Chateaubriand Steak and Chateaubriand the Man. Ordering a Chateaubriand steak in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


  
    
A Chateaubriand steak.
Traditionally Chateaubriand is prepared as a roast for two people as seen here.
It is separated into two steaks just before serving.
www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/463034245/
                          
Chateaubriand, the man:

François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, (1768-1848): Writer, hereditary aristocrat, gourmand, and politician. There will be more about the man later, but first, Chateaubriand the steak.
   
The Chateaubriand steak.
  

Many diners are puzzled when they arrive in France and find that the Chateaubriand on the menu is a dish for two diners.  The reason behind this is the size of a real Chateaubriand. A real Chateaubriand is a roast, not a grilled or fried steak and that is far too much for a single diner. A true Chateaubriand may weigh close to one kilo (2.2lbs) and is at least 8 - 10 cms (3" - 4") high. Half a Chateaubriand, which is the single serving, should be, at the very least, 350 grams (12.5 ounces)  with most even bigger. The cut comes from the best and thickest part of the US Filet, the tenderloin, the UK fillet, and the French Filet de Boeuf. The Tournedos, the cut used for the  Tournedos Rossini also comes from the same cut but is half as thick and maybe fried or grilled.
   
Another well-prepared Chateaubriand
Photograph courtesy of Ben Stiefel
  
A Chateaubriand is barded and then roasted. Barding means attaching fat around the exterior of the steak. Without barding, a thick steak like a Chateaubriand, which has no exterior fat, would dry out, even if the fillet itself was perfectly marbled internally.
  

Tradition gives the creation of the Chateaubriand steak to Chateaubriand's chef Montreuil. Historically, that is probably correct. Nevertheless, when searching in France, for more information on Chef Montreuil, I found none. None of the chefs or Maitre D's I asked could give me Montreuil's first name, or any of his history, beyond his creation of the Chateaubriand steak and a now almost forgotten pudding called the Diplomat's Pudding. In French culinary history like today, many of the famous chef's either wrote books or became famous as they changed employers quite often. Chef Montreuil; however, remains an enigma, and even the Larousse only notes his family name.
  
A Chateaubriand for one
Divided into three with three sauces.
www.flickr.com/photos/kurmanphotos/35358151722/
    
Ordering a Chateaubriand steak
              
If you are considering ordering a Chateaubriand steak, never, ever, ask for it well done.  Cooking this cut all the way through would produce a dry inside and a burnt exterior, a real disaster. A French chef preparing a real Chateaubriand will, in any case, refuse to carry out such a request. If you are in France, or going to France, and prefer your meat very well done then order an entrecote which usually has enough internal and external fat to sustain prolonged cooking. 
       
A good wine for a Chateaubriand would be a Bordeaux.
These barrels contain Saint Emilion from Château La Rose Brisson, Bordeaux.
A wine bottled from this barrel and aged for ten years will do nicely.
Caveat Emptor a ten-year-old Saint Emilion from a recognized chateau
will cost more than the Chateaubriand
When traveling in France make sure you have a good book on French wine.
www.flickr.com/photos/xavier33300/14122281493/
  
A Chateaubriand is always served with a sauce.
    
The Chateaubriand steak, like all cuts from the fillet, provides very tender meat, but, the tenderloin/fillet has less taste than other cuts. A Chateaubriand, in France, will always be served with a sauce.  A traditional red wine sauce may be offered, or a Béarnaise sauce, or other sauce.  It would be a brave French chef who offered a Chateaubriand without a sauce.
  
The arguments over the real Chateaubriand cut.
          
I read an article, about ten years ago, in the early 2000s  that claimed the US cut was not a real Chateaubriand. A French butcher after visiting the USA accused US butchers of selling a thick cut from a USA top sirloin as a Chateaubriand. This, he said, was an act of lèse-majesty. (Lèse-majesté means insulting the crown, or, in this case, the King of Steaks)! Remember that this was an accusation and is not proven. I also read somewhere else that the original Chateaubriand steak was not a cut from the tenderloin, the fillet; so who knows what the original cut was?  If it works and has the texture of the best fillet steak use it.
    
A USA take on the Chateaubriand, this one with veal.
Chateaubriand of March Farms Nature-Fed Veal
www.flickr.com/photos/arndog/4202805472


By the way,
the Tournedos Rossini was created to compete with the Chateaubriand.

Giacomo Rossini met with Chateaubriand in Verona, Italy, in 1822. Then, Chateaubriand was representing the French Government at the Congress of Verona, and Rossini was invited to make music and impress the politicians. Rossini was then a famous gourmand as well as a composer. He came home to Paris after dining with Chateaubriand determined to have a steak dish created for himself that would not take second place to Chateaubriand's. His first choice was Rossini's best friend, the most famous chef of the period Antonin Carême. However, at that time, Antonin was the personal chef of the British Ambassador to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and based in Vienna.  The result was the Tournedos Rossini was created by another of Rossini's chef friends (and he had many), the 19th-century-star chef Casimir Moissons.  Casimir Moissons was the chef at La Maison Dorée, one of Paris's most famous 18th-century restaurants where Rossini was a frequent visitor when in Paris. 
    
Chateaubriand the man and the French revolution.
          
