Gioacchino Rossini.
Tournedos
Rossini was a steak dish created for that giant
in the world of music, Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868). Rossini was
accepted everywhere as one of the great musician and composer of his day;
everyone applauded his operas, but among his friends, he was also recognized as
a knowledgeable gourmet and an accomplished cook. Rossini was a friend, critic,
and supporter of many of the most celebrated chefs of his time, who in turn
considered him an artist with gifts equal to theirs.
The dish Tournedos Rossini was created
and named in Rossini's honor by the much-admired, 19th-century chef Casimir
Moissons; he was one of Rossini's close friends. This dish has become a French classic,
a timeless masterpiece from the world of haute cuisine, still on many menus
after 150 years. This dish features a tender cut of beef fillet, pan-fried to
perfection, then crowned with a slice of seared goose foie gras, which retains its rich
texture. Slices of black Périgord truffles are interleaved with the other
ingredients adding an earthy aroma and flavor. The dish is served on a crouton,
originally made with French sourdough bread, which provides a delightful
textural contrast. Finally, a rich, dark Madeira wine sauce is added, tying all
the ingredients together.
Tournedos Rossini
A tournedos comes from a filet de bœuf, a beef fillet, the tenderloin; the most expensive of
all beef cuts.
The original Tournedos Rossini.
The original recipe
for a Tournedos Rossini called for a 4 – 5 cm (1.6"- 2") thick
steak, cut from the UK fillet, the USA tenderloin. A classic Tournedos
Rossini would weigh between 300 and 400 grams (10 – 14 ozs).
Today, a Tournedos Rossini may weigh about half of the original, but
then many thick steaks, including Chateaubriands, were roasted and
finished on the grill or frying pan. (See Chapter VI)
When ready to be
served, the original Tournedos Rossini was placed on a round of toasted
French sourdough bread, garnished, decorated, and served. The garnish used was
150 grams (5.3 oz) or more of foie gras d'oie,
fattened goose liver, placed on top of the steak and 70 grams (2.5 oz) of Périgord
truffle. The goose liver itself would have been
lightly fried in a beurre noisette,
a pre-prepared, light brown butter sauce. Then the slices of truffles were
interleaved between each part of the dish. Although the fillet (tenderloin) is
the most tender cut of beef, it is not the most flavorful. For a Tournedos
Rossini, a Madeira wine sauce
is poured over the tournedos just before serving. The picture above, apart from
a few flaky truffle additions, has, otherwise, the look of a genuine Tournedos
Rossini.
It is important to be
aware that the whole fillet, the tenderloin, is often called a Filet
Mignon in the USA, but, be careful when ordering a Filet Mignon
in France, as that term, without the addition of the words de bœuf (of
beef) primarily refers to veal and pork fillets, tenderloins.
The original recipe
for a Tournedos Rossini makes the dish too expensive for today's
clientele. Seventy grams of a fresh Périgord truffle alone can cost over Є100
Euros (close to 120 US dollars today). When combined with the goose foie
gras,
the steak itself, and the restaurant's overheads, etc, you'll see that not too
many restaurants have customers for a three or four-hundred-dollar steak
dish. Gioacchino Rossini, the composer, and Casimir Moissons, the
chef who created the dish in Rossini's honor, may turn in their graves. Still,
most of us will accept a smaller and less expensive version as long as most of
the original ingredients are there, and the taste and soul of the dish remains
close to the original.
Ordering
a Tournedos Rossini today.
Today, the steak cut
from the fillet for Tournedos Rossini may weigh about 200 grams (7
ounces), and that is enough for most diners. No longer will a Tournedos
need to be roasted; instead, they will be quickly fried all around to seal
them, and then they will be barded before being grilled.
Barding involves
wrapping the steak with strips of fat, often using fatty bacon.
A tournedos will quickly dry out on the outside when grilled; cuts from the
fillet, the tenderloin, have little internal or external fat.
N.B. A steak cut from
the fillet can never be served as a steak well-done; it would result in a bland
and dry textured variety of cardboard. To order a steak, in France,
cooked the way you like
it, read the post: Ordering a steak, in France, cooked the
way you like it.
You can request your Tournedos
Rossini, rare, medium rare or even medium-well; however, a serious French
chef will not accept an order for a well-done tournedos, as it could not
be properly made. In my
post on ordering a steak in France noted above, there are other
steaks (not from the tenderloin that, apart from being less expensive, may be
ordered well done.
The inside of a Foie Gras store in Paris
Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor
Foie Gras Luxe, Paris, France
The ingredients
Apart
from the steak and the toasted French sourdough bread that absorbs the juices
under the tournedos, there remains the foie gras d'oie, the fattened
goose liver:
The filet steak, the tenderloin.
See the post Filet Mignon on French Menus and Filet de Bœuf in French Cuisine.
The Goose Foie Gras
Foie gras
is the fattened liver of a goose or a duck. For the original Tournedos
Rossini, the most expensive fattened liver was used, goose foie gras.
