Behind the French Menu: Tournedos: Including Tournedos Rossini
from
Behind
the French Menu
by
Bryan
G. Newman
bryangnewman@gmail.com
Tournedos Rossini
Tournedos – A center cut from a filet
de bœuf, a beef fillet, the tenderloin; the most expensive of
all beef cuts. The same cut as a Chateaubriand, though
a Chateaubriand is traditionally thicker, as it will be cut into two
separate steaks. Today, a tournedos should be at least three cm
(1.2″) thick, or thicker. Naturally tender, it is often served lightly pan-fried.
The cut has little fat, so a tournedos should never be cooked well-done as it
would become burnt outside, dried out, and tasteless inside.
Caveat Emptor: The term tournedos is sometimes used for thick cuts of salmon, other fish, and duck.
Tournedos á la Beauharnais – Named after the family of
Napoleon I’s first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Tournedos á la
Beauharnais is still seen on some menus, where it will be prepared with
hearts of artichoke and a sauce béarnaise accompanied by pommes de terre noisettes.
Pommes de Terre
Noisettes are small potato balls cut out of potatoes with the same tool
that makes melon balls. They will have been boiled for one or two minutes and
then fried. How they are served varies, though most menus give some
information. A noisette is a hazelnut, so expect them to be small and
brown.
Tournedos
au Poivre – A tournedos prepared with
pepper sauce. French pepper steaks generally use green peppercorns unless
otherwise noted.
Green peppercorns, which are picked before they ripen, pickled
in brine, and dried, have a light herbal flavor and are much less pungent than
black or white peppercorns. Using green peppercorns makes controlling the heat
less difficult.
Tournedos
Bordelaise – A tournedos served with Sauce
Bordelaise (a sauce made in the manner of Bordeaux). The red wine used in
the preparation of this sauce is key, along with veal stock, butter, shallots, thyme, bay leaves, and bone marrow. Some recipes add button mushrooms. Others include tarragon, though it’s not traditional; it’s a modern variation that
adds a fresh, aromatic twist.
Tournedos
Bordelaise à la Moelle – This dish is the same
as Tournedos Bordelaise but features additional bone marrow (à la
moelle means ‘with marrow’). While traditional Sauce Bordelaise typically
includes a small amount of marrow.
The à la Moelle designation indicates
more bone marrow has been incorporated, giving the sauce a rich, velvety texture. Extra
pieces of bone marrow are also often placed atop the steak just before serving.
Tournedos
Chasseur – A classic tournedos served with a Sauce
Chasseur, a hunter’s sauce; a
wine sauce made with mushrooms and
a roux brune,
a basic brown sauce flavored with shallots, lardons (bacon bits), and sometimes crème fraîche.
with rabbit or poultry.
Tournedos Marchand de
Vin or Tournedos Vigneronne – A tournedos made with a sauce created
for a wine merchant or winemaker. The recipe may change slightly, and the Chef
Alain Ducasse includes shallots, red wine, butter, lemon, flat parsley, ground pepper, and fleur
de sel.
Tournedos Rossini
Photograph by
MonkeyBusiness/YayMicro.com
Tournedos Rossini
After 150 years is still the most
famous of all steak dishes
Gioacchino Rossini
Tournedos Rossini
– The most famous of all tournedos dishes, named after the composer Gioacchino
Rossini (1792–1868). The original recipe
was created by chef Casimir Moissons at the famous 19thcentury
restaurant La Maison Dorée, Paris. In the classic preparation, the tournedos
is sautéed, garnished with foie gras, fattened goose liver,
and the Truffe de Périgord, the
Périgord truffle and served on a sourdough crouton, which provides a delightful
textural contrast with the rich, dark Madeira wine
sauce that ties all the ingredients together. (The original quantities used would
make the dish very expensive today, so ask the server how your Tournedos
Rossini will be prepared.)
Apart from being a world-famous composer Rossini was a friend, critic, and supporter of many of
the most celebrated chefs of his time, who in turn considered him an artist
with gifts equal to theirs.
The original Tournedos Rossini.