Chateaubriand was a rather lowly member of France's aristocracy. At 25 left France to escape the prospect of being guillotined during the revolution. Outside France Chateaubriand traveled extensively and wrote profusely; he spent over half-a-year in the USA, including the time he spent with Native Americans. Despite his background, Chateaubriand was not wealthy and when outside France he was practically penniless; his base was in England, where he lived in an attic in Holborn, London. There gave French lessons to survive; he was in self-imposed exile for nine years beginning in 1791.
   
A full-size replica of a Guillotine.
France had real traveling Guillotines that went from town to town,
Many aristocrats were dispatched with the Guillotine.
If Chateaubriand had he remained in France???
www.flickr.com/photos/127226743@N02/34581882275
    
Chateaubriand the traveler.
                
Chateaubriand could be called an early backpacker as he traveled outside England whenever he had saved enough for another trip. This period was the late 18th century, and travel was cheap at the time.  Nevertheless,  it meant traveling on barely seaworthy wooden ships that came with bad captains, shipboard diseases, along with bad and inadequate food. On his travels, the ships Chateaubriand sailed on were attacked by pirates and privateers. When he moved on land, there were highway robbers and kidnappers to be avoided. From France, there was only bad news, and in 1794 his brother was guillotined and his mother and sisters imprisoned. Despite everything Chateaubriand survived.
    
Portrait of Chateaubriand by Guerin.
Photograph courtesy of Art Gallery ErgsArt - by ErgSap
    
Chateaubriand the author.
           
When Chateaubriand was traveling, whatever the circumstances, he was writing, and when he was not traveling, he was also writing. In 1797 he wrote he wrote a travelogue: l'Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, the Itinerary from Paris to Jerusalem. He also wrote several other books which sold well in France even in his absence; when he returned they sold even better. Chateaubriand is considered the founder of the French Romantic School, and when he came back to France in 1800, he continued writing successfully. Chateaubriand then developed into an influential politician and was also able to afford a personal chef.

Memoirs, from Beyond the Tomb.

Chateaubriand's bestselling book was entitled Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, memoirs from beyond the tomb. This book has had selected sections translated into English by Robert Baldick, Penguin 2014 edition.

Chateaubriand, the diplomat.
  
Back home in France Chateaubriand served Napoléon I as a diplomat. That is until Napoléon I had Louis de Bourbon, the Duke of Enghien, a claimant to the throne of France kidnapped and shot. Kidnapping and murder do not fit well into my book on French cuisine, and so I will not go deeper into that story. It is enough to say that Chateaubriand resigned Napoléon's diplomatic service and became an anti-Bonapartist.
      
Statue of Chateaubriand in St Malo, Brittany, France

      
Napoléon I was exiled for the second time in 1815 after his defeat at Waterloo. Under the restored monarchy of King Louis XVIII (1755- 1824), Chateaubriand re-entered the French diplomatic service becoming foreign minister from 1823 to 1824.
  

Chateaubriand ended his political career in 1830 after the then king, Charles X (1757 – 1836), abdicated. He did not approve of the way the new King Louis XVIII was chosen, and refused to take the oath of office. Chateaubriand left politics and retired to private life and writing; he died, age 80, in 1848.
          
Chateaubriand’s grave on the island of Grand Bé at St Malo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wikimediacommons/16508046876/
                    
Chateaubriand was careful in all things, and he carefully chose the site for his burial. That was the tiny deserted island on France's Atlantic coast of Brittany called the Grand Bé. Grand Bé is just off the shore from the town of Saint-Malo. It is only 70 km (43 miles) from where Chateaubriand was born in the village of Bon-Secours. When Chateaubriand died, St Malo was still a small town. Now its year-round population is over 50,000, and with its suburbs, the year-round population is over 100,000. In July and August when France closes down for the summer vacations the population triples! A good photographer and family members have told me that despite the crowds in the summer, the fish and seafood restaurants of St Malo are second to none.
                        
The plaque close to Chateaubriand's Tomb on St Be.

www.flickr.com/photos/objectifnantes/11909861835/

The plaque reads:
                                                                                                                                           
Un grand écrivain français a voulu reposer ici pour n'entendre que la mer et le vent.
Passant
Respecte sa dernière volonté.

A great French writer wanted to rest here to hear only the sea and wind.
Passerby, respect his last wish.

Visiting Chateaubriand’s grave.
     
Admirers of Chateaubriand steaks or Chateaubriand's writings may visit the island and view his last resting place.   At low tide, you may walk to Grand Bé from the beach of Bon-Secours.  At high tide, in the summer season, you may sometimes rent a boat from the nearby small fishing port. When you visit his tomb remember that Chateaubriand's bestselling book is entitled Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb; its contents are riveting!
             
Whenever you do enjoy a Chateaubriand or go to St Malo for lunch or dinner, then raise a glass to the memory of François-René Chateaubriand, and do not forget the dish’s creator the chef Montreuil.
   
Even today the time that Chateaubriand spent in the USA is not ignored; France offers a Chateaubriand Fellowship for doctoral students enrolled in American universities. It pays for them to conduct research in France for up to 10 months.  The French Embassy in the USA handles the inquiries.
 
Connected Posts:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tournedos Rossini, after 150 years still the most famous of all steak dishes.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

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