At Last: The Steakathon

The Great Montrealfood Steak Challenge came and went last night. I wanted to see how the Kobe steaks I bought in California held up against the presumably "best-of-the-best" local fare.

It was conducted at Barry's house, he being the only one of this little montrealfood band to possess an actual grill. Josh brought along two filets "tres mignon" (meaning "very cute") from Metro Boucher in N.D.G. and I brought the two Kobe NY steaks purchased in California, along with two dry-aged "rib steaks" from Atlantique, a highly-regarded butcher in Côte-des-Neiges.

There was other food going on: Barry baked a fantastic sourdough "boule," a round, crusty country-style loaf that can't be bought at a store.

There were 1/4-inch-thick slices of great grilled salami. Josh brought a sinfully-rich triple-cream brie cheese called Brillat Savarin (after the famed gastronaut) and there was wine from the dot.com era and all sorts of good times to be had in Barry's rambling N.D.G. home.

The big question was, how would these steaks fare in competition? Would the famed Kobes trounce the hallowed dry-aged and mignons? (It must be noted that all participants of this feast are avowed steak lovers, and all prefer their meat medium-rare to blue, leaning towards the blue, so the proving grounds were all at the same level.)

Barry's house is cool, even for Montreal, and especially for a food lover. His cookbook sconce alone is worth the price of a visit. Who among you stocks a cookbook of recipes for medieval cookery? I rest my case. So it's hard to explain his choice of a grill. No 12,000 BTU Viking grill for Barry. Nope, it's a bomb-shaped thingamajig from a dust heap, as far as I can tell. But he has this beast well trained. For example, to keep the lid half-off, he runs a broom handle through the lid holder and suspends it on the corner rails of his balcony.



Josh brought two robust reds, a Chateau de Callac Graves 2000 and a "black" wine from Cahors. The Savarin cheese with Barry's crusty loaf were brilliant appetizers, but I really didn't want the preliminaries to interfere with the finals, so I kept the noshing to a minimum.

Barry piled all the contenders on the grill at the same time, with some nice blocks of home-made applewood charcoal. It was amusing that his little stone-knives-and-bearskins contraption cooked up steaks as well as a $4,779 Lynx Professional, but I'll take Barry's any time (it also makes a mean burger.)

So what was the verdict? Josh, Barry and I preferred the Kobe for its unbelievable flavor. "I think it has something to do with all the massages, beer and women," Josh quipped, "Very 1950's experience." The ladies preferred the ribsteak from Atlantique; no reasons given. The filet was great, but it was like all filets: buttery, tender and with absolutely not a proton of flavor.

See the video here. (Warning, 90MB file)