Page 27 - March & April

ROUSES.COM 25
The Empress of Steak
by Randy Fertel + photos by David Gallent
M om came from south of New
Orleans in the Mississippi Delta
– not the delta 200 miles to
the north where the Blues were born, but
the estuary at the mouth of the river. In
that true alluvial Delta, there was nothing
but topsoil, two hundred feet thick before
bedrock, the result of eons of silt left by the
river in its annual spring inundation. So,
besides being great cooks, the family enjoyed
an incredible abundance. They were rice
farmers and orange growers. (Little-known
fact: the best oranges in America come from
Plaquemines Parish). Mom grew up in the
Depression but used to say, “We never knew
we were poor.” The deep Delta’s land and
the waters brimmed with redfish, trout,
shrimp, crab, and oysters, duck, geese, dove
and quail, deer, and rabbit, ripe for the
picking, the foodstuffs that graced their
bountiful table.
I call Mom the “accidental entrepreneur.”
While she had a vision of quality that infused
and drove her career, she didn’t have a vision
of expansion. Opportunities came her way
and she seized them, like the customer from
Baton Rouge who insisted she let him open
a franchise “or else I’ll kill myself on the
highway driving home drunk.” That’s how
her expansion began. She rode the wave
of 60s franchising but, as far as I know,
Ruth’s Chris was the first upscale restaurant
to franchise. So, quality and opportunism
were important pieces of her success. Too,
while Mom enjoyed the power that came
with success, she didn’t pull rank. She was
present, right there with you, eye to eye. I
can’t tell you how many servers and cooks
from around the country tell the story of
seeing Mom in the kitchen slaving away
during one of her three-week visits to open
a new Ruth’s Chris. If the shrimp needed
peeling, there she was – with her 7-carat
emerald-cut diamond – over the sink,
peeling away.
Pick up Randy Fertel’s book, The GorillaMan
and the Empress of Steak, at local bookstores
or order online at amazon.com.
6 large egg yolks
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ cup boiling water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Rouses salt
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
STEAKHOUSE HOLLANDAISE
Serve this sauce over steak, asparagus, or
eggs Benedict.
HOW TO PREP
Fill a medium saucepan with ½ inch water. Heat
to barely simmering. Whisk egg yolks and butter
together in a large, heat-resistant bowl set over
the saucepan until mixture is smooth and homo-
geneous. Make sure you don’t let bowl touch the
water. Slowly add 1/2 cup boiling water and cook,
whisking constantly, until thickened , about 7 to 10
minutes. Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice and
cayenne, and season with salt to taste.
RECIPE, try me!
Randy Fertel’s book,
The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak
Randy Fertel