Book release: Steak - One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef

A new book by author  Mark Schatztker all about one of all time favorites, steak!

A popular travel writer and humorist’s global adventures searching for the perfect steak and investigating the remarkable (and often bizarre) subcultures of its passionate aficionados.

STEAK:

One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef

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According to Mark Schatzker’s no other meat “merits its own class structure.  There is no such place as a lamb house or pork house, but even a small town may have a steak house.” In his new book STEAK : One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece (Viking; ISBN: 9780670021819;  $25.95; On-Sale May 3, 2010),  he explores the almost lunatic lengths steak lovers will go to find – or raise – the perfect cut of beef, as well as debating corn-fed vs. grass-fed cattle, the best cuts of meat, and the best way to cook a steak.

Due out just in time for grilling season and father’s day, STEAK is a mouth-watering adventure of the culinary variety, combining everything from the science of flavor to the history of steak sauce in American cuisine. The book also includes a guide on “How to cook a steak in 15 easy steps” and includes a website, www.steakthebook.com , for a list of where or how to buy some of the steaks described in this book. It will delight steak lovers everywhere. 

Led by his tongue, Schatzker’s investigation takes him to Texas, where he witnesses a meat judging contest at Texas Tech University and makes a pilgrimage to the Big Texan Steakhouse, home of the “Texas King,” a 72-ounce piece of meat that beckons diners to finish it in its entirety in one hour. In France, he visits the famous cave paintings at Lascaux to witness the majestic but extinct Auroch, a type of huge wild cattle. In Scotland, he discovers that what gets sold in the US as Certified Angus Beef may not even come from Angus cows; in Italy, he tastes the much-praised Chianna at the largest steak festival in the world; and in Japan he learns of a rare brand of beef more exalted even than the fabled Kobe beef. Still craving perfection, Schatzker returns home and raises his own heifer, fattening her on apples, acorns and carrots, then grapples with ambivalence when it comes time to visit the abattoir. But it’s in Idaho where he indulges in the book’s last meal, a rib-eye prepared on an outdoor grill by a cowboy that outshines any of the other steaks he’s eaten.   

About the author

Mark Schatzker is a freelance magazine writer and frequent contributor to Condé Nast Traveler and a humor columnist for the Globe and Mail newspaper. He has been nominated for a James Beard journalism award and has received numerous magazine awards. He is best known for his Condé Nast Traveler story and widly popular blog that took him around the world in 80 days without ever taking a plane. (Not as easy as you’d think.) Steak has been a longtime obsession in Schatzker’s writing and a couple of years ago, after suffering one too many bland and over-priced strip loins, he decided that he’d finally had enough. Where, he wondered, can a person find a decent steak? Thus began another world odyssey, the culmination of which is, STEAK.

Please Visit www.penguin.com for more information

STEAK: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef

Viking; ISBN: 9780670021819

$25.95; On-Sale May 3, 2010