When I first spotted the 24K gold steak on social media I couldn’t quite comprehend why a local chef would be interested in serving up something so… unusual.
I’ve never tried gold leaf coated tomahawk steak, and after a quick message into multiple WhatsApp groups, neither had my friends or family.
What would it taste like? Would it actually add to the experience? And more importantly, would it be worth the £149.95 price tag?
Dean Banks, the Fife-based chef behind luxury food box firm, Haar at Home, is well-known on the Scottish hospitality scene.
He runs two successful restaurant operations, one in St Andrews and one in Edinburgh, and has just opened up his second venue in the capitol, a wine bar and seafood restaurant, DULSE, in the former L’Escargot Blanc site.
The MasterChef: The Professionals 2018 finalist from Arbroath has now introduced the new luxury box to give his customers the chance to indulge in a dish that went viral thanks to international butcher and restaurateur, Nusret Gökçe, who is also known as Salt Bae.
On the Haar at Home web page for the box Dean talks about how gold leaf tomahawk steak can cost up to £1,500 in some restaurants. So his price tag of £149.50 for the meat, two sides, and two desserts is classed as a more affordable way of enjoying such an experience.
What does the kit by Dean Banks include?
- 1KG tomahawk steak
- Multiple sheets of gold leaf
- Seaweed roasted potatoes
- Green beans with crispy shallots and soy lime dressing
- Truffle jus
- Two dark chocolate fondants with dulce de leche and crème fraiche
- Blackthorn sea salt (to season)
Trying out 24-carat gold leaf tomahawk
Trying the box our for myself, the first thing I noticed was how big the piece of beef was.
At 1kg it seemed there was going to be a lot of eating, and I have to commend how easy it was to unpackage thanks to the well labelled items in the box.
My boyfriend and I decanted everything and read the instructions which we got via a QR code on a piece of marketing that we’d scanned with our phones.
The steak was our main priority so I put the two dark chocolate fondants in the fridge for later and pre-heated the oven.
We seasoned the steak with the supplied sea salt and massaged it into the beef. The seaweed roasted potatoes were placed on a baking tray and popped into the oven and I placed the green beans in a pot ready just to add boiling water four minutes before everything else was ready.
Once a frying pan was boiling hot with a splash of oil the steak was then seared both sides and placed into the oven for a certain amount of time for our desired cook.
The gold leaf didn’t really come into the mix until everything was more or less ready to plate. After resting for around five minutes wrapped in tinfoil, we disrobed the steak and carefully placed the gold leaf on top of one side of it.
We thought we had enough to do the whole thing, but with gold leaf being quite tricky to work with we found we ended up focusing on just one side and avoided the bone.
Had we had more gold leaf I would have tried to dress the bone and the other side of the steak, but we didn’t manage with what we had.
It certainly was an experience and we had a laugh, albeit the gold leaf providing a bit of a stress and fiddle at times.
The food itself was delicious, and while the steak was good, I did feel at times it was quite fatty and so in turn we didn’t end up with as much meat. It looked a big eat on the bone, but was sliced up and fat removed, there was less than I’d envisioned.
All of the sides including the green beans which I’d tossed in the soy lime dressing and topped with crispy shallots were excellent and the truffle jus, which we poured over our steak, was incredible. If I could get the recipe for it I’d be a very happy woman.
A special mention to the warm chocolate fondant which was incredibly moreish.
Is it worth the money?
While I thought the experience of adding the gold leaf was fun, I did think it deterred from everything else and resulted in being a bit more faff than anything.
Gold leaf has always been classed as a luxury ingredient and isn’t something I have worked with before, so maybe pros would be faster than I was placing it on. I also thought I would have enjoyed the meal just as much without the extravagant addition.
I’m not sure I would part ways with nearly £150 for a gold leaf experience like this again, as I think I’d prefer either getting a bottle of wine or have the option of starters instead. And maybe a different cut of streak as I do really love the simplicity of a fillet with minimal fat.
With the cost of living crisis affecting the country just now, I’m a bit unsure who this box is ideally targeted at.
However, as a one-off I can see why some people would enjoy trying out something a little different at home. Although at a heftier price tag I’m sure something like this would likely be purchased for a special occasion.
There are multiple other boxes available at a cheaper price, so there are plenty of other options available to suit budgets.
Price: £149.99
Where to buy: haarathome.co.uk
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