orleans is a city of aristocracies, both competing and intertwined...[and] the culinary aristocracy’s stature comes not from bloodlines but from sweat,” writes Ruth’s son, Randy Fertel, in his 2011 book, The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir . “All bowed, when hungry and thirsty, to the three queens of New Orleans cuisine: Ella Brennan of Commander's Palace, Leah Chase of Dooky Chase’s and Ruth Fertel of Ruth's Chris, my mother. Only these three women, earthy and hard-working, seemed not to care a whit about pretense. Which increased their power. You need to talk to Miz Ruth? Well, here she is.” Born Ruth Udstad in Happy Jack, Louisiana, in 1925, Ruth displayed the kind of competitive quick-wittedness from a young age that would eventually help her succeed in going toe-to-toe with the inflat- ed male egos of the restaurant business, all while ensuring customer service—whether her guests were governors, groundskeepers or grocers—was always paramount. “Mom grew up a tomboy, determined nev- er to be outdone by her big brother,” Fertel writes. “She skipped two grades...learning, she explained, by listening in on the grades ahead of her. She always claimed she got her competitive spirit from her dad. Just tell me I can't do something, and I will do every- thing in the world to do it. ” Prior to launching her restaurant empire, Ruth lived several entirely full, unique life- times: graduating from LSU at the ripe old age of 19 with a degree in chemistry and taking a whirlwind honeymoon with her new husband, Rodney Fertel; becoming licensed as the first female thoroughbred trainer in Louisiana with two young sons in tow; and, after her divorce, working as a lab technician at Tulane Medical School. It was during this time that she stumbled upon a list- ing in the classifieds that announced the sale of a well-known New Orleans steakhouse— a business that had been turned over (and back) multiple times before, though Fertel was unaware of its history. She was immedi- ately attracted to the concept.

By Sarah Baird

Above, Ruth's Chris Steak House logo. Today, there are over 150 Ruth’s Chris outposts across the globe from Puerto Rico to Toronto and everywhere in-between; opposite page, Ruth Fertel poses with a variety of steakhouse offerings.

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“I was so naïve. I didn’t have any special in- terests besides hunting, fishing and reading, and it didn’t sound like I could make much money out of any of them. I saw lots of ads for service stations, but that wasn’t for me. Neither were the bars that were listed,” Ruth later recalled. But when she ran across the advertisement for Chris Steak House in 1965, a spark lit up inside of her. “I said to myself, ‘Simple menu. I know I can do that.’ I had eaten there. The food was really good, and it had a great reputation. So, I went to the res- taurant and met with the owner. I asked him, ‘How much do you want?’ He said $18,000, and I said I would buy it. I didn’t have any money, but I had my home.”

Armed with a convivial personality and dogged determination to succeed, Ruth cut steaks (first by hand, then with an electric bandsaw), oversaw front-of-house opera- tions for the 60-seat restaurant and kept a close watch on the books, proving herself to be a true one-woman-show in the early years. She also hired an almost-entirely fe- male waitstaff, including many single moms, a move that proved from the beginning Fertel wasn’t going to be doing things the same way as the “good old boys” club. “As business grew, Mom added more waitresses: Lou Dufrense (under five feet), Carol Held (Boston-Irish and called Yan-

kee), brassy Theresa Arena, tiny Lois Oxman, Shirley Barlett and Faye Pastrano...a feisty redhead who cruised the floor [and] had once been married to flashy light-heavy- weight champion Willie Pastrano who fought for the Mob,” Fertel writes of his mother’s core team of ladies. Ruth also knew how to turn setbacks into brand-defining moments. Nowhere is this more obvious than her—necessary, but inge- nious—rebranding of the business as Ruth’s Chris Steak House. “You've wolfed down the 16-ounce New York strip; you've consumed the one-pound baked potato; you've even managed the

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chocolate praline encore. Now, as you sit back, satiated and content, a burning question lingers: what's the deal with this restaurant's name?” Anne Faircloth wrote of the tongue-twister of a name for Fortune Magazine in 1998. “’Ruth's Chris Steak House’ is so unwieldy that one restaurant critic suggested it would make a great so- briety test. If you can't say it three times, put down that martini.” After a fire destroyed the original Chris Steak House in 1976, Ruth planned to move the entire business to a larger space with more room down the street. Her contract, however, stipulated that the name “Chris

