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The Rex Honored for Beef Innovation

By TOM LUTEY
of The Gazette Staff

The taste of success, often referred to as sweet, has been anything but for Gene Burgad, whose victories have more of a garlicky flavor with beer and soy sauce undertones.

The Billings restaurateur was recently crowned beef innovator of the year by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Promotional beef commercials featuring Burgad's downtown Billings restaurant, The Rex, will begin airing in Montana within a week.

"They've been willing to adapt to some of the newer cuts that have been created by research in the beef industry," said the executive director of the Montana Beef Council, Charlene Rich, who nominated The Rex.

Prime ribs and porterhouses don't cut it when it comes to the beef innovator award, which is part of the National Beef Checkoff Program. An innovator has to be willing to take a chance on unusual items like "hanging tenderloin" and "flatiron" steaks. Until recently, those cuts would have been ground into hamburger or carried home by a butcher wise to tender meat cuts of which the public hadn't a clue. But the beef industry, trying to get more money out of its product, is sending those cuts to market.

A flatiron steak is a thin portion of muscle cut from a seam of beef shoulder, an area most often associated with tough roasts. Cut away the seam though, and the remaining beef, the wide, thin, flatiron steak, is the second most tender cut of the animal.

"What happens when you have a shoulder roast is, you're cooking for the least tender cuts and you are cooking away a lot of good muscle in there," said Karli Freeman, National Cattlemen's Beef Association spokeswoman. "Traditionally, what steakhouses are serving are the middle meats, and there's some money being left on the table."

Burgad said The Rex applied for the award last September after he consulted with executive chef David Maplethorpe.

The hanging tenderloin is a cut The Rex has served for years, Burgad said, because it's unbelievably tender and has a strong beef flavor. It also doesn't show up on many meat charts.

Also called a hanger steak, the hanging tenderloin is a thick strip of meat on a cow's underside that hangs between the loin and the ribs. Cooked quickly, it's extremely tender, but it is also easy to overcook. Backyard grill masters might be able to find the new cuts at a specialty butcher shop if they know what to ask for. The cuts may cost less than old beef standbys.

Burgad said restaurants have been slow to catch on.

"There are some places that serve it, I know, because I've seen it on their menus, but not many," Burgad said.

Published on Tuesday, February 26, 2008.
Last modified on 2/26/2008 at 12:20 am