- I don't even have to chew, it just melts.
Thank you to all the cows. (laughs)
I don't need to tell you
about Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn.
But I mean, if you know, you definitely know.
What I don't know is the entire process
from fabrication to getting that steak on the line.
I'm about to find out.
- We are in our basement
at our dry age room
and this is kind of our Fort Knox of meat, if you will.
We're now gonna go to the start
of the dry age process.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- [David] This is fresh.
And so what's interesting,
we all have our own stamp that we use
when we go to the markets.
And now this is still fresh meat, never frozen.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- And it starts the process
towards the far end of the dry age room.
It's a long process.
An average period is about a month.
We tend to maybe be a bit more conservative.
It's our one state secret.
I would have to leave you in here.
(Nyesha laughs)
But otherwise, it's really about the quality of the meat.
We're looking for a lot of marble.
You want all those flecks of fat.
But we have probably about 2500 short loins
at a given moment that are dry aging
and upwards of a few hundred ribeyes.
Every day it's in and out.
We are on the finish side
and it'll slowly make its way towards this side.
And as you can see
with these kind of finished short loins here,
the outside becomes very desiccated and rough.
So that's a shell there.
That's the sirloin.
It's a good way, right?
- It is.
It's like doing squats.
- It's our workouts.
So we will cut away the desiccated sides.
The moisture has now been pulled out of the meat.
- How much moisture would you say on average?
- The piece of meat will probably decrease
in size by about 20%
once the aging process is done.
- [Nyesha] Wow.
I mean, what a premium 'cause it's already coming in
at a premium and then it loses
that moisture content
and then also trimming on the back end.
- Right.
But we hope it makes it more delicious.
And that's the most important thing for us.
- Absolutely.
Amazing.
Well it smells fantastic in here.
I have to say dry-aged steaks are one
of my favorite things to enjoy.
- Awesome. Let's go cut one up.
- Do it.
(blade buzzes)
- So they take a very thin cut
to take off that dried edge.
And now you'll see, these are the money steaks.
(blade buzzes)
(upbeat music)
- I'm in heaven right now, actually.
This is amazing.
Look at that.
Such a pronounced filet,
the porterhouse, strip loin, bone-in dry aged.
I mean, you can't really ask for more, right?
- I think it's pretty beautiful.
- Thing of beauty right here.
- The key now is to remove the access fat
but they all have a system of cuts they'll do.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
- [David] That's it.
There's your trimmed loin.
- [Nyesha] Excellent.
- So Nyesha, I think we'll have you trim the rest
of these if you're up for it.
- I'm excited.
Okay. So start on the filet side, right?
- [David] Yeah.
- Okay. Cool.
All right.
That's already cut.
I'm gonna cut it this way.
(intense music)
All right.
- [David] Beautiful.
- Excellent. I did it.
(intense music)
Just three cuts, huh?
How long have you worked here?
- Twenty two.
- Twenty two years?
- Yeah.
(intense music)
- Couple hundred more of these
and I might have a job here.
I could do this all day.
It smells fantastic.
It's okay?
I got it very good.
I'm cruising.
(intense music)
Here?
(intense music)
- [David] Should we go cook some of these?
- [Nyesha] I mean, if Mo says I'm done working here, then...
- Mo, can she go?
- (Nyesha laughs). Okay. Thank you.
(upbeat music)
This is your kitchen, right Chef?
- Yes.
- Excellent. Well, my name's Nyesha.
- Nice to meet you, Logan.
- Logan, pleasure.
So lunch service,
how many guests are you serving on average?
- In normal situations, 400 to 500 people.
- Are you kidding me?
- Yeah. That's the number.
- Wow.
- The whole day would be like 1200, 1300 people a day.
- I mean, from what I can see,
it's such an amazing production, right?
I see that you guys don't have any POS systems
in your kitchen.
- [Logan] No, the system we use is different.
Just timing everything in the way
that the customer gets the steak sizzling hot
out of the oven.
- [Nyesha] Wow.
- [Logan] So it's not sitting, not waiting.
- Yes. I think I saw a sign that said
"don't walk out of this kitchen
without a sizzling steak," right?
- [Logan] That's it. That's rule number one here.
- Important rule.
- Yes.
- Excellent.
So talk to me about these ovens.
- [Logan] This oven has a temperature
from 700 to 1000 degrees.
- [Nyesha] Seven hundred to 1000.
- [Logan] We have some control over of it,
depends on what they use.
The first broiler and second are the hottest ones.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- [Logan] And then the third and fourth are medium heat.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- So we do the final cooking on those.
- Okay.
Chef Logan, so we have our first order
of the day.
- Yeah. It's a porterhouse.
- Hot steak.
- A steak for two people.
So it's just simple,
season it with salt.
- [Nyesha] Just salt?
- [Logan] Nothing else on it.
- [Nyesha] Real beautiful.
