Bronx33
04-10-2006, 06:43 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5963343/
At $100 for a 16-ounce porterhouse steak, Wagyu beef might be a hard sell. Evan Lobel, of famous New York butcher shop Lobel's, is undaunted.
He's already selling at least 100 of his beyond-prime porterhouses each month, plus 150 or more bone-in strip steaks starting at $89 a pound, 100 bone-in hip steaks and so on — well over $55,000 worth of meat — to a star-studded roster of clients.
"It's probably the most expensive Wagyu out there," says Lobel by phone as he stands in the icebox of his family's shop. "But we're going to give people the most extraordinary product."
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If you're wondering what Wagyu (pronounced "Wah-gyu," sometimes "Way-gyu" ) is, and why it's priced more like foie gras than beef, many of Lobel's customers wonder the same thing: "'They're saying, 'What the hell is Wagyu?'"
The ne plus ultra of beef is commonly known as Kobe, but Kobe is merely the prefecture in Japan where insanely expensive meat, sometimes $500 a pound for the real thing, happens to be produced. These are the well-known cows whose diet is reputedly augmented with sake and beer, and regular massages to soften their meat and enhance the marbling of their fat.
Kobe beef comes from Wagyu cattle, much as French Champagne comes from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. If you happen to eat Kobe-style beef in the United States, it's probably from Wagyu cattle raised over here, though the folks in Kobe haven't waged a geographic labeling war like the winemakers of Champagne did.
With tight restrictions on their export from Japan, the first four Wagyu bulls entered the United States in 1976; more regular imports of breeding stock only began in 1993.
Like butter
Wagyu beef is exquisitely tender, with soft fat that can all but melt at human body temperature, meaning it must be handled with care — should you be lucky enough to get your hands on some.
With such delicate intramuscular fat, steaks must be briefly seared to leave the interior just barely cooked, more like a fine hunk of tuna than beef. The texture is meant to be closer to pate — or, indeed, foie gras. Any more than a few moments over heat and Wagyu steaks are wasted.
"The whole secret is medium rare and only salt and pepper," says Beverly Yamamoto, who with her husband, Gary, raises nearly 4,000 Wagyu cattle in Texas. "Gary does not allow anybody to put anything on his meat."
Patrons can ask for it by name at such restaurants as The Saloon in Chicago and New York's V Steakhouse. According to the American Wagyu Association, more than 60 U.S. breeders and ranchers now handle these cattle.
The Yamamotos got their cows directly from the source. In 1999, they bought the entire herd that Japanese breeder Shogo Takeda, who pioneered the breeding of Wagyu on the northern island of Hokkaido, brought to Iowa to set up a trade in Wagyu sperm and embryos.
"He agreed to let us purchase his animals, but for three years he wanted to teach us how to do it," says Beverly Yamamoto.
At $100 for a 16-ounce porterhouse steak, Wagyu beef might be a hard sell. Evan Lobel, of famous New York butcher shop Lobel's, is undaunted.
He's already selling at least 100 of his beyond-prime porterhouses each month, plus 150 or more bone-in strip steaks starting at $89 a pound, 100 bone-in hip steaks and so on — well over $55,000 worth of meat — to a star-studded roster of clients.
"It's probably the most expensive Wagyu out there," says Lobel by phone as he stands in the icebox of his family's shop. "But we're going to give people the most extraordinary product."
Story continues below ↓ advertisement
If you're wondering what Wagyu (pronounced "Wah-gyu," sometimes "Way-gyu" ) is, and why it's priced more like foie gras than beef, many of Lobel's customers wonder the same thing: "'They're saying, 'What the hell is Wagyu?'"
The ne plus ultra of beef is commonly known as Kobe, but Kobe is merely the prefecture in Japan where insanely expensive meat, sometimes $500 a pound for the real thing, happens to be produced. These are the well-known cows whose diet is reputedly augmented with sake and beer, and regular massages to soften their meat and enhance the marbling of their fat.
Kobe beef comes from Wagyu cattle, much as French Champagne comes from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. If you happen to eat Kobe-style beef in the United States, it's probably from Wagyu cattle raised over here, though the folks in Kobe haven't waged a geographic labeling war like the winemakers of Champagne did.
With tight restrictions on their export from Japan, the first four Wagyu bulls entered the United States in 1976; more regular imports of breeding stock only began in 1993.
Like butter
Wagyu beef is exquisitely tender, with soft fat that can all but melt at human body temperature, meaning it must be handled with care — should you be lucky enough to get your hands on some.
With such delicate intramuscular fat, steaks must be briefly seared to leave the interior just barely cooked, more like a fine hunk of tuna than beef. The texture is meant to be closer to pate — or, indeed, foie gras. Any more than a few moments over heat and Wagyu steaks are wasted.
"The whole secret is medium rare and only salt and pepper," says Beverly Yamamoto, who with her husband, Gary, raises nearly 4,000 Wagyu cattle in Texas. "Gary does not allow anybody to put anything on his meat."
Patrons can ask for it by name at such restaurants as The Saloon in Chicago and New York's V Steakhouse. According to the American Wagyu Association, more than 60 U.S. breeders and ranchers now handle these cattle.
The Yamamotos got their cows directly from the source. In 1999, they bought the entire herd that Japanese breeder Shogo Takeda, who pioneered the breeding of Wagyu on the northern island of Hokkaido, brought to Iowa to set up a trade in Wagyu sperm and embryos.
"He agreed to let us purchase his animals, but for three years he wanted to teach us how to do it," says Beverly Yamamoto.