High-steaks business

Imagine being woken up each morning by the soothing sound of classical music - Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt perhaps, or maybe a few bars of Gabriel Fauré's Pavane. There wouldn't be any rush to get up and get moving, as you'd have a whole day of lounging and taking it easy ahead of you. Of course, you'd be well and frequently fed and watered. And if all that sounds a bit too hectic, there would be several massages a day to help ease the stress away before you settle down for a chilled evening and drift off again into a deep, relaxing sleep.

It sounds like the life of a celebrity, yet even stars have to actually go to work from time to time. It is, in fact, the life of the average wagyu cow: one of the most pampered creatures on the planet - not to mention one of the most expensive. The last few years have seen a marked increase of wagyu beef on the menus of high-end steakhouses and restaurants in the UAE. The meat is prized for its succulence, tenderness and intense flavour, owing to the high level of marbling in the flesh, or the abundance of monounsaturated fats that melt at a low temperature. As a result, the beef retains torrents of moisture when it is cooked, imparting a distinctive and much sought-after flavour that puts it alongside foie gras, oysters, truffles and caviar in the pantheon of gourmet delicacies.

Naturally, wagyu beef has become a symbol of luxury, opulence and discernment, making it perfect for glamour-seeking gourmands in the UAE. But what is it, exactly, and why does it command such a high price? "Wagyu" means "Japanese cow", and refers to a number of breeds native to Japan, such as Kochi, Kumamoto, Shimane, Tottori and Tajima. These breeds are genetically predisposed to high levels of marbling, yet despite this, the fat content in wagyu beef is unsaturated (the "good" stuff), making it suitable for those on low-cholesterol diets. The marbling grade system rates meat from one (the lowest) to 12, which is the best quality available.

Wagyu cattle can be bred and raised anywhere in the world, but the very best varieties are believed to be farmed in certain areas of Japan, where the climate and environment is perfect for producing the most succulent and flavoursome meat. One such variety is Kobe beef, which hails from its namesake city in the Hyogo Prefecture. Renowned for its high quality and exquisite flavour, the meat can only be called Kobe beef if it is taken from the Tajima breed of cattle, which must be born, fed and slaughtered in Hyogo (be warned: Kobe-style beef is not genuine Kobe beef, just as Parmesan cheese isn't necessarily Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese).

It's a similar story with Matsusaka beef, which is thought to be superior even to Kobe beef. Only virgin female cows can be used, and they must be raised in the placid and tranquil fields between the Kumozu and Miyagawa rivers of the city of Matsusaka in the Mie Prefecture. It was in farmsteads such as these that the peculiar methods of cattle-rearing to produce highly marbled meat were originally practised. The cows' sedentary lifestyle was encouraged to promote weight gain. Soft music would be played to keep them calm in the belief that a happy cow is a tasty cow. And they would be massaged regularly to prevent muscle cramps, which a lack of exercise might incur.

Although such methods may sound ancient and antiquated, they are all relatively new. For over a millennium in Japan, eating the meat of four-legged animals was strictly prohibited, and it wasn't until the Meiji Restoration in 1868 that the ban was lifted. Even then, the Japanese diet consisted primarily of vegetables, rice and fish, with beef only gaining more prominence in the latter part of the 20th century. As Japanese people became more affluent, the demand for wagyu beef increased, and its reputation grew in western markets among those searching for the ultimate in tender and tasty beef.

Today, you're just as likely to find wagyu beef on the menu at your favourite steakhouse as you are Black Angus beef from the US or Karan beef from South Africa. Yet since the majority of wagyu imported into the UAE is Australian - and therefore not Kobe or Matsusaka beef - is it as good as the real thing? Uwe Micheel, the president of the Emirates Culinary Guild and director of kitchens at the Radisson Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek, thinks it's close enough.

"Well it's actually the same breed of animal. Wagyu is the breed and Kobe beef is from Kobe, which is where the name comes from. There's also Matsusaka beef, but the wagyu beef from elsewhere, such as Australia, is treated the same way as it is in Japan. The cows are fed well and massaged with rice straw. They are basically massaging the fat into the meat, otherwise you would have a piece of meat which has a thick layer of fat separate to the lean meat. When they massage them, the fat goes deeper into the meat."

I ask Micheel why the meat isn't imported from Japan - surely with the UAE's taste for the extravagant, the extra cost would be no object even in these credit-crunched times. "At present there is no Kobe beef," he reveals. "But that's purely because most of the beef from Japan is not halal, which is why it's not on the market. The wagyu from Australia is fully halal certified. They've started bringing some meat in from the US, but the majority of us in the good steak houses are using Australian wagyu."