The original recipe for a Tournedos Rossini
called for a 4–5 cm (1.6″- 2″) thick steak, cut from the UK fillet, the USA
tenderloin weighing between 300 and 400 grams (10–14 ozs). Today, a Tournedos
Rossini may weigh about half of the original, but that weight change is true of many famous classic steak dishes, including Chateaubriands,
When served, the original Tournedos Rossini was garnished with 150 grams (5.3 oz) or more
of foie gras d’oie,
fattened goose liver lightly fried in a beurre noisette,
a pre-prepared, light brown butter sauce with 70 grams (2.5 oz) of Périgord
truffle
slices interleaved within the dish Although the fillet
(tenderloin) is the most tender cut of beef, it is not the most flavorful. All
Tournedos steaks are served with a sauce, and for a Tournedos Rossini, it is the Madeira wine sauce
poured over the tournedos just before serving. (Caveat Emptor: The entire
fillet, or tenderloin, is often called a Filet Mignon in the USA. However, be
cautious when ordering “Filet Mignon” in France, as for beef
that term only indicates the narrow, pointed end of the fillet and, without the
addition of the words de bœuf (of beef), it primarily refers to veal and
pork fillets.)
The original recipe for a Tournedos Rossini is too expensive for today’s clientele. Seventy grams of a fresh Périgord
truffle alone can cost over Є100 Euros (close to 120 US dollars today).
When combined with the goose foie
gras,
the steak itself, and the restaurant’s overheads, profits, etc, you’ll see that
not too many restaurants have customers for a three to five-hundred-dollar
steak dish. While the composer Gioacchino Rossini and the chef
Casimir Moissons, who created the dish in Rossini’s honor, may turn in their
graves, most patrons will accept a smaller and less expensive version as long
as the taste and soul of the dish remains close to the original.
Ordering
a Tournedos Rossini today.
Today, the steak cut from the fillet for a Tournedos
Rossini may weigh about 200 grams (7 ounces), and that is enough for most
diners. No longer will a thick Tournedos need to be roasted; instead, it
will be quickly fried all around to seal it, and then it will often be barded
before being pan-fried. Barding involves
wrapping the steak with strips of fat, usually fatty bacon,
because cuts from the fillet, the tenderloin, have little internal or external
fat
N.B. A steak cut from the fillet can never be served
well-done; it would result in a bland and dry-textured variety of
cardboard. (To order a steak, in France, cooked the way you like it,
read the post: Ordering
a steak, in France, cooked the way you like it).
You can request your Tournedos Rossini, rare,
medium-rare or even medium-well; however, a serious French chef will not accept
an order for a well-done tournedos, as this cut could not be properly
made past medium-well. Other steaks (not from the tenderloin) are available and,
apart from being less expensive, may be ordered well-done. (See the Post: Entrecôte – The tastiest of steaks).
The inside of a Foie Gras store in Paris
Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor
Foie Gras Luxe, Paris, France
The ingredients:
The
filet steak, the tenderloin.
See the post Filet
Mignon on French Menus and Filet de Bœuf in French Cuisine.
Goose Foie Gras
Foie gras
is the fattened liver of a goose or a duck. The original Tournedos
Rossini used the more expensive goose foie gras. The liver is
gently fried in a pre-prepared beurre noisette,
a butter that has been cooked until it has reached the color of hazelnuts. N.B.:
Fattened goose liver, like fattened duck liver, is very fatty and will simply
melt if anyone attempts to cook it well done. To provide for those who refuse
fattened duck or goose liver, a number of restaurants now offer calf or other
liver as foie gras substitutes.
Lightly seared foie gras.
Photograph courtesy of Kate Hopkins
www.flickr.com/photos/accidentalhedonist/5706485365
The
original recipe included 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of the Périgord
truffle (Truffe de Périgord), also called the black
truffle or the black diamond. The Périgord truffle is considered by many to be the finest of all the French truffles, and it is also the costliest.
The black Périgord truffle
and truffle slivers.
The
wholesale cost of truffles is volatile, with the price of Périgord truffles (tuber
melanosporum) fluctuating with the season and market demand. A Périgord
truffle weighing 25-30 grams would cost in a restaurant Euros Є 70 to Є 100
each. (approx.: $84 to $120).
Today, some restaurants offer a Tournedos Rossini with just a few truffle
scrapings from the Périgord truffles.
Unfortunately, using too little truffle results in little truffle taste
and no texture, causing both the flavor and texture to vanish.
The
best alternative, without the all the original ingredients, I tasted was achieved by a chef who prepared his Tournedos
Rossini with duck foie gras and duxelles and
flavored them with truffle oil. Duxelles is a five-hundred-year-old recipe made
with finely chopped mushrooms, shallots, and herbs cooked in butter. Duxelles
will leave both taste and texture (though not that of a truffle) which was far
better than the smal,l and almost tasteless, tiny truffle shavings I have been served
elsewhere.