- [Logan] Natural flavor.
- [Nyesha] So it's 12:05 right now,
and we already have two double porterhouses.
Right?
- It's steak for two.
- Steak for two.
We already have two steak for twos.
These guys know how to eat right out there.
So this is straight clarified butter.
- [Logan] Yes.
- [Nyesha] Not seasoned?
- [Logan] No, no, no, no.
Gonna wait four minutes for each side.
See that?
You see how it turns like a caramelized cinnamon color?
- [Nyesha] Yes.
(steak sizzles)
- Get nice mark.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
- [Logan] Let it cook for another four minutes
then we continue with slicing it.
- Four, four, slice.
- Yeah.
Then another five minutes,
should be done medium rare, out.
- I'm writing this recipe down.
(both laugh)
- To this point,
we take it out already.
- Okay.
- Let's place it here.
We normally remove the excess
of fatty quarter from the bones.
We follow the middle line.
(upbeat music)
- [Nyesha] How many steaks do you think you've done
in your time here?
- Over three million.
- No.
- Yes.
- Three million steaks?
- Yes.
- Come on.
- That's a lot.
So I just wanna market for you so you can finish.
Both sides.
- Okay.
- It's your turn now.
- Okay, Chef. So you want me to cut this?
- [Logan] Yes.
- [Nyesha] Yes, Chef...
with pleasure.
(upbeat music)
- [Logan] Looks perfect.
- Okay. Looks perfect.
We love a good, it looks perfect.
(Nyesha laughs)
- Wipe it down.
Now, now we call the waiters.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
- So they know that we putting the steak on fire
so they can clean the table, change the plate.
- [Nyesha] Five minutes.
- But you let it cook for five more minutes.
- How do we know five minutes?
- I...
- You just know.
- Experience.
- After three million steaks,
you know what five minutes feels like.
- Yeah. Two more porterhouses.
- Two more?
Vamonos.
- One porterhouse and one T-bone.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
We have one steak or two steaks?
- [Logan] Three, but it's a different cut.
- [Nyesha] Three,
but it's a different cut.
T-bone?
- [Logan] Yeah. It's for three people.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
(upbeat music)
- [Nyesha] One is medium well?
- [Logan] Medium to medium well.
And the other one is medium rare.
It's almost done.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- [Logan] So now I pull the waiter.
- [Nyesha] So you push the waiter's number?
- [Logan] Yeah.
And just to mark it, stamp it.
The steak goes out sizzling
so the customer gets the steak out of the oven.
- Right.
- No waiting.
- Perfect.
- [Logan] And you're getting more practice now.
- [Nyesha] Okay.
(intense music)
- Go in here.
Now we call the waiter, 12.
- [Nyesha] Such an interesting process.
I mean, there's so many ways
to get to the final result, right?
But this is really the signature thing
that makes Peter Luger stand out, right?
- [Logan] Yes, right.
- [Nyesha] This technique.
- [Logan] But that's a beautiful steak.
- [Nyesha] Gorgeous.
Wow! Look at that marbling.
- [Logan] Look at that marbling.
- [Nyesha] Yep.
- [Logan] That's beautiful, they're gonna melt
on your mouth.
When you gets hot, like bodily taste.
I really enjoy watching the color of the meat like...
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- [Logan] When the steak turns like this,
like that beautiful pink color,
all the marbling, melting into the plate.
- [Nyesha] So juicy.
- So what are the picks?
- So, markers.
From rare to well done.
Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well.
- Okay.
- We got different colors that represent
how the the meat should look like in the center.
- Interesting. I love it.
I mean, it's all about systems
and when you're working the line, I mean,
it's a big orchestration of a team, right?
And a lot of elements at play
to get the food on the plate
and ensure that consistency of guest experience.
Right?
So for me, it's an art, it's a science,
it's, you know, a math, big math problem.
And so all of those elements are at play
even as a line cook, right,
that translate into being a chef.
And for me, this is definitely my happy place.
(upbeat music)
(steak sizzles)
- [David] Here it comes.
- You hear it?
Wow. It's a iconic sizzle.
It's such a pleasure to be in the dining room.
I'm normally in the kitchen.
- You graduated.
- Yes.
- Please be really careful.
These plates are very hot.
(steak sizzles)
- [Nyesha] That sizzle.
- [Waiter] Sirloin.
- Thank you.
- [Waiter] Filet Mignon.
- [Nyesha] Getting a true, Peter Luger experience here.
- [David] That's right.
Bon appetit.
(upbeat music)
- It's like, I don't even have to chew,
it just melts.
- The filet?
- Yes.
- The filet is wild, yeah.
It's my favorite part.
Just because it's so tender, but you also have flavor
which I think filet rarely has.
- Correct.
Well, thank you for sharing the production with me.
And the team has been so welcoming.
Thank you.
- Of course.