If you do not have Chef Ian Bergh’s Café de Paris sauce recipe to smother your steak in, your favourite piece of beef is seriously missing out. There are thousands of versions of this secret recipe, but Ian gladly shares his version which often gets served from his kitchen at De Grendel Restaurant in Cape Town. This is a classic recipe that will make any steak sing.

Café de Paris is a complex butter-based sauce served with grilled beef. When it is served with a ribeye or sirloin steak, the resulting dish is known as “entrecôte Café de Paris”. The sauce was first popularised in the 1940’s by the Café de Paris restaurant in Geneva, then owned by Arthur-François Dumont. Today Entrecôte Café de Paris remains the restaurant’s speciality which attributes the origin of the sauce to Mr Dumont’s father-in-law, Mr Boubier.

Ingredients for the Café de Paris Sauce

• 500g butter, softened
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 25g capers
• ½ onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 4 tbsp chives sliced
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1 tbsp rosemary, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
• 5 anchovy fillets
• 1 tbsp good brandy
• 1 tbsp port
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ½ tsp paprika
• ½ tsp curry powder
• 1 chilli, chopped
• 4 peppercorns, crushed
• ½ lemon, juiced
• zest of ½ lemon
• zest ¼ orange
• 1 tsp good salt

For the meat and vegetables

• 2 portions free-range beef rib eye, thick cut, rubbed in olive all and seasoned well
• 300g baby potatoes
• 3 sprigs rosemary, rinsed
• 6 whole baby beetroot
• 1 head garlic, horizontally cut in half
• 200g baby carrots
• 4 baby leeks, blanched
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients for the Café de Paris sauce except for the butter in a glass bowl and leave to marinate for 24 hours in a warm part of the kitchen.
2. Purée the mixture in a blender and push through a fine sieve, then blend the butter with the mixture until well combined. Roll in a cylinder shape using foil and refrigerate so that it can set until ready to be used.
3. Preheat your oven to 200°C. Combine all the root vegetables in a roasting tray, add the rosemary, drizzle with olive oil, add seasoning, cover with foil and roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until cooked. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with chopped parsley, set aside and keep warm.
4. Place a heavy based frying pan on high heat, add a splash of vegetable oil, add the steaks, and cook on each side for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan, place on a roasting tray, and let the meat rest for 5 minutes.
5. Place a thick slice of the butter on top of each steak and put in the oven for 1 minute so that the butter can start to melt, remove from the oven and serve immediately with the roasted vegetables and a fine bottle of De Grendel Rubaiyat.