Steak House” could only be used in the exact, initial location. With only a week to come up with a solution—and not wanting to lose name recognition or her customer base—Fertel settled on “Ruth’s Chris Steak House” to combine familiarity with a not- so-subtle wink that a new generation of restaurateur—a woman—was in charge. "I've always hated the name," Fertel told Fortune . "But we've always managed to work around it…[and] make the steak the star." The differences in how Ruth operated her steakhouse were not limited to a new brand of exclusive, but familial, atmosphere: it was also in the food itself. The steaks quickly be-

came known for their signature sizzle (it’s practically impossible to imagine a perfectly medium-rare Ruth’s Chris ribeye crackling and popping in your ears and not salivate, Pavlov’s dog–style) as well as a litany of side dishes, like the aforementioned (and ever- popular) one-pound baked potato or deca- dent creamed spinach. She also elevated the conversation among customers and compet- itors about why selecting high-quality steaks mattered, making meat the very core of what brought the customers in for dinner and what kept bringing them back. “Early on, Mom realized that she needed to educate the marketplace. Quarter- and half-page print ads explained why only 2% of the beef raised in America was good enough for [her] customers,” writes Randy Fertel. “No less a personage than Arnie Morton, founder of Morton's Steak House, her chief competitor, once told me that 'Ruth Fertel created the prime steak business’— this despite the fact his father was selling steaks in the 1920s.” And as franchises spread, Fertel’s com- mitment to elevating her female employees, colleagues and confidantes was evident with each new dining room that opened across South Louisiana. “As the restaurants expanded in New Orleans, Mom promoted her waitresses and other female friends to run them. Ruth's college roommate Gloria, not her broth- er Sig, shared half-ownership in Chris II across the river in Gretna. Bette ran Vets on Veterans Highway in Fat City, a booming area of Metairie—until she was caught with her hand in her till. When Mom reopened four blocks up Broad and Orleans after the fire, Myrtle ran the restored original at Broad and Ursuline. Upon Myrtle's death, Doris took over until her hand, too, was caught in the till. She spent some years in the wilderness and then was forgiven. Ruth trusted her girls...[but] she kept a tight rein on bills, inventory and receipts.” Every Ruth’s Chris restaurant that popped up across the country—from the first fran- chise in Baton Rouge to Las Vegas and beyond—arrived with a dining room atmo- sphere that was decked out to reflect the unique location, whether catering to oil ty- coons in Houston or outdoorsy-types in the Rocky Mountains. Ruth knew that to help foster the intimacy, camaraderie and “club-

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house” feeling that the original Ruth’s Chris had in spades, the individual locations had to play to what made them each uniquely special—not try to duplicate what made the New Orleans outpost magical. This approach—combined, of course, with the restaurant’s luxurious, top-tier menu— caused restaurants to multiply hand-over- fist. Today, there are over 150 Ruth’s Chris outposts across the globe from Puerto Rico to Toronto and everywhere in-between, as a leap-of-faith life choice of a scrappy single mother from rural Louisiana has flourished into a publicly traded hospitality empire. (RUTH is the ticker symbol, naturally.) “When I started franchising, that really got the name out,” Ruth explained of the busi- ness model, “and the more the name became known, the busier we became in all our res- taurants. Our name recognition spread. In fact, all our franchisees were people who had eaten at one time or another in one of our restaurants. We never looked for franchi- sees. They came to us.” Fertel died of lung cancer in 2002, leav- ing behind a legacy that helped completely change the role of women in restaurant culture. Thanks in no small part to Ruth’s trail- blazing, there have been major cultural shifts in recent years surrounding how steakhouses talk about their restaurants, advertise them and even build their spaces, with chefs and owners now creating dining environments that are less focused on gender exclusivity and more on what matters: great food in in- clusive, welcoming places that aren’t served up with a side of sexism. Sarah Baird is the author of multiple books including New Orleans Cocktails and Flask , which was released in summer 2019. A 2019 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, her work has been featured in The New York Times , Washington Post , Saveur , Eater , Food &Wine and The Guardian , among others. Previously, she served as restaurant critic for the New Orleans alt-weekly, Gambit Weekly , where she won Critic of the Year in 2015 for her dining reviews.

