Tournedos à la Mexicaine

Tournedos à la Mexicaine (beef tenderloin on grilled mushroom with tomato fondue and capsicum) teaches heat management: the pan must be truly hot before the fillet touches it. A cool pan doesn't fry tournedos. It squeezes out their juice and steams them grey. Everything else is organized to protect that decisive moment.

The original entry assumed a brigade, with tomato fondue reducing at one station, mushrooms and capsicums under a salamander at another, and tournedos fried to order at the range. There is no stockpot or finished sauce from the saucier in this formula, so none belongs in the modernization. At home, the broiler is the salamander, a small saucepan holds the fondue, and one cook prepares the vegetables in sequence before frying the beef. Concurrent station work is brigade scaffolding and can go; the well-reduced fondue, separately grilled vegetables, and equal quantities of oil and butter beneath the beef are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

On the plate, each mushroom receives precisely one tablespoon of tomato fondue, then the burnished tournedos, then half a capsicum folded over the top. Prepare those supporting parts first. The one step that cannot wait is the beef: dry it thoroughly, season it just before cooking, and don't let it near the pan until the fat shimmers.