Fans of all things steak might occasionally walk into a steakhouse wanting to taste the
legendary, luxurious flavors of Wagyu beef.
The problem is that, when you get right down to it, "Wagyu beef" is a redundant expression.
As the Japan Times points out, the term "Wagyu" technically just means "Japanese beef," a
special subset of which is Kobe beef.
But the implications of those labels run much deeper.
The romanticized concept of Waygu begins with a cow that's led a totally pampered life.
Supposedly, the animal receives daily massages and exclusively consumes Sapporo beer.
But as it turns out, the booze and belly rubs are mostly fiction.
In fact, restaurants might be lying about the supposedly legendary beef on your plate
so shamelessly that it's a minor miracle they haven't burned down from all the pants-on-fire
fibbing.
There's a good chance that you're getting an entirely different, inferior product.
And that's not the only way steakhouses can totally hose customers.
In 2012, Forbes called Kobe beef at U.S. restaurants "food's biggest scam," noting that prior to
2010, the U.S. could only buy boneless fresh beef from Japan, none of which was Kobe.
Steakhouses promising Kobe were selling deception at a premium.
Up to that point, there was a blanket ban on importing Japanese beef.
Since then, traces of Kobe have trickled into the U.S. market, but in the years that followed,
the deception continued.
What makes this deception extra-insidious is how expensive it is.
A 2016 investigation by Inside Edition noted that Kobe beef sold for as much as fifty-five
dollars an ounce back then.
Only 400 pounds of it entered the country monthly, but there was a ton of expensive
bull going around at steakhouses.
For instance, the renowned Old Homestead Steakhouse charged between one hundred seventy-five dollars
and three hundred fifty dollars for what the Kobe Beef Association identified as bogus
Kobe beef.
When pressed on the matter, the owner responded,
"You're getting hung up on what the name is."
By contrast, customers might have been getting hung out to dry like aged beef.
Three-star Michelin restaurant Le Bernardin in New York City reportedly charged one hundred
ten dollars for what it advertised as Kobe beef.
But when asked to show the Kobe beef certification, the manager vanished, much like the credibility
of many steakhouses.
But it's not just the type of beef that steakhouses could be playing games with.
It's also the temperature of your slab of cow when it comes to the table.
Medium rare beef has an internal temperature of one hundred thirty-five degrees after resting.
Chefs, and many diners, consider that the ideal temperature for flavorful and tender
steak, but not everyone hits that target.
People make mistakes, and if you overcook a steak, an expensive cut of meat is suddenly
wasted.
That problem has led to some shady practices.
According to the New York Post, some restaurants will undercook their steak on purpose, which
has led to some food writers getting medium rare cuts that are almost raw, just so the
chefs aren't accused of overcooking the meat.
After all, if it's undercooked, they can just toss it back on the grill.
If it's overcooked, they have to just toss it.
Steakhouses may also use delicious tricks to convince customers that they're eating
higher-quality meat.
For example, some restaurants might improve mediocre beef by covering it in butter, which
is nice, but just means all the goodness is coming from the butter and not the meat.
They may also label old steak "dry-aged."
They may use MSG or other tenderizers to hide the original toughness of the meat.
Part of the problem is that beef itself is no longer in its prime.
A rise in overseas beef consumption, among other factors, contributed to a decline in
the amount of USDA Prime beef served at steakhouses.
Instead they settled for USDA "high choice," which has less marbling and therefore less
flavor.
The diminishing quality of steakhouse beef is not a new problem.
Even in the mid-1990s food writers were lamenting the decline of American beef due to lax grading
standards.
Beef's waning popularity made it expensive to produce top-quality meat, so the USDA began
grading it on a curve.
Left with few choices besides high-choice, some steakhouses will milk their subprime
beef for all it's worth, while taking a prime cut of your wallet.
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