- Okay, I'm in front of the Old Homestead.
This is one of my favorite New York City steakhouses.
It's been here since 1868.
I love places that have been around longer than me.
And a place that's been around 100 years longer than me
has got to have a lot of history.
However, this place is also known for kind of
revolutionizing things.
They were the first guys to bring Kobe beef
to a New York City steakhouse.
These guys have a steak that they claim
is better than the Kobe they used to sell back in the 90s.
So I'm going to go inside, I'm going to talk to
Executive Chef and owner Greg Sherry.
We're going to find out what's going on with
this super wagyu that he has in store for us, ready?
(blues music)
- It's a Rolls Royce compared to the Kobe we used to have.
(blues music)
- So tell me how you prepare it.
What led you to decide, okay, you know what,
I'm just going to serve this like a Western steak.
- Very simple, I didn't want to take the tradition
of an American steakhouse too far to the left.
I wanted to keep it centered.
I wanted to give them some Japanese flavor,
but yet I wanted to make sure
they knew they were in a steakhouse.
The way we prepare it is very simple.
No more than medium rare.
- No?
- There are people that want it rare,
but I recommend medium rare, and we put it over
some vegetables, a dash of salt and pepper, and that's it.
(blues music)
- So I've been to Japan a few times
and I've had a lot of wagyu there.
(upbeat blues music)
This is not a way you would typically find
beef served in Japan.
It would always be sliced thinly, you know so it's
these delicate little pieces of beef.
This is what America does best.
It takes something that's logical and makes sense
and takes it to this extreme.
This is more wagyu than four, five people
would probably eat at dinner in Japan.
But, of course, here, we serve it for one,
because that's how they do things.
It feels so different just moving it around the plate,
like it really has a jiggle to it.
Wow, ooh, nice crust on the outside,
you can see it kind of shear off.
Okay, I'm going to take a first bite.
Wow, oh my god.
You can feel the fat.
Now, if you look at this steak, you see it really is rare,
but, it's warmed through and the fat,
you can see, it's totally melted.
So it has totally emulsified even though you can
still see some of the marbling right there.
Wow, that's a profound flavor.
I associate delicacy more with wagyu,
and then that incredible richness.
This is much more like an upfront punch of maillard
steakhouse flavor, followed by these sort of crescendos
and waves of richness and flavor.
And it's got a butteriness to it
that American beef doesn't really have.
Now this has a A5 grade with a marbling score of 10,
which is among the highest grades
you can get in Japanese beef.
It really does develop a mouth feel and a suppleness
that you don't get from a lower grade beef.
It's not that those things can't be delicious,
it's just that this thing has a particular quality
that is really prized in Japan, and, once you've
eaten it here, you'll know why it's prized here as well.
The elephant in the room is always the price.
Can a steak be worth $350?
Well, to me, it's a once in a lifetime experience.
And if you are a carnivore and if you want to taste
the best out there, that, unfortunately, costs money.
Sometimes you can find nirvana in a 99 cent cheeseburger,
sometimes it's a $350 steak.
I wish I could afford this on a regular basis,
but, I will cherish this moment between
me and the steak and you lovely folk out there forever.
Thanks very much for watching.
I'm going to attempt to eat another bite of this.
And we'll see you on the next episode of The Meat Show.