The liver is gently fried in a pre-prepared beurre noisette,
a butter that was cooked until it has reached the color of hazelnuts. N.B.:
Fattened goose liver, like fattened duck liver, is very fatty and will simply
melt if anyone attempts to cook it well done. To provide for those who refuse
fattened duck or goose liver, a number of restaurants now offer calf or other
liver as foie gras substitutes.
The
Périgord Truffle.
The
original recipe included 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of the Truffe de Périgord,
the Périgord truffle; also called the black truffle or the black diamond. The
Périgord is considered by many to be finest of all the French truffles, it is
also the costliest.
The black Périgord truffle and truffle slivers.
The
wholesale cost of truffles is volatile: The price of Perigord truffles (Tuber
melanosporum) fluctuates depending on the season and market demand. A
truffle weighing 25 -30 grams would cost in a restaurant Euros Є 70 to Є
100 each. (Є 1.00 today is approximately USD 1.20).
Today
some restaurants offer a Tournedos Rossini with a just a few truffle
scrapings from the Périgord truffles. Unfortunately,
that leaves little truffle taste and no texture in a dish that is served with a
Madeira wine sauce and with too little truffle its taste will vanish.
The
best alternative I have tasted was achieved by a chef who prepared his
Tournedos Rossini with duxelles and flavored them with truffle oil. Duxelles is
a five-hundred-year-old recipe made with finely chopped mushrooms, shallots,
and herbs cooked in butter. Duxelles will leave both taste and texture;
however, unfortunately, that is not a truffle taste or texture. Despite
the different taste and texture, the dish I tasted was far better than
extremely small and almost tasteless tiny shavings of a bland truffle I was served
elsewhere. Duxelles is a simple but famous recipe created by one of
France’s earliest published chefs, Francois
Pierre de La Varenne (1618 –
1678). La Varenne named the dish after his employer the Marquis d'Duxelles;
hence duxelles. Despite the age of this recipe duxelles will be, with many
variations, on many modern French menus.
The
Perigord truffle in the languages of France's neighbors:
(Catalan
- tòfona negra), (Dutch - Perigord truffle Perigord truffle, zwarte
truffel),(German - schwarze trüffle, echte trüffel or Perigord trüffel),
(Italian- tartufo nero del Périgord, tartufo nero or nero pregiato), (Spanish -
trufa de Périgord or trufa negra), (Latin - tuber melanosporum).
Madeira
Sauce.
The
Sauce Madère, a Madeira wine sauce, may be the last part to be added to
the dish, but it is certainly not the least important. From the seven famous
Madeira wines, the preferred wine for a Tournedos Rossini is Verdelho, a
medium-dry Madeira wine.
To make Sauce
Madère, the wine is added to the cooking juices of the steak and liver with
a similar proportion of white wine. Then the sauce will be simmered to allow it
to thicken naturally; herbs may be added at the chef’s discretion. Madeira wine
is a fortified wine with an alcohol content of 17 – 21 percent; it is called a
Vinho Generoso in Portuguese. In this sauce, like other wine sauces, the taste
of the Madeira wine will remain, but most of the
alcohol will have boiled away.
The
popularity of Madeira, a group of Portuguese wines,
in French cuisine began with the islands of Madeira’s convoluted connections to
the British. British merchants in
Madeira established close ties with the American colonies, creating a trade in
wine for American products. Madeira
became the wine of choice for celebrations, including the signing of the
Declaration of Independence and George Washington's inauguration.
Madeira
Sauce in the languages of France's neighbors:
(Catalan
- salsa madeira), (Dutch - Madeirasaus), (German - Madeirasauce), (Italian –
salsa al Madera), (Spanish - salsa de Madeira).
Choosing a wine to accompany Tournedos Rossini.
The
wine that will be recommended to accompany a Tournedos Rossini (outside
Burgundy) will be a red wine from Bordeaux, and I would agree. Unfortunately, if you're reading the wine
list, the price of a wine from a favored Château, and a good vintage as well,
may ruin your taste buds before a drop has passed your lips! That's when you need a good pocket wine guide
or a good sommelier.
A Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982, Paulliac.
Photograph courtesy of Blue
Jules
www.flickr.com/photos/bluejules/333040036/
Knowledgeable
sommeliers, the wine stewards, when provided with a budget, are usually able to
find a younger, but good, if less well-known Bordeaux that will bring the
smiles back all around. A Tournedos Rossini deserves a robust and
well-balanced red, and a single grape, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, would not
be the wine that is recommended. If you pass on a red Bordeaux, then consider a
less expensive, but unfortunately not inexpensive, Gevrey-Chambertin from the
Bourgogne, Burgundy; that is an excellent alternative.
Gioacchino Rossini, the cook and gourmet.
The
world knows Gioacchino Rossini for his hundreds of stunning musical works that
include nearly 40 operas, the most famous being The Barber of Seville. The
French honor Rossini for the many operas that he composed while he was living
in France, and quite a number of those operas came with French librettos,
including the famous Guillaume Tell, William Tell. When Rossini was
not composing, he was intensely involved in the world of well-prepared food;
his close friends were not musicians or singers but chefs. These famous chefs
considered Rossini as an artist, like themselves, and they named dishes in his
honor. Rossini was recognized as an uncommonly talented amateur cook, and one
of his greatest joys was cooking for his friends.
