---
title: 'Anthony Bourdain''s Steak Tartare'
slug: 'anthony-bourdain-steak-tartare'
kind: 'recipe'
revision: 1
source: 'mcp'
created: '2026-09-23T08:36:33.110Z'
url: 'https://noble-notations.ryanjnoble.dev/recipes/anthony-bourdain-steak-tartare'
---

# Anthony Bourdain's Steak Tartare

_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.

## Why this revision

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

## Categories

- **Cuisine**: French
- **Course**: Main
- **Technique**: Mincing, Emulsifying

## Ingredients


### Base

- 2 Egg yolks
- 28 g Dijon mustard
- 4 Anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 10 g Ketchup
- 5 g Worcestershire sauce
- Tabasco sauce
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- 56 ml Sunflower oil
- 28 ml Cognac
- 1 Onion, small, freshly and finely chopped
- 56 g Capers, rinsed
- 56 g Cornichons, finely chopped
- 4 sprig Flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

### Beef

- 560 g Beef sirloin, fresh, finely chopped by hand

### To serve

- French fries _(optional)_
- 4 slice White bread, toasted, cut into quarters

## Method


### Base

1. Put six dinner plates in the refrigerator to chill.
2. Put the egg yolks, the mustard and the anchovies in a large stainless steel bowl. Mix well.
3. Add the ketchup, the Worcestershire sauce, the Tabasco and the black pepper. Mix well again.
4. Add the oil slowly in a thin stream. Whisk all the time. _(Emulsifying)_
5. Add the Cognac. Mix again.
6. Fold in the onion, the capers, the cornichons and the parsley.

### Beef

7. Chop the beef by hand with a very sharp knife to a fine dice of approximately 3 mm. Do this last. _(Mincing)_
   > Do not use a food processor. A meat grinder with a wide plate is acceptable, but the knife gives the better texture.
8. Add the beef to the bowl. Mix well with a spoon or with your hands.

### Serve

9. Divide the mixture among the six cold plates. Shape each portion into a disc with a ring mould or a spatula.
10. Serve immediately with the fries and the toast.

## Notes

### Why the beef is cut by knife and not by machine _(science)_

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.

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

### The base is a loose mayonnaise _(science)_

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.

### Source and Bourdain's rule on the food processor _(research)_

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.

- Source: Anthony Bourdain, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking. Bloomsbury, 2004.
- Source: https://app.ckbk.com/recipe/lesh98672c05s001ss001r006/steak-tartare
- Source: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1581689/anthony-bourdain-tip-steak-tartar/