Butcher and Beast

July 15, 2019
Mar, the owner and executive chef of New York City’s Beatrice Inn, presents herself as a true carnivore in this rich and enticing debut. Recipes are doled out across four seasonal chapters with a European flair and strong emphasis on red meat and game. Winter options include venison Wellington, as well as a short rib and beef cheek pie. Summer fare is only marginally lighter, featuring roast leg of mutton with Yorkshire pudding, and tempranillo vine–smoked hare with huckleberry conserve and vanilla. Dry-aging a rib-eye rack for 90 to 160 days is the key to one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, whiskey beef, which also involves a weekly wrapping of the steak in cheesecloth that is soaked in single-malt. Even desserts can be beefy, as proven by the bone marrow–bourbon crème brûlée. Along the way, Mar tells the story of her rise to culinary fame, chronicles her restaurant’s history, and poses for striking photos (in one, she’s seated at a banquette in a slit dress, a forkful of tagliatelle in one hand, and the head of a wild boar resting on her exposed knee). This alluring collections of recipes from an exciting Manhattan chef will leave meat eaters salivating.