- We're at The Grill today in the former Four Seasons space,
one of the most iconic rooms in all of New York.
Speaking of iconic, Chef Mario Carbone
is here to cook prime rib, my favorite dish.
He says he's perfected it, let's find out if he has.
(driving hard rock music)
- During the '50s and the '60s,
I think prime rib got a terrible reputation.
It really fell into disrepute.
I think largely because of weddings and catering affairs
we have this sort of blob of
gray beef that gets sliced off,
it's always overdone, it's never cooked right.
But, you're bringing it back, tell me about that.
- We are, we're bringing it back.
It's obviously as important as you said.
It's a key dish to have on a menu of this style.
- So tell me about the process that you,
I mean you must have gone through sous-viding
and roasting and,
- We went through every distributor, every farm,
we went through every cooking technique,
and we landed on probably the oldest one, right?
Spit-roasting.
The first thing we do is take the bones off,
which is abnormal, and then that slab of bone
is treated as barbecue.
So it's a 12 hour smoke.
It gets a dry rub, close to a Montreal style seasoning.
So by taking the bones off, also it exposes that cap,
that underbelly, so we can clean that up really nicely,
we can get a perfect eye.
We tie it really tight so that it's
as uniform a size as possible,
that gets its own dry rub,
and then it goes on a spit-roast.
Takes about four hours depending on the weight.
It cools for upwards of two more hours,
and then right before service starts,
it gets a second rub and a second application of spice,
to really make sure we have a heavy, heavy crust.
And then at that point, it goes into a very hot
convection oven and you really set the crust
without warming the inside again.
- [Nick] And you're basically just reducing that as to,
- Yeah, this is like a one minute, 475
blasted, don't let it get warm again inside,
you don't want the juices running.
- [Nick] And then that goes onto the cart?
- [Mario] that goes onto the cart.
It's not this thing that's just
steaming all night in the wagon.
- [Nick] which is what gave prime rib its
terrible reputation.
- That and shitty weddings.
- Yeah, exactly.
- We buy a prime, not aged beef.
And I know that devastates you.
- It doesn't devastate me.
- It devastates you. - It doesn't.
- You're a dry-aged-- - Because a dead anim--
it doesn't devastate me.
I happen to love the flavor of aged beef.
- To a point of potential detriment.
- Well, it's that
to me, it's the height of luxury,
it's the height of the artisanal
craft of the butcher.
- [Mario] Let me explain to you why
I don't believe it's appropriate for this dish.
- I'm all ears. - Across the board,
this is a slow, long cook.
Over time, especially the way we do it,
ours is spit-roasted.
It's losing water weight,
it's intensifying.
Everything that happens during the process of dry-aging
is sort of happening in a sped up way
while we're cooking it.
- [Nick] You're expelling moisture in the same way
that the aging process-- - and intensifying flavor
- Right.
- Every time that we tried to do that
with an already aged product,
it was way too intense.
The one prime rib you offer,
for us, for here, should not be that intense.
- And I totally get that.
So I think that we have sort of
talked about this enough.
I think it's time that we tried it.
- Bring the wagon.
- It's all about me eating.
This is sort of the grand tradition.
- [Mario] Yes, and there's a conversation
that's had with the customer, "Thin or thick?"
and then once he's done that,
he'll offer to put the jus over the top,
and then potentially ask if you'd
like fresh grated horseradish over the top of that,
and then it comes with a side of Dijon mustard
and horseradish cream.
- Alright well this is magnificent looking.
And I see what you're saying.
I mean it honestly looks like you sous-vide this.
It's edge-to-edge medium rare.
Tell me about the jus, 'cause it smells,
- [Mario] The jus is made from brisket,
so it's a costly jus, but it's very intense
for it not having that tacky bone quality.
- I mean I can't really stand in front
of a prime rib this long and not try some,
so I think we should just get stuck in.
And of course, I'm going to start at the edge.
Wow, look at the bone.
It looks like barbecue.
It looks like a Memphis dry rub.
- [Mario] It is 100% barbecue.
- [Nick] There we go.
Wow, the-
God, it really is that Montreal style seasoning.
You can smell the pepper,
the horseradish is really pungent,
but then there is this underlying beefy smell,
and a lot of that I'm sure is the jus
but it's also the prime rib.
Okay, I'm going in.
Wow.
First of all the crunch on the outside,
it's like the sear on a steak.
This has got such a great beef flavor,
but you are getting that heat from the pepper,
the Montreal style seasoning.
The horseradish obviously just cuts right through it
and gives it that tang that kind of excites the palate,
but then there is a really profound beefiness to it
and it's just like a long braise, right?
You're getting those deep, deep notes.
I have to notice,
the texture you can just pull this apart.
It's that tender.
Look at that.
- Seems the Englishman's eating the American cut,
and the American's eating the Englishman's cut.
- It looks like I've learned something from being here.
So let's talk about the English cut versus
the American cut.
because growing up in England,
that was just called prime rib.
You would never eat this much beef
traditionally in England.
This is like American exceptionalism
on a plate right here.
Right, it's like-
- It's excessive Americanism.
- Well yeah, cuts just get bigger and bigger,
16, 20 ounces.
But traditionally, and on a roast beef cart
they would just carve off tender
slivers of roast beef, right?
Very much like that.
- Nine out of 10 of our customers choose this.
It's a very very rare person who
wants the English cut, but it was important
to us that we trained the team how to do it.
Now we're ready for it.
- As delicious and compelling as that is,
and I will get back to you in short order.
- This may not be a knife and fork moment.
- Wow, look at that.
Look at the color of that.
It's cooked slowly all the way through,
but you haven't hammered it.
If that was barbecue it would be gray, right?
- [Mario] Yeah, we don't want that.
- Let's go in there.
Wow.
- You can't possibly get that
from carving it to order off the roast.
- No.
- You'll fight with all the meat around it
and you won't get any of that love.
- It's amazing, I mean it really feels like barbecue,
it has a crust, it's tender and supple inside,
but the flavor is much more
classic steak house.
Peppery, it's got some heat to it, it's nice.
I'm not willing to give up on the aging,
just saying but I respect,
listen, you know a lot more about cooking than I do.
- I just don't want your preconceived notions
to infiltrate all situations.
Is this going to knock off
Smith and Wollensky's as your top prime rib,
I want to know that right now.
- Probably not, but I would much rather eat in this room.
So what I'll do is I'll sneak over there,
I'll bring a prime rib with me.
- What is it,
what is it about Smith and Wollensky's?
- The thing that I love about Smith and Wollensky
is that I've been going there since
I could afford to eat out.
That's the meal that I had with
my dad for the first time there,
and that is just resounded in my memory.
Hopefully I won't have to choose for a long time,
I'll just be eating both of them.
But that said, this is
absolutely spectacular.
The craft, the love that has gone into this.
The fact that it is so referential to the past
yet satisfies the modern carnivore,
I think is a testament to its greatness.
- You are the modern carnivore.
- Chef, thank you so much. - My pleasure.
- It was a real pleasure.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'm going to sit here and argue about prime rib
with Mario and eat more prime rib.
I will see you on the next episode
of the Meat Show.
- This is Filipino barbecue.
Always served on a stick,
must be marinated overnight,
and always gets the same kind of sweet,
tangy sauce.
(guitar chord)