The Worst Thing You Can Do To Kobe Beef, According To Tyler Florence

Have you gotten your hands on some Kobe beef? If you have, kudos to the chef. The meat comes from Black cows raised in the Hyogo prefecture of Japan, specifically the city of Kobe. If you have paid for it yourself, you likely forked out a good amount. A subset of Wagyu, this meat can cost between $200 and $500 per pound. So, what's so special about Kobe beef that it demands those prices? In a word: marbling; the cattle are raised with the highest standards of treatment regarding diet, living conditions, and even lineage. As a result, the cows have beautifully marbled intramuscular fat. That's why the worst thing you can do to a Kobe steak, according to Food Network's Chef Tyler Florence, is marinate it.

We spoke with the celebrity chef and restaurateur, who's heading up Après Q, an open-fire BBQ experience at the 5850 Fest in Ketchum, Idaho. The après-ski fete features craft cocktails, après-inspired bites, and fire-grilled creations paired with expertly curated wine. Florence's "Master's of Fire" program is the inspiration for the fire-grilled offerings, and he is an expert when it comes to meat. We asked if it would make sense to do a marinade on a piece of Kobe beef. "No. God no. Watch your mouth. What are you talking about? Never. Never ever," he says. "It's just salt." Chef Tyler explains that because of the marbling, a marinade will never do.

Oleic acids give Kobe beef its singular flavor. As the fat dissolves and caramelizes during cooking, the acids will help the meat develop an extraordinary, buttery taste. The standout flavor is one reason Tyler Florence suggests only salting and cooking a piece of Kobe beef with a hard sear. "I think if you get a good piece of steak to begin with, you shouldn't have to do a lot to it," Florence says. Kobe beef cattle are fed a grain- and grass-based diet that rapidly fattens them up and produces their intramuscular marbling. "Grain-finished is going to give you the marbling and the flavor profile. So for the most part, I just like meat with salt and olive oil," the celebrity chef says.

Marinating your Kobe steak would not only ruin its naturally prized taste, it would result in a mushy piece of meat that would have no chance to crust or brown. Getting that hard sear on a Kobe steak is key to trapping the fat and juices inside the meat. So, what about adding a little extra flavor or seasoning to Kobe beef? Florence explains that the beef has got to shine, but says "now you can put a flavor application on the end of it, right? If you're talking about Japanese, really great A5 Miyazaki snow beef, you can put a drop of something on it that has a big bowl flavor profile."