Marc Forgione's 6 Tips For Cooking A Great Steak

Marc Forgione is a very busy man. He runs an eponymous restaurant, the clubby steakhouse American Cut, and the Laotian-inspired Khe-Yo in New York's Tribeca, and always seems to have something new in the works. As anyone who's ever visited American Cut can tell you, he's also a man who really knows his steak: His signature 20-ounce pastrami-rubbed steak, which is dry-aged for 30 days and cold-smoked before bring rubbed with pastrami spices, is so popular that guests can order one to pick up at the restaurant and cook on their own grill (call the restaurant for more details). But even if you're just grilling a steak you bought at the supermarket, Forgione has some advice for you. Here are six of his foolproof tips for making a perfect steak.

Fat Is Delicious
Buy a 10-ounce strip steak or rib eye; both have a nice fat cap (look for one at least a quarter-inch thick) surrounding the steak, which will protect the muscle from drying out and toughening up when you expose it to high heat.

Use High Heat
Cranking up the heat helps steaks develop a steakhouse-worthy crust. The problem is that the average cheap sauté pan can't take the heat. So break out a heavy-bottomed metal pan or cast-iron skillet.

Don't Mess With It
When you place the steak on a hot grill or pan, leave it alone until you begin to see a crust forming on the side of the steak that's in contact with the skillet. It should take around three to four minutes for this to happen.

Baste Your Steak
Add a few springs of thyme and a few unpeeled garlic cloves to the oil in a pan. Baste the steak by tipping the pan and using a spoon to pour the seasoned oil over the steak.

Let It Rest
Remove the meat from the pan and allow it to sit for 10 minutes before slicing across the grain so that the juices redistribute inside the steak. Slice, sprinkle with additional sea salt, and serve.

Season with Fat
All animals should be cooked and seasoned with their own fat. When we cook steak, we use dry-aged beef fat that's been rendered and cooked with butter, thyme, rosemary, and garlic.