Japanese beef or otherwise, why is wagyu so costly? Micheel has done his homework: "It's expensive to breed the animal. Wagyu cows are kept separate. They don't get excited too much. They require a lot more maintenance compared to a grain-fed animal that would run outside. Even with normal cattle, there's a big difference in quality between grass-fed and grain-fed. Grass-fed animals are kept outside a lot but grain-fed animals are kept inside, so the maintenance of the wagyu cows is expensive.

"The price depends on the country of origin and whether it's grass-fed or grain-fed. Then, if it's grain-fed, how many days? It ranges from 20 days before they are slaughtered, up to 240-300 days - then the price will go up. Compared to a good quality grain-fed steak, you will pay a little bit more than double the price for wagyu." At Palm Grill, the Radisson's New York-style steakhouse, a 300g Australian Kobe-style wagyu filet mignon costs Dh480; while a 300g Australian prime beef 120-day grain-fed filet mignon is Dh235.

But is it really worth it? "Is lobster worth it? Is caviar worth it?" posits Micheel. "I personally would say no. But if I want to have something that is relatively rare, and money is no object, then I think I would have it, yes, because it is something different. It's a luxury - not everybody can afford it. But not everybody can afford to drive a Porsche. A Porsche is very different from a Volkswagen, and it's the same with food products, there are big quality and price differences."

Micheel oversees the food at Palm Grill. I wonder whether wagyu steak requires any special treatment in the kitchen. "No, it's cooked the same way. For me, because of the quality, it should be grilled. Don't do anything else with it. And I would never cook it more than rare. You want to taste the meat. Maybe season it with a bit of salt and pepper - there's no use in buying an expensive piece of meat and then killing the taste with a lot of spices. The best cut of meat, of any kind, is the tenderloin. But I personally would go for the rib-eye because it has a bit more flavour. But tenderloin is the most popular, especially in this country."

At Sumibiya, The Radisson's Japanese yakiniku-style restaurant, people take slivers of raw wagyu and cook it themselves on an open grill at the centre of the table. Do the Japanese have different ways of cooking wagyu? "It depends." says Micheel. "They use it for a lot of dishes and wagyu's a lot more popular in Japan than here. But even in Japan you wouldn't want to marinate it. They have a lot of good-quality food products eaten the way they are, so you are able to taste it. There's not so much marination in Japan. If you have good basic ingredients you use little or no marination because you don't need it."

At Abu Dhabi's Benihana, the same minimalist approach is applied to wagyu steak. The manager of the Beach Rotana Hotel's Japanese restaurant, Naushad Mohammed, explains the process. "The striploin is cooked in front of you at the teppanyaki table. It's fresh beef. You can add salt and pepper. There's no marination, but you may have seasoning, ginger, soy sauce, or whatever you like on the table. The average price for a wagyu striploin at our restaurants is about Dh273. It depends on the cut, but in Benihana we only have striploin."

It is clear that the inherent differences between western and Japanese cultures, traditions and tastes have given wagyu beef two distinct personalities. In Japan, where fish is often preferred to meat, wagyu is eaten in small chopstick-friendly portions grilled piece by piece at the table. Whereas in the carnivorous West, huge steaks are commonplace - and some restaurants even do wagyu beefburgers.

As Benihana's head chef Roy Matanguihan points out: "Mostly people come to Benihana to have sushi; wagyu is more popular in the Beach Rotana's steakhouse (Rodeo Grill). Normally, the most popular beef in a Japanese restaurant is Kobe beef. It's the most expensive. It's very expensive because it's very special." Wherever the wagyu is from, and however it's cooked, one important question lingers: can the average restaurant-goer really taste the difference between wagyu beef and ordinary, non-massaged, un-serenaded and modestly fed common, workaday beef? Uwe Micheel says it depends.

"If you are a regular steak eater, I'd say yes, because it's a very tender piece of meat. If you're not a steak eater, I'd say maybe no. Anyway, a lot of people would see it in its uncooked state and say this is too fatty, because of the marbling." So I wonder. Would I be deterred by a heavily marbled wagyu tenderloin steak, cooked rare, to moist and tender perfection, with a side order of crisp and fluffy chips, and lashings of English mustard?

Fat chance.
@Email:jbrennan@thenational.ae