If you want to know how to cook an enormous bovine, just ask Arcodoro owner/chef Efisio Farris and executive chef Giancarlo Ferrara. The two came up with the idea to host a rodeo-inspired feast spotlighting the robust Texas longhorn as the central component.
They purchased half a longhorn — front, back and center — for the dinner. Although it's not new to cook an entire head of cattle — Anthony Bourdain famously did it over an open fire in Uruguay — it's more common to see whole-cookery with more manageable, smaller-bodied animals like pigs and goats. Such enthusiastic attempts at cooking up something so large are rare.
Sparing few leftover parts, the chefs incorporated almost every piece of the carcass into the four main courses of the “Arcodoro Goes Country” dinner.
For two weeks the 350-pound carcass of a 900-pound longhorn hung in the cooler of Arcodoro kitchen as it air dried. By working with only half of the animal, the chefs spared themselves extra hours of knife and preparation time. However, their investment was pricey as the skinned half-steer cost about $1,400 and butchering took them an entire day.
The cooking process requires a watchful eye, Ferrara noted. "The meat is much leaner than regular meat because there's no grain-fed or marbling. You have to be careful of cooking time not to overcook or it’s rubber."
Sparing few leftover parts, the chefs incorporated almost every piece of the carcass into the four main courses of the “Arcodoro Goes Country” dinner, attended by a group of more than 75 customers and friends.
Course-by-course
The first course, “A Tavola Per Cominciare,” featured beef tartare topped with a tiny quail egg, and bresaola (air-dried beef slices)served on focaccia Italian bread. The salt-cured bresaola was marinated for hours in liberal amounts of olive oil and lemon juice and garnished with a giardiniera relish of pickled cauliflower, celery, and peppers with vinegar.
Next was the “Antipasto” course — cured carpaccio of pure Longhorn tenderloin was topped with juniper berry (like the ones found in gin, which is sort of what they taste like), fresh black peppercorn, rosemary and sea salt. An orange fruttato (fruity) olive oil, lightly layered on top, added a note of citrus. Bright cubes of roasted radicchio and yellow beets provided a finishing touch.
“Maybe next year we’ll cook a whole wild boar instead,” Ferrera said.
The “Risotto e Pasta” course, served next, featured risotto alla Parmigiana (rice with Parmigiano cheese) cooked in a savory beef stock and topped with a rich, ground brisket ragu sauce. The pasta portion of the plate consisted of picadillo ravioli filled with braised beef brisket, ricotta cheese and porcini mushrooms, and blanketed in a luxe black truffle and sage butter sauce.
For the fourth course, “La Carne,” the chefs brought out Tagliata di Bistecca Fiorentina, a generous and tender porterhouse steak with a silky sauce of bone marrow (from the leg of the longhorn) and red wine bordelaise.
Husband-and-wife team Efisio and Lori Farris opened Arcodoro in Dallas 25 years ago. The Houston location has been open for 16 years. The owners and executive chef Ferrara hope to make the rodeo-inspired dinner an annual gathering at the Houston restaurant, but plan on changing things up a little to keep it interesting. “Maybe next year we’ll cook a whole wild boar instead,” Ferrera said.
You don’t have to wait an entire year for a whole-bodied roast, though, as an entire suckling pig is prepared every Saturday at the restaurant. Buon appetito!
Chef Ferrara prepares dinner,
The cheesesteak is served on a seeded hoagie roll.Photo by Michael Ma