Yes, beef Wellington is an item last popular in the heyday of continental cuisine. But that didn’t stop celebrity chef/TV screamer Gordon Ramsay from putting this old-school dish on the menu at his new Gordon Ramsay Steakhouse at Paris Las Vegas. The results show he’s discovered an untapped market for this retro offering.
Ramsay’s 275-seat steakhouse has been doing 400 covers a night since opening in mid-May. Here’s what the restaurant’s executive chef, Kevin Hee, told Eater Las Vegas about what customers have been ordering off Ramsay’s 66-item dinner menu.
“They love the beef Wellington,” he says. “We’re selling about 70 of them a night, and we expected about 30. It’s neck and neck with the 8-ounce prime filet.”
Watch Ramsay prepare beef Wellington; story continues below
That filet (described on the menu as “hand-selected by Pat LaFrieda, dry aged for 28 days minimum in his Himalayan salt room”) costs $50, with sauces and sides extra. That’s the same price as the Roasted Beef Wellington, billed as a “Signature” and served with glazed root vegetables, potato puree and red wine demi glace. A version that feeds two goes for $95.
Ramsay has been giving away information about this item’s ingredients and preparation method for years. A quick Internet search finds several recipes. Most versions of this recipe we found were written for a British audience, so weights and measurements are given in metric quantities and oven temperatures in Celsius.
It’s a lot of otherwise-proprietary information for a chef to give a way for free; most save their signature items for their cookbooks. But Ramsay takes it even further. He goes on YouTube to demonstrate exactly how to make this dish, offering critical technique pointers along the way.
Another take on the classic dish
We’re used to seeing Ramsay go ballistic when food is prepared incorrectly. But we get to see a different side of him on this video. He’s a very crisp and efficient explainer of the right way to make and serve this dish. Follow his instructions and the finished product you serve your customers should look and taste like the one Ramsay serves his customers at his new steakhouse in Las Vegas.
You might also take a look at his “Christmas” beef Wellington video. It provides another take on making this dish. The primary difference between it and the others is that the Christmas version incorporates chestnuts in the duxelle mixture.
Watch the "Christmas" cooking demo; story continues below
Would it work on your menu? Beef Wellington uses expensive ingredients, but is relatively easy to make. It’s no more than a portion of beef filet topped with duxelle and, in Ramsay’s method, prosciutto, then wrapped in puff pastry dough and baked. Successful execution requires solid assembly skills more than whiz-bang culinary technique.
Beef Wellington is a good way to offer meat eaters something different on your menu that, as we’re learning from the Gordon Ramsay Steakhouse experience, they will still see as approachable. This dish’s primary drawback, in addition to the high cost of some ingredients, is that it must be prepped ahead of time so it can be finished in an oven while the customer works his or her way through the first course. Once you run out of preassembled Wellingtons, your kitchen probably won’t have the time or manpower to make any more during service. Unless you’re doing the kind of volume Ramsay is, you’ll have to offer beef Wellington as a limited special that, when it’s gone, is gone.
The good news from Ramsay is that many people seem to like ordering beef Wellington and will do so in great numbers…at least when Ramsay’s name is on the door. Will they do the same when you’re serving Ramsay’s version of this dish at your place? Given the numbers Ramsay’s steakhouse is putting up, we think it could be worth your while to find out.