Duxelles
is a simple but famous recipe created by one of France’s earliest published
chefs, Francois
Pierre de La Varenne (1618 – 1678). La Varenne named
the dish after his employer, the Marquis d’Uxelles, hence duxelles.
Despite the age of this recipe duxelles will be, with many variations,
on many modern French menus.
The
Perigord truffle in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan
– tòfona negra), (Dutch – Perigord truffle Perigord truffle, zwarte
truffel), (German – schwarze trüffle, echte trüffel or Perigord trüffel),
(Italian- tartufo nero del Périgord, tartufo nero or nero pregiato), (Spanish –
trufa de Périgord or trufa negra), (Latin – tuber melanosporum).
The Sauce Madère
(Madeira wine sauce) may be the last part added to the dish, but it is
certainly not the least important. Of the famous Madeira wines, the preferred
choice for a Tournedos Rossini is Verdelho, a medium-dry Madeira wine.
The Verdelho Madeira wine is second from the left.
Photograph courtesy of Patrick Barry.
www.flickr.com/photos/pbarry/4928215119/
For
a Sauce Madère, the classic recipe is typically built on a demi-glace
(a rich brown stock reduction) and Madeira wine, sometimes with the addition of
a small amount of regular white wine; herbs will be added at the chef’s
discretion. Madeira wine is a fortified wine with an alcohol content of 17 – 21
percent and while a significant amount of alcohol evaporates during simmering, the
idea that “most” of it is entirely removed by cooking is a common
culinary myth. Madeira and ports are called Vinho Generosos in Portuguese and
are typically high in sugar and alcohol.
A Madeira Wine for your digestif?
Photograph courtesy of Ewan Munro
www.flickr.com/photos/55935853@N00/3745472885/
The
popularity of Portuguese Madeira wines in French
cuisine began with the islands of Madeira’s convoluted connections to the
British. British merchants in Madeira
established close ties with the American colonies, trading wine for American
products. Madeira became the wine of
choice for celebrations, including the signing of the Declaration of
Independence and George Washington’s inauguration. The French fought with the Americans in the American War of Indepence and while there learned to appreciate Madeira wines.
Madeira
Sauce in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan
– salsa madeira), (Dutch – Madeirasaus), (German – Madeirasauce), (Italian –
salsa al Madera), (Spanish – salsa de Madeira).
Choosing a wine to accompany Tournedos Rossini.
The
wine that will be recommended to accompany a Tournedos Rossini (outside Burgundy) will be a red wine from Bordeaux, and I would agree. Unfortunately, if you’re reading the wine
list, the price of a wine from a favored Château, and a good vintage as
well, may ruin your taste buds before a drop has passed your lips!That’s when you need a good pocket wine guide
or a good sommelier.
A Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982, Paulliac.
Photograph courtesy of Blue
Jules
www.flickr.com/photos/bluejules/333040036/
Knowledgeable
sommeliers, the wine stewards, when provided with a budget, can
usually find a good, if less well-known Bordeaux wine that will bring the smiles
back all around. A Tournedos Rossini deserves a robust and
well-balanced red, and a single grape, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon, would not
be the wine that is recommended. If you pass on a red Bordeaux, then consider a
less expensive, but unfortunately not inexpensive, Gevrey-Chambertin
from the Bourgogne, Burgundy; that is an excellent alternative.
Gioacchino Rossini, the cook and gourmet.
The
world knows Gioacchino Rossini for his hundreds of stunning musical works that
include nearly 40 operas, the most famous being The Barber of Seville. The
French honor Rossini for the many operas that he composed while he was living
in France, often with French librettos, including the famous Guillaume Tell,
William Tell. When Rossini was not composing, he was intensely
involved in the world of well-prepared food; his close friends were not
musicians or singers but chefs. These famous chefs considered Rossini as an
artist, like themselves, and they named dishes in his honor. Rossini was
recognized as an uncommonly talented amateur cook, and one of his greatest joys
was cooking for his friends.