Among the many dishes that Rossini cooked and
served to his chef friends, who were among the world's first serious food
critics, was a recipe called Cannelloni alla Rossini. Rossini created
this dish to impress his friends, who included Antonin Carême. Cannelloni
alla Rossini is an unassuming but delicious dish, and while there are
arguments over the dish's creator, most agree that this was Rossini's creation.
In that period, it would have been unlikely to have been created by the master
chefs who were Rossini's friends. At that time, a great deal of importance was
placed on creating visually impressive dishes such as Tournedos Rossini.
Rossini
was a friend of chefs not only due to his fame as a composer but also because
these chefs were artists. For artists, having another artist who truly
understands and appreciates their work leads to a friend for life. Rossini and
Antonin Carême, France's most celebrated chef of the early 1800s, considered
each other to be outstanding artists, each in their
respective specialties.
Rossini and Chateaubriand.
The
dish that would become Tournedos Rossini was influenced by a meeting of
Rossini and Chateaubriand in Italy in 1822. Chateaubriand was himself an
artist, a diarist, a novelist, and a politician; and above all, from Rossini's
viewpoint, a serious gourmet. There is little doubt that Chateaubriand
introduced Rossini to the wonders of a Chateaubriand steak, a dish
created by Chateaubriand's personal chef, Montreuil. At the time,
Chateaubriand was in Verona, Italy, representing the French Government at the
Congress of Verona, a meeting of European political leaders. Rossini had come
to the Congress of Verona, at the request of Prince Metternich, of Austria, to
impress and make music for the visiting politicians.
When
Rossini returned to France from Italy, he would not have hidden his admiration
for Chateaubriand's new creation. He would have immediately advised his
friends who were France's top chefs. At that time, his closest friend and most
famous among all French chefs was Antonin
Carême; however, Carême was
in Vienna, as chef to the British Ambassador. Antonin Carême would spend
close to three years in Vienna. So, Rossini turned to another friend,
another of France's greatest chefs, Casimir Moissons.
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.
Casimir Moissons created many famous dishes, but unlike some of his
better-known contemporaries, Casimir Moissons never wrote a cookbook. So,
Casimir missed out on much of the historical fame that he deserved. If Antonin
Carême had created Tournedos Rossini, it would have been in one of his
many cookbooks, like most of his other creations. Carême named many of his
creations after famous people and published his recipes, but he did not include
Tournedos Rossini. Associating
Antonin with the Tournedos Rossini is a common and understandable error,
as Antonin Carême was one of Rossini's best friends. When Antonin
did return to France, apart from some exclusive private banquets shortly after
his return, Antonin became chef to Baron James de Rothschild. Rothschild
also considered Antonin Carême a consummate artist of haute cuisine and gave
him as much time as he required for writing; Antonin stayed with Rothschild
until he retired.
Casimir
Moissons, like all great chefs of his time, was intensely competitive. In 1822
would have immediately looked for the opportunity to create a dish for Rossini
that outshone Montreuil's Chateaubriand. The result was the Tournedos
Rossini, and it included, apart from the tournedos, three of
Rossini's favorites: the Périgourdin truffles, foie gras,
and Madeira wine. Many other dishes that were named after Rossini and are
still on menus today, including Filet de Sole à la Rossini. filet of sole
in the manner of Rossini, Minestra di Caccia alla Rossini, a traditional
Italian game soup or stew and Poularde Rossini – A poularde is a
fattened chicken. (These used to be chickens that were spayed to fatten them;
now, most are fattened by their diet.) When it is ready for market, a poularde
weighs about 2 kilos (4.4 lbs.); Poulardes will usually be on the
menu roasted and served with foie gras, slices of black truffles and other
favorites that included Cognac or dry sherry.
Rossini is buried in Florence, Italy.
Rossini
died in France and was buried in Paris's Père Lâchais cemetery, not far from
the grave of Chopin. Home, however, is home, and in 1887 Rossini was
re-interred in Italy in the church of Santa Croce, Florence. He may have
missed his original neighbors, like Chopin and Brillat-Savarin, but at
least in the Santa Croce church, he can talk to other famous Italians. Also
buried in the Santa Croce are Michelangelo, Galileo, and even Niccolo
Machiavelli. If Rossini gets up and decides to go for a walk, I can also
vouch that he can buy fabulous leather coats in the streets of Florence round-about
the church!
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Connected
Posts:
Antonin
Carême: The Most Influential Chef in the
History of French Cuisine.
Beurre
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Cuisine.
Bordeaux
and Bordelaise on the Menu, and Bordeaux
AOC/AOP Wines on the Wine-List.
Chateaubriand
Steak and Chateaubriand the Man. Ordering a Chateaubriand steak in France.
Duxelles
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Filet
Mignon in France and Filet de Bœuf in
French Cuisine.
Foie
Gras in French Cuisine. Foie Gras is Fattened Goose
or Duck Liver Foie. Foie Gras on French Menus.
Madeira
wine, Vin de Madère and the French Menu.
Ordering
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the Way you Like it.
Searching
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The Black Perigord Truffle and Truffles Oils and Truffles Essences.
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