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Star chef Simon Gault is cooking up something that will give you food for thought next time you fire up the backyard barbecue - a steak that will set you back a minimum of $100.
The Wagyu Scotch fillet, the choicest cut on the menu at the Jervois
Steak House and Saloon which opened in Auckland this week, sells at 50 cents a gram. Gault won't cook a piece smaller than 200g because it means slicing it too thin, so a diner who orders the Wagyu will have to fork out at least $100 for a steak - without trimmings.
But the price hasn't deterred punters on the restaurant's first two nights. The restaurant has sold three 200g steaks, one 300g one and one hungry diner has tucked into a 400g steak. Wagyu - the name means Japanese cattle - is a pure-bred whose meat in Japan is called Kobe beef. The Wagyu here is cross-bred with Hereford or Angus to yield a very marbled meat which comes in 12 quality grades (Gault sources grade 6). The thick streaks of fat through the meat result in a steak full of flavour.
Gault is the executive chef behind half a dozen of the country's top eateries, including Euro, which was named by Conde Nast Traveller magazine as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. He has equipped his New York-style steakhouse in Herne Bay with specialised equipment, including a broiler and a slow-roaster that cooks whole prime rib - an American classic - for 12 hours at 60C.
A Gault steak is simply sprinkled with a mixture of herbs and salt before being broiled or seared in a very hot pan and roasted in a very hot oven. Crucially, it is rested for at least five minutes to allow the juices to be re-absorbed before it is served.
Gault lovingly sliced, seasoned and cooked up a 318g piece of Wagyu for the Herald on Sunday that would have cost $159 on the menu. It was sensational, a mouth-filling dense and luxurious taste which, though enriched by the silken seam of half-rendered fat through the middle, didn't taste even slightly fatty.
The restaurant serves a variety of less pricey meats between $32 and $45, including grain-fed pork from pigs raised to the strains of opera music. But Wagyu isn't Gault's favourite. "If I was coming here," he says, "I'd have the prime rib."
Massage and music make for a happy cow
Wagyu meat originated in Japan after being sourced from herds of Kobe cattle.
There, the animals have their own masseurs, are raised in heated byres and lead a life of sloth designed to make them twice the size of a normal cow. The lucky few cattle are massaged with oil, hand-fed, plied with beer to stimulate appetite and soothed with music. They're hardy creatures, known for their docile temperament, and their meat is high in cholesterol-reducing omega-3 fatty acids.