In the second video from the series from the Chef’s Table on November 8th, there’s a new video posted on this page on the making of Individual Filet Wellingtons. Yes, a Jaccard is a sharp object. And no, my thumb is not …
Even though we know we’re still in need of lighting and a decent shotgun microphone, this was probably my favorite part of the taping that day. (I wrote “taping” even though no tape is involved … the camera has a 60G hard drive that holds up to 5 hours of video.) Beef Wellington is one of those standards that some people love while others despise. There’s a beautiful recipe in the QE2 cookbook, with the photo of their version being reproduced in the bottom left on the front cover. And in his book Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain talks about making lengthy Wellingtons for a large amount of people at a club in New York City in a short amount of time, and slicing individual servings.
I’ll just bet Bourdain never punctured his thumb with a Jaccard though. I’m one up on him in that department.
It makes me want to buy one of those!
What, one of those Jaccard thingies? Them are dangerous!! 😀 (psst; we got that one at the GFS on Alexis near Lewis)
I made a single beef wellington for New Years last year and it didn’t get cooked enough in the middle. I want to try the individual ones this year. I have a couple questions:
1. Does Chef Tad season his beef before wrapping?
2. How long do you initially cook the meat for?
Hi Cyndi,
If you are doing an individual Beef Wellington, I suggest not pre-cooking it. As for seasoning, salt, pepper and thyme work well. Otherwise, follow the instructions on the video and you will be fine. Good luck!
Chef Tad
Thanks, I will give a second go this year. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to wait for my daughter to go to culinary school…LOL.
Update:
The Beef Wellingtons turned out great this year. My oldest (2nd year french and future culinary want to be) Chef du jour insisted on making the Duxelles herself. She did a fine job and it turned out excellent for the meat.
Thank you Chef Tad for the tips.