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NO MIS–STEAK ABOUT IT By Sarah Baird

ince childhood, I’ve been something of a vegetable fanatic: opting for cucumber slices over a pack of cookies at snack

to dehydrated crumbs to a creamy sauce. Parents desperate to work more vegetables into their kids' meals have found cauliflower to be the perfect partner.” And even if you’re not trying to smother it in cheese sauce for suspicious little tykes or munch on a floret for the health ben- efits, cauliflower has proven itself delicious enough to be a hearty middle-of-the-plate star. Don’t believe me? I challenge you to order the roasted whole head of cauliflower with whipped goat cheese at Dominica in New Orleans and not dream about it for weeks after. (Spoiler: It’s impossible!) In home kitchens, cauliflower “steaks” are the center-stage-ready, crowd-pleasing— dare I say, meaty ?—way to feed a crowd (even one with all different kinds of dietary restrictions!) while still being able to create a satisfying, zhuzhed-up meal. Inherently vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and keto- friendly, these cheekily named, unexpected showstoppers might not be “steaks” in the traditional sense, but they’re tasty, satisfying and surprisingly simple to prepare. Explore all the ways below that you can treat your cauliflower steak just like a beef steak—and maybe even get a little bit more creative with it. More than likely, if you are buying a filet or ribeye to prepare for a hearty steak dinner, your preferred cut is already portioned and ready to go thanks to the handiwork of your favorite meat counter whiz. (But if you happen to be the kind of person who goes straight to the bovine source and can do whole-cow butchery, more power to you.) For cauliflower steaks, it’s going to take a little bit more effort on the front end to turn this cruciferous veggie into something (sort of) resembling a New York strip. Begin by choosing the biggest, most bulbous head of cauliflower you can find—you want to get as many steaks out of this as possible, after all— and remove all the tough exterior leaves, if there are any. Cut the bottom stem off so the cauliflower can sit upright and balanced on its own, then slice the head from top-to-bot- tom, creating three or four cauliflower steaks, depending on the mass of your cauliflower. (The center “steak” slices are more likely to stay whole while cooking, while the exte- FIRST THINGS FIRST: CARVE YOUR CAULIFLOWER.

time, packing peppery-hot radishes in my lunchbox and begging (truly, begging) my parents to cook more cabbage. Sure, part of it was my weirdo youthful tastebuds, but another element was how truly fascinated I was by vegetables’ unique personalities . I loved the way every tomato has a slightly different pattern or hue, creat- ing a whole palette of colors when picked fresh from the garden. I was riveted by the knobs, bumps and nodules on the sort of vegetables we would now call “misfits”: those carrots that just aren’t tapered enough; the eggplant shaped more like an animal balloon; the zucchinis that have accidentally wound themselves into curlicues through the growing process. And then there were the naturally built-in textures of broccoli’s hairbrush-like crowns; sweet potatoes’ vel- vety, burnt sienna flesh; and the scratchy, rutted feel of corncobs that absolutely blew my little eight-year-old mind. All that grew out of the dirt? I would think. Whoa, dude. It’s no surprise, then—given my predilec- tion for oddball, funky-textured produce— that cauliflower ranked among my top veg- etables as a youngster and has only risen through the ranks as I’ve aged. Once upon a time, the cream-colored veggie with the kind of domed shape and cragged hand-feel that some would say resembles a brain—an association that isn’t helped much by the fact that one unit of cauliflower is technically referred to as a “head”—was a frequently side-eyed produce zero. Now? Cauliflower is a fine dining culi- nary hero, thanks in large part to its infinite versatility, the ever-growing vegetarian and vegan population and, yes, good-for-you features. “Cauliflower is loaded with nutritional and health benefits. It is a powerhouse of vita- min C, fiber and antioxidants. The nutrients in cauliflower help reduce the risk of can- cer, heart disease and brain disorders; fight inflammation; improve digestion; and aid in weight loss,” writes Lindsey Grimes Freedman in her 2020 book, Cauliflower Power . “Another reason for cauliflower's popularity is its ability to take on many forms. It can morph seamlessly from a whole head

