Steak & Eggs, Sirloin 5 Ways
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Steak and Eggs, Sirloin Five Ways
A deconstructed steak-and-eggs built on New York strip sirloin: the meat en croute, a confit egg yolk, a sauce made from trimmings, a hollandaise emulsified with rendered beef fat, and a finishing dust of sirloin salt. Pickled shimeji mushrooms alongside. Buddha framed the challenge as an opportunity to push technique, aiming for five uses of the cut rather than the two the challenge demanded.
Buddha: "I'm making steak and eggs." Buddha: "I'm gonna do beef five ways instead of two ways and try and get maximum points on the technique. The meat, I could dry that up, make into a salt. I can take that fat cap, making a hollandaise... We ended up with 12 points. But in a competition like this, you can't be that comfortable. I'm here to challenge myself the same way that I've always cooked." Buddha (to judges): "So I've prepared for you steak and eggs. Obviously not your typical steak and eggs. We have sirloin that's done in more of an en croute style. The egg yolk component, it's confit egg yolk. I took the trimmings from the sirloin and made a sauce from it. We have a hollandaise that I made from the beef fat that's been rendered down. I'm finishing this off with a sirloin salt." Buddha (VO, after critique): "Definitely know I didn't do well, but I've already got an upper hand from the butchery challenge. Hopefully the presentation and creativity and the technique is what's able to get me through to the next round."
Padma: "So you cook the beef one way, but you use the beef five ways."
Michael Cimarusti: "You're proving once again that you have a mastery of many different techniques. And you love to just put them all [on] one plate."
Michael Cimarusti: "My favourite part of the dish was the pickled shimeji mushrooms, but that shouldn't be the case on a beef challenge."
Padma: "I understand. You did so many different things with the sirloin. The salt is fantastic — I think you need way more of it. Then it would have been more clear that, oh, this is a second way he's doing beef. When you eat it, you are never imagining beef two ways or beef five ways. While it's delicious, it may just not meet my expectations."
Wiley Dufresne: "Two forms of meat."
Michael Cimarusti (deliberation): "He has a lot of great ideas floating around in his head, but sometimes I think that works against it. The beef was used in different parts of that dish, yes. But did they have a real impact on its overall success? I don't think so."
Padma (deliberation): "If I'm giving you turkey with some gravy on it, is that turkey two ways?"
Michael Cimarusti: "No, not for me." Padma (at elimination): "While you did use beef in five ways, only one of those preparations of beef came through on the plate."
RESULT: Bottom three, safe. Moving on in the competition on the strength of butchery points.
