A LONG TABLE OUTSIDE, A BRASERO FULL OF EMBERS, AND EVERYTHING COOKED OVER WOOD.
THE IDEA
Some dinners do not need a dining room. This one needed a garden, a long table outside, good friends arriving hungry, and a brasero doing all the work. No gas, no gadgets. Fire, patience, and the whole evening organized around one big piece of beef.
THE FIRE
The côte de bœuf went over the embers the way big cuts should: slowly, turned often, rested longer than feels reasonable. Around it, the garden gave up its vegetables and they went straight onto the fire too. Nothing was rushed, because fire does not care about your schedule.
THE TABLE
A bottle of Toujours Soif rouge made the rounds, the one I make with Domaine Carrière Pradal in the Languedoc, and seeing it poured at a table like this, next to beef cooked this way, is the whole reason the wine exists. The night got loud, then quiet, then loud again, the way the good ones do.
WHAT STAYED WITH ME
A restaurant meal can be perfect and forgettable. A night around a fire is neither perfect nor forgettable. This is the cooking I come home to: one fire, one big piece of meat, and people I love close enough to pass the bread by hand.
SHOP THE STORY
The Gyuto is the knife I reach for when a côte de bœuf lands on the board. The wine is mine, the rest is fire.
TF x Gyuto Knife: $400.00 CAD
Toujours Faim Cookbook: $39.95 CAD
Classic Apron: $60.00 CAD
By Laurent Dagenais.
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