If you find yourself seated at the bar at Neng Jr.’s, the intimate Filipinx eatery making waves in Asheville, North Carolina, you might get the chance to see Silver Iocovozzi douse a perfectly cooked cut of tenderloin in their homemade demi-glace. “My station is in front of everyone at the bar,” Iocovozzi, whose restaurant was named one of the 50 best in the country by The New York Times, told us. “When that moment happens, everyone’s happy to see it.” But we wanted to know how Silver gets there, so we asked for a lesson in making their twist on a classic: steak frites.
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The spirit of Neng’s is based on my track record. It’s this snowball of life and work experiences that keeps growing. I went to culinary school, and the rubric was classical French cooking. My food doesn’t exist without the influence of French cooking, and one of my favorite dishes of all time is steak frites. Cooking steak is probably one of the best skills that you can have. When it’s a friend’s birthday, I just want to cook them a steak. It’s an honor for me. Being able to cook a beautiful steak is really sexy.
Step one is breaking down a tenderloin. I get it from a farm called Apple Brandy Beef. Tenderloin sits right below the ribs and it’s one of the first protein ingredients I learned how to break down. I like to cut them into 8-ounce portions. To me, you could do steak frites with any cut of steak if you cook it well enough.
I’ll truss each portion to keep the protein tight, so it doesn’t produce uneven cooking. I’ll generously season each side with lots of salt and really crushed ground pepper that still has bite. I’ll get the grill really hot and I’ll sear it for a while. Don’t touch it. Just let it cook. You’ll notice on the other side of the filet that it’s starting to cook through the protein when it browns on the side. Then, you can flip it. All you’re thinking about is getting that crust. Make sure it’s really golden brown. That color is your timer.
I make a stock beforehand which equates to a demi-glace. I use veal and beef bones, red wine, and onion. It’s the most taxing part of the dish, making sure you have that really goopy, dark brown sauce.
My station is in front of everyone at the bar, so when I make this dish, they’re like, “Oh my god, is that mine? I hope it’s mine.” The moment you pour the demi-glace on the steak, everyone’s excited to see it.
We make the fries with tamarind powder. It’s not sweet, but it has this candy-like flavor to it that’s really craveable.
Aioli is a really beautiful skill to develop. It’s three egg yolks to one quart of oil. It’s basically like making mayonnaise, but with garlic as your flavor agent. Lemon juice, salt, garlic, egg yolks. Since we make so much, we use a food processor, but I could easily do it by hand—just a wet rag underneath the mixing bowl and whisk constantly so you’re not breaking the sauce when you’re adding the oil slowly. It creates this emulsified, beautiful, creamy garlic aioli that’s perfect for the fries.
Then there’s the uni compound butter. If we’re coming in to prep in the morning, butter is the first thing that we pull out. We let it get to room temperature, so when you touch it, it’s malleable like Play-Doh. Then we throw it in the mixer and add whatever we want. For this, we added uni and salt and lemon juice. Then, we’ll make a torchon, which is basically rolling it into a cylinder so that when you cut the butter, it’s like a coin.
When you’re plating the dish, that steak has been resting. You cut the thread of the steak after it’s been resting for five minutes and then put the steak on the plate. Your fries are hot out of the oil. You’re tossing them with salt and tamarind powder, and then we’re placing the fries right next to the steak. Pour the hot demi-glace on the steak and place the compound butter on top. I like to eat it with a dirty martini.
Added bonus: I really like eating steak with vinegar dipping sauce, like spicy suka. It’s a Filipino thing. That’s how I grew up eating steak, and it’s just an additional thing that I’ll do for customers, especially if they’re sitting at the bar.
—As told to Jake Nevins