As more chefs join the growing movement of utilizing animals from head to toe, heart is starting to show up on menus across the country.
Besides making better use of what may have been typically prepared for staff meals, some cutting-edge chefs say heart is full of flavor.
“Of all the organ meats it’s the least organ-y,” said Rob Levitt, chef at Mado in Chicago. “Heart is delicious.”
Celebrity chef Mario Batali featured heart on his opening menu at Manzo Ristorante in his brand new Eataly, which includes a retail market and is located in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood. He combines grilled beef heart and tongue on a skewer and plates it with baby lettuce, peperonata and horseradish. It is currently served on a beef focused, six-course tasting menu priced at $95.
Chris Cosentino, chef at Incanto in San Francisco, said heart is versatile, noting that it can be confited, grilled, stuffed, corned or roasted.
“Heart is rich and intense in flavor,” with the taste of iron and minerals, he said. “It is the core of existence. And it’s the leanest muscle in the body.
“What’s so interesting about it is it never stops working,” he continued. “You are taught that meat with no fat is not flavorful and working meat is tough. But you always have blood flow [in a heart] and blood flow brings flavor.”
Usually Cosentino keeps a tartare of heart on the menu at Incanto. He'll use any animal’s heart he can get a hold of, he said, except for pork because diners fear eating it raw.
He teams venison heart tartare with foie gras for a course on his $75 all-offal tasting menu. For the tartare, he trims the meat and minces it by hand using two knives. He seasons it with classic ingredients or less traditional alternatives like puttanesca style with hot pepper. In addition, a current appetizer at the restaurant consists of corned beef heart and foie gras with mustard and rye bread and sells for $15.
In Chicago, chef Levitt of Mado said he typically grills beef heart steaks over a wood fire. He seasons the $23 dish with chili spices, such as cumin, paprika and cinnamon.
In the same city at The Publican restaurant, duck heart comes with peach mostarda, Tropea onions and sourdough for $12. The menu lists the farm where the bird is raised: Grimaud Farm in Stockton, Calif.
Contact Pamela Parseghian at pparsegh@nrn.com.