Among the many dishes that Rossini cooked for
his chef friends (who were among the world’s early serious food critics) was
a dish he called Cannelloni alla Rossini. Rossini created this unassuming
but delicious dish to impress his friends, who included Antonin
Carême. (While there are arguments over the dish’s creator, most agree
that this was Rossini’s creation). In that period, a great deal of importance
was placed on creating visually impressive dishes such as Tournedos Rossini and so it would have been unlikely to have been created by the master chefs who
were Rossini’s friends.
Rossini
was a friend of chefs not only due to his fame, for artists, having another artist who truly
understands and appreciates their work leads to a friend for life. Rossini and
Antonin Carême, France’s most celebrated chef of the early 1800s, considered
each other to be outstanding artists.
Rossini and Chateaubriand.
The
dish that would become Tournedos Rossini was influenced by a meeting between
Rossini and Chateaubriand in Italy in 1822. Chateaubriand was himself an
artist, a diarist, a novelist, and a politician. Above all, from Rossini’s
viewpoint, a serious gourmet and likely introduced Rossini to the wonders of
a Chateaubriand steak (created by Chateaubriand’s chef, Montreuil).
The meeting occurred while Chateaubriand was in Verona, Italy, representing the
French Government at the Congress of Verona, a meeting of European political
leaders where Rossini had come at the request of Prince Metternich, of Austria,
to impress and provide music for the visiting politicians.
When
Rossini returned to France from Italy, he would have shared his admiration for
Chateaubriand’s new creation with his friends, who were France’s top chefs. At
that time, his closest friend and most famous among all French chefs was Antonin
Carême; however, Carême
was in Vienna, as chef to the British Ambassador. Since Carême would spend
close to three years in Vienna, Rossini turned to another friend, another of
France’s greatest chefs, Casimir Moissons, to create a steak dish that would rival
the Chateaubriand.
Casimir Moissons
Casimir
Moissons was the chef at La Maison Dorée, one of Paris’s most famous 19th-century
restaurants, where Rossini was a frequent visitor when in Paris. Casimir
Moissons created many famous dishes, but unlike some of his better-known
contemporaries, Casimir Moissons never wrote a cookbook, missing out on much of
the historical fame that he deserved. If his friend Antonin Carême had created Tournedos
Rossini, it would have been in one of his many cookbooks. Carême named many of his creations after famous people and
published his recipes, but he did not include Tournedos Rossini in his cookbooks. Associating Carême with the Tournedos
Rossini is a frequent and understandable error, as Antonin Carême was
one of Rossini’s best friends.
When
Carême returned to France, after some exclusive private banquets, he became
chef to Baron James de Rothschild. Rothschild also considered Carême a
consummate artist of haute cuisine and gave him as much time as he
required for writing; Antonin stayed with Rothschild until he retired.
Casimir
Moissons, like all great chefs of his time, was intensely competitive. In 1822
would have immediately looked for the opportunity to create a dish that
outshone Montreuil’s Chateaubriand. The result was the Tournedos
Rossini, and it included, apart from steak, three of Rossini’s
favorites: the Périgourd truffles, foie gras, and Madeira
wine.
Many
other dishes that were named after Rossini and are still on menus today,
including:
- ·
Filet de Sole à la Rossini (filet of sole
in the manner of Rossini). - ·
Minestra di Caccia alla Rossini (a traditional
Italian game soup or stew). - ·
Poularde Rossini (A poularde is a fattened
chicken). Poulardes were historically spayed to fatten them; now, most are
fattened by their diet. When ready for market, a poularde weighs about 2 kilos
(4.4 lbs.).
Rossini is buried in Florence, Italy.
Rossini died in France and was
buried in Paris’s Père Lâchais cemetery, not far from the grave of
Chopin. Home, however, is home, and in 1887 Rossini was re-interred in
Italy in the church of Santa Croce, Florence. While he may have missed his
original neighbors, like Chopin and Brillat-Savarin, at least in the Santa Croce church, he can talk to
other famous Italians, including Michelangelo, Galileo, and even Niccolo
Machiavelli. (If Rossini gets up and decides to go for a walk, I can
vouch that he can buy fabulous leather coats in the streets of Florence, round-about the church!)
Basilica de Santa Croce, Florence.
Photograph courtesy of Rodrigo Soldon
www.flickr.com/photos/soldon/5393816889/
———————
Connected Posts:
Á la
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Menus.
Antonin Carême: The Most Influential
Chef in the History of French Cuisine.
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Duxelles
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Madeira wine, Vin de Madère and the
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————————
Behind
the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2013, 2019, 2025.
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