Nancy Silverton is known as one of the best chefs in Los Angeles and she can back that up with a James Beard Award in addition to countless other accolades and her Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Mozza. For her latest act, Silverton is coming out with her seventh cookbook from her beloved meat-centric restaurant Chi SPACCA. The book, “Chi Spacca: A New Approach to American Cooking” is a mix of meat-focused dishes along with a wide array of salads, vegetables, and fish recipes. As we’re all big cooks at La Cucina Italiana, we asked Silverton to give us some cooking tips for our next meat-heavy meal at home.
Thanks for taking the time Nancy. Would you mind sharing some at-home tips for meat-eaters?
I have a couple of things for you. If you're not braising meat and you’re just cooking a piece of meat, what you want to do is cook it on a high heat and you want the outside to caramelize. But so many people at home either have an indoor gas grill or a kind of less powerful gas grill and either of those are not a great option because they just don't get hot enough. So, if you're not going to cook with charcoal or wood, and your gas grill does not really get hot enough, I think a much better alternative is to use a cast-iron skillet or griddle because it'll get much hotter. So, forget about the idea of ‘oh, I'm gonna grill it,’ because it's not gonna be as good as if you seared it in a cast-iron skillet.
Another really practical bit of advice for any kind of thicker cut of meat is to bring it out of the fridge 45 minutes or more ahead of time so that it comes up to temperature so you can cook your meat rare enough so it's not cold in the middle.
When you’re cooking a big filet on a cast iron skillet, are you constantly flipping it?
I don't really flip it. I don't really move it around on a cast iron. It's just both sides. Another tip is absolutely seasoning well. You watch when you say to somebody, ‘don't forget to season with salt and pepper,’ and then you watch what’s actually happening, and it's such a small amount. Especially when you’re talking about a thick steak, it really needs to be well seasoned.
And are you seasoning well in advance or just while you’re cooking?
For a steak, I season while I’m cooking, but other kinds of cuts like let's say a shoulder or something that I'm braising or even chicken I will season the night before so the seasoning penetrates.
For people cooking on an outdoor grill, do you have a technique for keeping the grates from sticking?
Honestly, just brush the grates with oil.
For the cast-iron skillet, are you just using olive oil or some other type of oil to cook in because of how hot it gets?
You really only need a neutral oil. I mean, you don't need an extra virgin olive oil but an olive oil or a neutral oil is good. But don’t use butter, that's going to burn.