CAULIFLOWER STEAK RECIPE ON PAGE 37

PHOTO BY JO VIDRINE

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rior steaks might crumble into florets. That’s fine! They’re still delicious; roll with it.) The cauliflower steaks—which are, essentially, a cross-section of the vegetable—are now ready to be treated to the kind of ogling and attentive cooking typically reserved for their non-plant-based counterparts.

soning inspiration strikes, you can’t really go wrong by treating your cauliflower steak like a blank canvas ready to be made into tooth- some art.

cooked indoors on grill pans or in a cast iron skillet drizzled with a little bit of olive oil. Just remember to move them to the oven after searing the outside to ensure they’re able to cook the whole way through. After all, what good are the perfectly flavored-and- textured outsides of a cauliflower steak if the insides are (gasp!) raw ? Steakhouses love to find any-and-every way to gussy up their steaks with add-ons, whether they’re piling on the blue cheese, melting a knob of herb butter over the top of a porterhouse or covering a T-bone in a slurry of garlicky mushrooms. Think about your cauliflower steaks in the same fashion—just pull from a list of lighter, fresher ingredients. A vibrant chimichurri is always a welcome addition when spread over a perfectly grilled cauliflower steak, as is the bite of an olive tapenade. Feel empowered to take the attitude, “the saucier, the better!” when ladling your homemade pesto, green curry or Romanesco sauce over your cauli- flower steak—in this case, there’s never too much of a good thing. DON’T BE SHY ABOUT THE ACCOUTREMENTS.

GET TO GRILLING—OR ROASTING, OR…

Much like traditional steak, grilling is perhaps the best way to bring out all the caramelized, smoky flavor possible in the ultra-adapt- able cauliflower steak. After rubbing your veggie planks with the spice mixture of your choice, use the high heat and direct flame that grilling provides to properly embolden and enhance the flavors—all while getting a little bit of that ultra-coveted char on the outside. After 6 to 8 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of your steaks), move the cauliflower to the grill’s indirect heat and close the lid to soften them all the way through, which should take another 3 to 5 minutes. And with just that little bit of effort, you will end up with a perfect, ultra-healthy dinnertime showstopper. Don’t have a grill, or don’t feel like standing outside over a fire when it’s 90 degrees and muggy outside? I understand. Cauliflower steaks are also delicious when

SEASON SIMPLY... OR GO WILD!

Every grill master has their own way of seasoning steak—whether it’s a secret family spice blend or an elaborate cooking- resting-cooking process they swear by—but few would deny that a generous rub of salt and pepper all over the exterior is a mighty fine way to bring out the best in any cut of meat. When it comes to cauliflower steaks, things work a little differently. Cauliflowers seem to have as many nooks and crannies as the surface of the moon, meaning that—even after you have cut your head into more manageable, steak-like slices—there are still a lot of fine-toothed area that need seasoning. And unlike the receptive, supple nature of regular steak, thanks to the vegetable’s naturally firm ex- terior, just sprinkling salt and pepper on the outside and calling it a day likely isn’t going to result in the full-bodiedflavor youwant from the dish. Instead, make a saline solution out of wa- ter and salt, brush it over the exterior of your cauliflower steaks—making sure to dab a little into every crevice—then sprinkle with a crack of the black pepper. This works par- ticularly well if you want to the cauliflower to serve as a sort of satisfying, neutral base to go along with a more powerful sauce or accoutrement (more on that later). If you’re interested in giving the cauli- flower steak itself a flashy flavor profile, then consider the entire spice cabinet your play- ground. Make an adobo-and-maple glaze to coat your cauliflower steaks if you’re in the mood for something smoky and spicy-sweet, or try a balsamic and brown sugar mixture for a more subtle tang. Combine harissa with a handful of its favorite friendly aromatics— cumin, smoked paprika, coriander—and brush all over your cauliflower steaks for a Tunisian taste, or marinate them in a blend of orange, lemon and kumquat juice for a bright, citrus-forward meal. Whatever sea-

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