Anthony Bourdain's Steak Tartare

Name: Anthony Bourdain's Steak Tartare
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 egg yolks; 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (28 g); 4 anchovy filets, finely chopped; 2 teaspoons ketchup (10 g); 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (5 g); Tabasco sauce, to taste; Freshly ground black pepper; 1/4 cup salad (i.e., corn or soy) oil (56 ml); 1 ounce Cognac (28 ml); 1 small onion, freshly and finely chopped; 2 ounces capers, rinsed (56 g); 2 ounces cornichons, finely chopped (56 g); 4 sprigs of flat parsley, finely chopped; 1 1/4 pounds fresh sirloin, finely chopped (560 g); French fries, optional; 4 slices fine quality white bread, toasted, quartered, for toast points

Les Halles bistro tartare, chopped by hand and mixed at the last minute

Raw beef, chopped by hand, mixed into an emulsified base of egg yolk, Dijon mustard and oil. Anchovy, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup give savoury depth. Capers and cornichons give acid and salt. Cognac gives a warm background note. Chop the beef immediately before you mix and serve. Do not use a food processor.

CuisineFrench CourseMain TechniqueMincing TechniqueEmulsifying

For

6 servings

Why the first revision

First version. The recipe as printed in the Les Halles Cookbook, converted to metric. Nothing is changed from the source.

Base

6 steps

1 A
Put six dinner plates in the refrigerator to chill.
Tool dinner plates
2 A
Put the egg yolks, the mustard and the anchovies in a large stainless steel bowl. Mix well.
2 Egg yolks 28 g Dijon mustard 4 Anchovy fillets
Tool stainless steel bowl
3 A
Add the ketchup, the Worcestershire sauce, the Tabasco and the black pepper. Mix well again.
10 g Ketchup 5 g Worcestershire sauce Tabasco sauce Black pepper
4 A
Add the oil slowly in a thin stream. Whisk all the time.
56 ml Sunflower oil
Work Emulsifying
Tool whisk
5 A
Add the Cognac. Mix again.
28 ml Cognac
6 A
Fold in the onion, the capers, the cornichons and the parsley.
1 Onion 56 g Capers 56 g Cornichons 4 sprig Flat-leaf parsley

Beef

2 steps

7 B
Chop the beef by hand with a very sharp knife to a fine dice of approximately 3 mm. Do this last.
Do not use a food processor. A meat grinder with a wide plate is acceptable, but the knife gives the better texture.
560 g Beef sirloin
Work Mincing
Tool chef's knife
8 B
Add the beef to the bowl. Mix well with a spoon or with your hands.
560 g Beef sirloin

Serve

2 steps

9 C
Divide the mixture among the six cold plates. Shape each portion into a disc with a ring mould or a spatula.
Tool ring mould
10 C
Serve immediately with the fries and the toast.
French fries 4 slice White bread

Notes

NOTE · RESEARCH Source and Bourdain's rule on the food processor

The recipe is from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook, published in 2004. Bourdain wrote that the restaurant was built to serve this dish. He said the beef must be fresh, chopped by hand at the last minute, and mixed at the table.

On the food processor he wrote: "do not DARE use a food processor on this dish".

The ketchup is not a modern addition. Larousse Gastronomique also puts ketchup in steak tartare.

Provenance

From Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook (2004). This is the signature dish of Brasserie Les Halles in New York. This version is the recipe as printed, with the amounts converted to metric.

Literature

[1]

Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking. Bloomsbury, 2004. Consulted · Not yet linked in the repository

[2] Steak Tartare from Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain (ckbk) Consulted 23 SEP 2026 · app.ckbk.com/recipe/lesh98672c05s001ss001r006/steak-tartare

[3] Anthony Bourdain's Tip For Making Better Steak Tartare At Home (Food Republic) Consulted 23 SEP 2026 · www.foodrepublic.com/1581689/anthony-bourdain-tip-steak-tartar/

The science

What is actually happening in the dish, and why the techniques work.

Why the beef is cut by knife and not by machine

A sharp blade cuts through the muscle fibres cleanly. Most cells stay closed, so the water, the soluble protein and the myoglobin stay inside each piece. Each piece stays separate and red.

A food processor tears and crushes the meat. Many cell membranes break. The sarcoplasm, which is the liquid inside the muscle cell, comes out and coats the meat. The result is a wet, grey paste with no separate pieces.

Cut the beef last. Myoglobin on a new cut surface starts to oxidise to metmyoglobin, which is brown. Time between the cut and the plate is time for the colour to go.

approximately 3 mm dice · sharp knife · cut immediately before serving

The base is a loose mayonnaise

Egg yolk and Dijon mustard are both emulsifiers. Yolk gives lecithin and lipoproteins. Mustard gives mucilage from the seed coat. Oil added slowly in a thin stream forms small droplets that these molecules hold in the water phase.

The emulsion coats each piece of beef with fat. This matters more with a lean cut such as fillet, which has little fat of its own.

The Cognac goes in after the emulsion is made. Ethanol dissolves aroma compounds that water cannot carry.