LET'S TALK ABOUT OUR STEAK

Before we opened Hawksmoor, we knew that finding great beef was the key to the restaurant’s success. 

After much Googling, exhaustive visits to farmers’ markets up and down the land, and a few cloak-and-dagger conversations with beef lovers who were reluctant to share their sources, we ordered steaks from almost fifty farmers and butchers. 

We tasted everything. Highly regarded beef from Argentina. Wagyu cattle that cost a small fortune. USDA Prime, the most prized beef from America. 

Then we put it all to the test. 

We ran blind tastings, with winners progressing through round after round until we reached a final. We did not look at price. We only cared about flavor. By the end we felt like foolhardy Texans in a steak eating contest, but we had a clear winner. Unsurprisingly, it was also one of the most expensive. 

That experience shaped everything we do. 

Great steak does not happen by accident. Every stage of an animal’s life, and everything that happens to the meat from slaughter to the moment it hits your plate, affects how it tastes. Techniques that cut costs often cut flavor too.

This may sound like an odd thing for a steak restaurant to say, but we believe you should honor the life of the animal. 

Not long ago, people had a much closer connection to their food. Meat did not come in shrink-wrapped packages. It came from animals that were raised nearby, and their lives and deaths were treated with respect. 

For us, that starts with how cattle are raised. They should have space, be well cared for, and live to a decent age eating what they are meant to eat, which is grass.  

“Happier cattle produce better beef, and better beef tastes better.” 

It continues with how animals are handled at the end of their lives. There should be minimal stress and every effort made to avoid pain. If we are going to eat animals, we owe them a decent life and a humane death. 

It also shapes how we eat. 

Do not eat too much meat, but when you do, make sure it is the good stuff. Every meal is a choice about the kind of food system you want to support. 

And when you cook steak, cook it properly and eat all of it. Wasting meat means the animal died for nothing. 

Fat matters. We love it. But more marbling does not always mean more flavor. 

One very expensive way to explore that idea is to fly to Japan and try Wagyu.   

Co-founder, Huw, did exactly that while visiting his now wife’s family. Romantic trip, you might think. Temples, culture, meaningful moments. Instead, top of his list was a visit to a beef farm outside Kobe. Not everyone’s idea of a romantic itinerary.  

The cattle, disappointingly, were not being massaged with sake or serenaded with Mozart. They were happily eating a carefully controlled diet designed to encourage extreme marbling.  

The result is beef that is incredibly tender. You can cut it with chopsticks. Each bite is rich and luxurious, with waves of melting fat. But for us, the flavor can be surprisingly fleeting. The texture is extraordinary, but the beefiness itself is more subtle than you might expect.  

Different cultures simply value different things. Some prize that softness above all else. We tend to look for something slightly different.  

For us, flavor comes first.  

What an animal eats has a huge impact on how it tastes. Cattle raised on grass develop deeper, more complex flavors, while grain-fed beef tends to be more uniform and milder. There are exceptions, of course, but again and again we come back to the same conclusion. The more natural the diet, the more character in the steak.  

That does not mean it is simple. Grass is a living thing. It changes with soil, weather, and season, which means truly great beef is never completely uniform. No two steaks are exactly the same, and we think that is part of the point.  

Good farming takes time, care, and a bit of compromise. Even our cattle are not purists. In the final weeks, their grass diet is gently supplemented to help develop the fat needed for proper aging. The difference is scale and intent.  

So we are not against marbling. We just do not chase it at the expense of flavor. 

Because for us, the best steak is not the softest or the richest. It is the one that tastes the most like beef.