Dry aged steak dressed with exceptional new harvest olive oil!
by Ari Weinzweig
If you’re craving a truly exceptional steak, love bold, green, peppery olive oil, or want a superb way to celebrate Chanukah, the Cal-Fiorentina steak at the Roadhouse might be just what you’re looking for. If you want a great meal, this steak could be your perfect ticket! “La Fiorentina” is the classic steak dish of Florence—typically a big, rare T-bone finished with exceptional Tuscan olive oil. Inspired by my love of wordplay, I combined the name La Fiorentina with the California origins of the olive oil we’re using at the Roadhouse and came up with Cal-Fiorentina!
The tradition of new harvest olive oil.
The main thing, of course, is that this dish is delicious! It’s definitely on its way to becoming a great December tradition at the Roadhouse—the Chanukah miracle is actually tied to the arrival of new harvest olive oil (think about it—waiting for more “holy oil” for the Temple? What was given to the priests in every culture was always the first fruits of a harvest. What time of year is olive oil harvested in the northern hemisphere? Add them together and the answer is that the Maccabees were waiting to bring the new harvest olive oil to the Temple to relight the Eternal Light with new harvest oil)!
About the olive oil we use.
If you aren’t familiar with new harvest oil—olio nuovo in Italian—it’s exceptionally green, delicious, and excellent. More polyphenols, more peppery. Olive oil, of course, unlike wine, is at its peak of intensity immediately after being pressed. Even in the bottle—while still super delicious 16 months later—will slowly but surely soften in flavor as the weeks pass. So getting this new harvest olive oil only a week or two after it’s been pressed is a special eating experience that can’t be replicated later in the year. The Roadhouse is using the new harvest oil from Enzo in California. The flavors are big, bold, meaty, and memorable; the agriculture is sustainable, and clearly, after all these years, so are the relationships.
Our steak is amazing, too!
And, of course, I don’t want to pass over the main point of the dish which is the actual steak! As it has been for so many years now, the steers for the Roadhouse beef are raised entirely in the pasture. The sides of beef are dry aged for about four weeks, before being butchered in the Roadhouse kitchen! The steaks are cooked to order over oak wood logs, then, for this special dish, finished with the new harvest olive oil! And to make your dining even more delicious, order a side of the terrific Tellicherry black pepper fries! A great meal, and a marvelous and historically appropriate way to celebrate Chanukah to boot!