Filet Mignon Rossini -- where to find this dish?

[Dustin_E]

I know Harris' and Fleur de Lys has it. Anywhere else?

thanks.

[dudesinmexico]

It was on the menu at Bistro Central Parc in NOPA last year. When I went back after a couple of months, I asked for it and they prepared it even if was not on the menu anymore. It's well worth to try ...

[Dustin_E]

did you ask when you made the reservation, or when you sat down? thanks.

[dudesinmexico]

When I sat down. I asked the owner, who is a very friendly guy.

[pamf]

In addition to Fleur de Lys, Hubert Keller also has a Rossini burger on the menu at Burger Bar. Although at $60 for a burger, you would probably be better off at Fleur de Lys. :)

[ML8000]

Funny, I read this NYT's recipe not so long ago and have been thinking about making it...for a camping trip.

The most difficult things to get are truffles and Madeira wine (can be sub'ed). Doesn't seem that much of a PITA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/din...

[pikawicca]

Are you willing to commit the time needed to make an excellent veal stock? For a CAMPING TRIP? I used to be a pretty hard-core camper, but this dish deserves fine linen, candle, and a great wine. Mosquitoes not invited.

[ML8000]

You can buy veal stock just like demi-glace and great wine...and irony is not death. Candles and linen optional.

[pikawicca]

Irony does not work too well online. You can certainly buy commercial veal stock and demi-glace, but if you think this is going to approximate the real deal, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you:)

[chefj]

Many restaurants are willing to part with some their demi or veal stock for a price discount for regulars( - ;

[pikawicca]

That's good news, but I didn't realize that many restaurants were still making these items.

[ML8000]

Actually there's a few ready-made varieties that are very good but they aren't easy to find but they are convenient. The trick is no preservatives and the type that must be refrigerated.

Regarding the bridge, just keep it yourself. Sounds like you could use it. You hike it while you wait for your homemade batch to finish.

[pikawicca]

Could you recommend a specific brand? The ones I've tried have all been dreck. (They weren't cheap, either.)

[Robert Lauriston]

La Bedaine, the Local Butcher Shop, Fatted Calf, the Pasta Shop.

[pikawicca]

Thanks.

[arlenemae]

You can buy frozen veal demi-glace at Whole Foods, and it's worked pretty well for other recipes that I've tried.

I've been thinking about making this at home too...I have some foie gras in my freezer and I can easily buy the demi-glace, but I'm having trouble finding some fresh truffles. Any ideas where I can get it locally? Draeger's in San Mateo carries it sometimes, but I haven't seen it there lately. I might have to settle for the jarred variety.

[Dustin_E]

mushroom store in the ferry building.
monterey market in berkeley (haven't been recently -- dunno if they still stock them)
whole foods market haight -- i've seen them here before, but not very often.

but surely there are better places to get fresh truffles?

[Robert Lauriston]

Black Perigord truffles (Tuber melanosporum) are out of season, but they preserve very well, and preserved are what's most often used for Rossini. More on finding them:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4128...

[Dustin_E]

do you think truffle oil is often used for rossini at restaurants?

(i'm not asking if it _should_ be used, i'm asking if you think it _is_ used in this dish)?

[Robert Lauriston]

It would be a different dish, or gilding the lily. White truffle oil is nothing like black truffles, and the black truffle oil I've tried has no black truffle flavor.

[eatzalot]

I agree w/Robert, canned truffle slices are classic on this dish in US restaurants. Most of the times I saw it in restaurants was during the 1970s, when it was the ostentation standard (Beef Wellington displaced it a few years later). That was all around the same time that the really food-literate US writers like Root and the Hesses were despairing the state of US restaurant cooking, and the renaissance of more honest less flamboyant farm-to-table cooking was gaining momentum. And yes, like many people I like some of those dishes too.

I don't know if it's current now among the restaurants resurrecting "tournedos Rossini" (as the dish was often called in the 70s), but common use of truffle oil (which per related CH threads of recent years is generally synthetic with a few truffle shavings per tank car for form's sake) is much more recent than those dishes' heyday.

If you want standard recipes for Sauce Madère and demi-glace just look them where everyone originally learned them (and most later writers copied or dumbed them down from), Escoffier's _Guide Culinaire._ I guess you can buy some decent stocks nowadays but I generally make my own at home, more often from roast poultry pieces than veal, but usually simmering 12-36 hours to extract thoroughly.

[pikawicca]

I actually made this for a dinner party last year. It was delicious, but a PITA to source ingredients and prep. I would look for a very old-school French restaurant and give them a call. (The best rendition I've ever had was at the Bell Inn near Bury St. Edmunds in England, many years ago.)

[Dustin_E]

>> a PITA to source ingredients and prep.

i was considering attempting this sometime soon -- it looks easy (cook steak, cook foie, make sauce.) why was it so difficult?

>> a very old-school French restaurant

thanks -- do you have any suggestions for very old-school french restaurants, aside from what's mentioned here?

[pikawicca]

It's the sauce, which if made right, will be one of the most delicious things you've ever tasted. Takes days. AFAIK, SF doesn't have any old school French restaurants left, and I doubt that La Folie would be interested in the tedious preparation of the sauce. It's not really their kind of cooking. The only place that I can think of off hand that would make this for you is La Grenouille in NYC, although you might be able to find a classically trained private chef who would. If you do decide to do it yourself, don't cut corners, buy a great bottle of wine, invite a couple of good friends, and report back!

[Dustin_E]

>> Takes days.

i had no idea, but i love that kind of challenge :-)

>> SF doesn't have any old school French restaurants left

i was starting to get that feeling. any idea when they all closed down?

[Dustin_E]

>> La Grenouille in NYC

it is also on the menu at mix (by alain ducasse) in las vegas -- but i have no idea how authentic or good their rendition is.

[Robert Lauriston]

La Folie has a modern variation (trio of tenderloin, short rib, and "burger") on the menu. The only time-consuming part of the sauce is making the demi-glace, which takes hours, not days.

[pikawicca]

I'd be interested in your recipe for a classic veal demi-glace that takes mere hours.

[Robert Lauriston]

Making veal stock might take eight hours, sauce espagnole an hour or two, reducing to demi-glace another hour or two.

[arlenemae]

If all you want is steak and foie gras, Alexander's Steakhouse (SF and Cupertino) will let you top any steak with foie gras. It's not quite the same as the classic Rossini recipe though where you have a truffle-madeira sauce aside from the foie.

Bella Vista restaurant in Woodside has the traditional one (as well as other classics like Steak Diane): http://www.bvrestaurant.com/menu.html

[Dustin_E]

thanks -- i think a number of places let you add foie gras to steaks -- bisou and bourbon steak being first to come to my mind.

i was more interested in classic preps.

[farmersdaughter]

I have heard you can request it at La Folie, but I have not tried myself so cannot confirm this.

[Robert Lauriston]

http://www.bakerstreetbistro.com

[psb]

BODEGA BISTRO too. Although have not tried it there.

(The web site linked to from their YELP PAGE seems to not be usefully functional ... has something happend to BDG BISTRO?)

[Robert Lauriston]

Bodega Bistro's still around. I don't think they ever had a Web site, just typical Yelp noise.