What is the secret to cooking a perfect steak? It's something many people would love to be able to do at home, but sometimes it just doesn't taste as good as at a restaurant.
With Valentine's Day to celebrate, I decided that there are few things more impressive than being able to cook the perfect steak for a loved one, so in order to achieve my plan of cooking the perfect steak on February 14 I decided to join one of the courses at the Gordon Ramsay Academy, the celebrity chef's first-ever cookery school.
With tons of classes to choose from, at varying lengths and difficulties, I chose the Steak Masterclass, which allows you to learn how to cook the perfect steak, complete with show-stopping sides.
I was a bit apprehensive about going to a cookery class on my own because I suspected I'd be the only one not in a duo.
Luckily, that wasn't the case and there were people from all walks of life there, and I wasn't the only one on my own. Most people had received the cooking class as a gift.
The academy itself is located in Woking, a bit of a trek for anyone not from the area, but easily accessible by train.
When I arrived I was greeted by a friendly receptionist who showed me around and invited me to have a brownie-bite and a coffee while waiting for the class to start.
The cooking class itself began with a demonstration by Head of Culinary Rob Cottam, who joked that all the cooking classes are designed to be "fun and approachable, just like Gordon".
During the presentation, I was slightly hoping that the main man himself would swoop in and show us how it's done – but unfortunately, he was out of the country.
However, we were told that Gordon Ramsay does pop in when you least expect it, and the staff love seeing the shocked faces of those taking part in the classes when they spot him.
Getting down to the main event, when it comes to cooking steak, Rob explained that in order to have the perfect meal, you have to start with an amazing product. If you use rubbish produce, it doesn't matter how well you cook it, because it's not going to taste good.
One thing that the Gordon Ramsay Academy does is use beef that has travelled less distance, and they recommend using a trusted supplier and butcher in terms of being more ethical and taste.
On the menu for today was sirloin, triple-cooked chips, mushroom, charred cabbage, Chimichurri, and peppercorn sauce.
Rob explained that when cooking steak, it's crucial that the meat should be room temperature before you add it to a pan that is pre-heated to medium. The steak should also be seasoned first, up to 20 minutes before you cook them.
With a sirloin, you don't have to add oil to the pan. Instead we're shown how putting the steak on its side in the pan and frying on a medium heat will render the fat so it melts. As an added bonus this will also add better flavour.
We then get properly into the cooking but are warned to avoid making a big mistake by putting the steak on too high of a heat, as this will give you a charred outside and raw middle.
Rob added: "If you cook it on a more gentle heat you'll have a more even graduation in the centre so you get a bit of grey on the outside and gradually pink into the middle".
How long you cook it for will depend on how you like your steak done – rare, medium rare, well done or any other way.
Rob explained that you can use your hand as a guide to when to know your steak is cooked. When you touch the fatty area of skin under your thumb with a flat, un-tensed hand, that should be a rare steak.
Much like your hand, a steak tenses up when it's being cooked. So the chef recommends delicately pressing your thumb to your fingertips, and then feeling the different consistencies of the fatty area. The firmer it is, the more cooked it is. If you press your fingers together hard, that should be the consistency of a well done steak.
Rob said that this is "kind of a rough approximation of a steak going from rare, medium-rare, medium".
However, he said to keep in mind that some cuts of meat, such as fillet, is softer than others, such as sirloin.
So if you're cooking a fillet, it might still feel a bit squidgy if it's well done – so it's only a rough guide.
Some steak-cooking guides have timings as a guide, but because steaks have different thicknesses, you can't follow the same timing guide for all pieces.
Some guides say that you should only flip a steak once, but Rob said it's fine to keep flipping it as it will give you "more even graduation of colour because I'm introducing heat to the other side constantly, gradually cooking through".
He added: "If it was five minutes on that side, and then five minutes on the other side it would only get heat from one side".
Once the steak is cooked, which you will know from prodding it, it's important to let it rest. According to Rob, the resting period is half the cooking time, which in turn depends on how thick the steak is.
Because steaks are so quick to cook, all the sides for our dish were prepared beforehand in groups of two – but there were important cooking lessons to be learned here too.
For triple-cooked chips, it's important to put them in cold water and bring them up to the boil with lots of salt, and leave them to parboil for eight to 10 minutes.
According to Rob, the structure of the starch inside the potatoes sets better in cold water, and it's crucial to allow them to steam dry afterward. You can also apply this technique to roast potatoes for your Sunday dinner.
You also need to let them cool down between going back into 130-degree oil, preferably refined rapeseed oil. This will allow them to become nice and crispy.
Another one of the sides was a mushroom, which was roasted in the oven with butter and garlic. I learned that you should never wash a mushroom because they will soak up all the water like a sponge. If they look a bit dirty, you can just brush off any of the soil.
We also whipped up both a Chimichurri and peppercorn sauce, which many of us were excited about because we'd never made them from scratch.
For the peppercorn sauce, we had to chop onions, so I asked Rob if he had any tips to avoid crying when cutting them. According to him, the best thing you can do is wear contact lenses. If you don't have any, you could use ski goggles or swimming goggles or anything else that would protect your eyes.
Another tip when making peppercorn sauce is to use green brined peppercorns, and you need to remember to rinse them as they are really salty. Don't use peppercorns you might put in a grinder because they are going to be really crunchy!
We also used a bit of alcohol to flambé the sauce, and Rob recommends using something that is good enough to drink – we used brandy.
To finish the dish off we also prepared wedges of cabbage which were brushed with oil, chipotle and paprika powder, and then charred them before putting them in the oven.
After all the meal came together and was plated up, we headed to the demonstration room to eat after all that hard work.
It was delicious, and I can safely say I'll always be able to cook a steak to perfection from now.
How do you like your steak? Let us know in the comments below.
