Eye Candy: Bavette Steak, Salt-Roasted Celery Root, Fried Herbs, and Carrot Bordelaise

Sarah Simmons has won many admirers through the elevated Southern dishes at her lauded hot spots City Grit and Birds & Bubbles in New York City, and late last year expanded her reach to South Carolina with the opening of City Grit Farmhouse and Rise Gourmet Goods and Bakeshop in Columbia. Beard House guests were treated to a preview of the new eateries’ fare when Simmons and partner Aaron Hoskins prepared a Southern sweetheart feast last month. Amongst a menu of regional staples from a wedge salad with cauliflower, broccoli, white anchovies, brown butter, fines herbs, and hazelnuts to a lowcountry boil with spicy fermented shrimp, corn cake, crab butter, potato espuma, caramelized crab, and shrimp head sauce​ was this elevated take on beef stew. Simmons divulged that both she and Hoskins had come up with this dish separately, which made it a mandatory component of their collaborative Beard House menu. Removed from its traditional broth base, the bavette steak was a stunning combination of seared crust and tender meat, its richness contrasted with the slightly bitter tone of the fried herbs, and the gentle sweetness of the mirepoix-turned-sauces of the salt-roasted celery root and carrot bordelaise.

View this event's menu and details here. For upcoming Beard House dinners, check out our events calendar. 

-- 

Maggie Borden is assistant editor at the James Beard Foundation. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.