Norman Luedke The Perfect Steak

Norman Luedke, originally from Berlin, was for many years the head chef in Ireland’s one and only certified organic restaurant “The Strawberry Tree” at the Brooklodge Hotel in Macreddin Village, Co. Wicklow. Today this restaurant is one of the highest ranking eating places in Ireland.

Now he is back in Berlin and when we met him at the Biofach Fair in Nuremberg in February 2009 we asked him, would he like to tell our web site visitors what would be for him the “perfect steak”. This is what he wrote:

I would say you start by sourcing the best possible raw material first. Look for the best combination of a good beef farmer and a good butcher. As head chef of Ireland’s only certified organic restaurant I had to be sure that the steaks which we served in the Strawberry Tree Restaurant were of the highest quality. The cooking can only do so much; if the meat is not top your steak will not be top.

I have been using Good Herdsmen steak meat at our restaurant since 2002. They mainly sell meat from Hereford and Angus breeds which are most definitely the prime breeds for steaks. The meat is nicely marbled, which is what you need to cook your steak juicy and tender.

The technology which they use in their new Steak House range does everything to optimise your steak experience: 21 days maturing before the steak is cut, a further air- tight maturing of up to 21 days in the skin pack, all this makes sure that you end up with a most desirable steak quality on your plate. This quality has not been available to everyone before and you can look forward to a nice, juicy steak with no added chemicals, hormones or antibiotics, quite common in many conventional meats today.

So, how to cook it? You need a good pan or grill on full heat. Sear your meat on both sides until dark brown. Turn down the heat low and cook to your liking.

It is needles to say that like most steaks the meat quality does not benefit from cooking it more than medium. By doing that you make the steak tough, nevertheless, you have the same great flavour. If you prefer well done try to use the Striploin Steak (Rump Steak in Germany), but never the Entrecote or even Minute Steak.

The good thing with the Steak House range is that you can’t really mess up your steak as Good Herdsmen has done already all the work for a perfect steak.

Julia's perfect steak