DUBAI // In a 1,000°C oven a fillet of beef cooks in its own juices with a seasoning of salt and pepper. Twelve minutes later, executive chef Marcello Mereu reaches into the heat with tongs to retrieve the meat, promptly dropping it on to a 500°C plate with a dollop of butter waiting in the middle.
The steak lands and the butter sizzles, giving off a sound like static electricity and instantly melting to a liquid gold.
It does not take a doctor to realise that a hunk of steak and butter is not exactly health food. In warnings released on Monday, a panel from the World Health Organisation (WHO) underscored the dangers of eating too much red meat, linking consumption to “sufficient evidence” of an increased risk of cancer.
The report concluded that red meat fell into group one out of five, making it one of the worst offenders on a list that included asbestos and tobacco smoke.
The conclusion was the result of an inquiry by a team of international researchers that looked at more than 800 studies on humans and cancer. The panel, however, also said that the risk was so slight that the majority of carnivores did not have reason to be concerned.
One place where the concern seemed minimal was Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Dubai where on a Wednesday night a full house was expected.
In the kitchen, Dol Ozha took a 15-centimetre fillet knife to a hunk of beef, carefully removing strips of fat. He has worked for the high-end American restaurant chain for four years. Two months ago, he was promoted to a position where he is allowed to touch the meat.
The beef is then put into a bowl that can hold about 30 kilos. Mr Mereu said the restaurant served about 2,000 kilograms of steak a month, the equivalent of 250 cows by his estimate. He did not anticipate the pace slowing, even with the latest health warnings.
Neal Carley, who has “a more than weekly steak habit,” said he would not stop or curtail his steak intake.
“In our day-to-day lives cancer is not an imminent threat. So why not enjoy a steak?”
Another regular diner, Mac McClelland, had similar plans to not change his plans.
As an American, he said, steak was just a part of his “normal diet”. He added that he believed he ate healthily in a diet that included some red meat at least once or twice a week.
“I’ve been a steak eater for 59 years,” he said. “I’m not going to stop now.”
One person on the steak house management team mentioned, as an aside, possibly embarrassed, said that she had started partaking in Meatless Mondays, a weekly practice that has gained some traction on social media opting to go vegetarian instead.
She cited health reasons, and said it did make her feel like she was doing something good for herself.
Back in the Ruth’s Chris kitchen, the cooking staff of 16 hustles. Giant bowls of mashed potatoes are whipped, baskets of bread prepared, onion rings are piled on counters. There is nary a sign of the WHO warnings here.
When news broke that the health body was examining the risks of red meat consumption, Betsy Booren, the vice president for scientific affairs at the North American Meat Institute, called it “our 12-alarm fire”.
“If they determine that red and processed meat causes cancer – and I think that they will – that moniker will stick around for years,” Ms Booren said at a conference last summer. “It could take decades and billions of dollars to change that.”
But Mr Mereu was not worried. He compared customers’ love of red meat with other vices such as smoking.
He pointed to the ashtrays on the tables, a gesture that appeared to mean “few are quitting anytime soon”. Without some balance in life, he said, shaking his head, “we just eat vegetables”. A future, evidently, this chef does not wish to ponder.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
