The Gaucho guide to the ultimate steak

It may seem a little strange that the culinary director of Gaucho, the storied Argentinian steak brand, which has been serving up huge hunks of grilled beef in the UK since 1994, didn’t actually used to like meat.

French-born chef Anthony Ekizian, who has lived in London for 20 years now, as a kid, was not carnivorous. If he did have to eat it, “it was well done”. But just as he accidentally stumbled into the world of high dining – he left school at 16 without much of a plan, then ended up working at Club 55 in Saint Tropez (“I really didn’t choose to be a chef”) – meat found him somehow.

“When I started as an apprentice, there were some steaks on the grill, on the wood fire. I remember the [team was] showing me. I was just putting vegetables next to it, I was observing, and the head chef there was talking to me about cuts. I didn’t know anything really about it, but he cooked it rare, I remember it was very rare inside.” And that was it, he became a meat lover.

Since then, Ekizian has travelled the world, worked in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants, including in Cannes, and now heads up Gaucho, for whom he has written a new cookbook, Gaucho: The Spirit Of Argentina: A Cookbook. The title is a bit of a mouthful but inside, essays on the history of the Gaucho (traditional Argentinian cattle herders) and the incredible landscapes they rear their cows on, sit alongside recipes for steak that go beyond a slab of meat and fries (although, it doesn’t knock the basics in the least).

So what are Ekizian’s quick, foolproof tips for getting steak right at home?

The major mistake home cooks make when it comes to steak…

It comes way before you even start cooking. “[They] buy the wrong quality of beef. You need to buy quality,” says Ekizian. “I know there’s some good supermarkets, but beef in the supermarket is never really good. It’s not just that, we need to also support our farmers and individual businesses, like butchers and farms. It needs to be about quality, the right product from the beginning.”

He says there’s incredible British beef available, although, it may not quite compete with Argentinian cows. “You go to Argentina and the beef is exceptional. Everything is kilometres and kilometres of pampas grass and hills, and you have these cows moving every day to a different patch to eat different types of grass or herbs. They are just outside. There’s no barn. They’re like wild cows, really, and when you get that, it’s gonna be great.”

Don’t be swayed by trendy cuts

“For me, the perfect steak is obviously a cut that you like,” says Ekizian. So what if the flat iron steak is everywhere?! If you like a T-bone, get a T-bone. Your butcher will be able to talk you through the different cuts, from skirt to fillet, sirloin to rump, and from there, it’s about working out what your tastebuds appreciate the most.

Let it hang out in the fridge for a bit…

Once you’ve picked the right cut for you, and it has the “right provenance and quality, then what I do, usually, is I put my steak on a wire rack in the fridge so there’s air going through – I let it air-dry,” says Ekizian. “If I don’t have time, for a couple of hours, or ideally, overnight. It always helps to take out the moisture, so it’s a bit dry but it’s not dry-aged. It means there’s less moisture when it goes in the pan and it gives you a nice crust.”

Don’t forget the seasoning…

He says that with seasoning, there are “different schools of thought” to consider. “You can season it a bit before, like a minute before, or you can season it directly on the grill, which I do.” Either way, salt is non-negotiable.

Whack it on the grill, or barbecue…

When it’s time to start cooking – once your beef has come up to room temperature – you need a “very hot grill or a very hot pan,” says Ekizian. And the ideal scenario is to be cooking on real fire. “There is something about cooking over a wood fire that makes it better,” he says, almost wistfully. You get a smokiness and a char that cooking on an induction hob, for instance, isn’t going to give you.

It’s all about timing…

How long you sear your steak for on either side depends on the thickness of it, and how well done you like your meat. Regardless, “it needs to rest. If you cook a steak for four minutes, two minutes on each side, then leave it to rest for a good minute, minute and a half, and that’s gonna be just perfect,” says Ekizian.

‘Done-ness’ can be a pretty confusing area, especially when people start prodding their thumbs to work out what the meat should feel like. “Meat probes are great when you’re not sure,” reassures Ekizian. “Someone like me who’s been doing this for years, we know by touching, or by looking at the meat, but I do recommend people use a probe.”

Sides and sauces…

Fries and baked potatoes are the obvious, delicious accompaniments (and if you’re going retro, grilled tomatoes and portobello mushrooms), but with sauce, “I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a sauce person, so I like to have my steak with a bit of salt,” says Ekizian, upsetting peppercorn sauce fans everywhere. “If I do have a sauce, it will be a chimichurri, because this is just brilliant: oregano, a bit of olive oil.”

Try not to feel overwhelmed…

Whether you’re new to grilling steak, have incredibly high steak standards or just feel you’re prone to messing up when cooking meat, Ekizian agrees “it’s scary when you don’t know [what you’re doing completely]. When you cook a bigger piece of meat, or you grill on the barbecue, it can be overwhelming, like you don’t have control.” But, he says, once you understand the basics “it can be very simple. Actually, it’s not that difficult, just a couple of steps that you need to take. It’s really about practice.”

Gaucho: The Spirit Of Argentina: A Cookbook by Anthony Ekizian is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing, priced £35. Photography by Sam A. Harris, available October 23.