On the menu this week for the first time at L'Escargot Bleu is possibly the finest beef in the world. Certainly, it's the best chef Fred Berkmiller has ever tasted, and it comes from Japan via Perthshire
The cuts on the Broughton Street restaurant's menu come from Wagyu cattle – Wagyu being the name for Japanese Kobe cattle when they originate from anywhere outwith Japan.
The meat is densely marbled with fat (the good kind), which adds tremendous flavour and succulence. We asked Berkmiller to describe that flavour. He thought for a moment before coming up with: 'super beefy'.
Berkmiller will instead be providing no less delicious but more affordable steaks, served with a choice of sauces.
The meat is Scottish. Highland Wagyu, a trading name for the 20,000-acre Blackford Farms, has the largest herd in Europe (550), which it plans to expand to 1,500 by December next year. The animals have in the past had a reputation for physical fragility, but seem to thrive here in the lush grasslands of Perthshire. They graze in the open, and the bulls – says Berkmiller – are extraordinarily docile and friendly. Spurtle suspects they are simply exhausted.
Kobe cattle originated from the mixing of indigenous breeds with those imported from Europe in the 19th century. Blackford Farms are now experimenting with further crosses to meet demand. For more – probably much more – than you ever wanted to know about Wagyu, visit The Beef Site.
