The story of the Pistachio Herb Crusted Lamb Rack

Let me give you a little bit of background on this dish. It was our signature dish and sometimes an entire table would order only lamb like 5 or six people. That’s how popular it was and Centro was busy 200-350 covers per day 6 nights a week.

I would start my day by Cleaning/ Butchering the lamb.  It came fully enveloped in fat cap on which had to be removed.  Then the horrible task of removing remaining chine bones which are small pieces of bone in-between each chop on the bottom side. Fine dining Restaurants do this to ensure the guest can easily cut the meat and they don't get surprised with an unexpected piece of bone when chewing.

Chef David Lee taught me this preparation. Then we would clean the bones with a knife and clean them again using butchers twine tied to the wall wrapped one time around each bone and jerked away to leave the bone pristinely clean as it should be for fine dining.

Also of importance is the size of the eye, the actual meat that is left. Centro had exact specifications for this something like 18-20 ounces which indicates the gross weight of one rack of lamb before cleaning.

I also remember always having fights with the crazy Guatamalin guy who was responsible for making the bread crumbs. I believe he was either ex-military or an ex-con and he scared the shit out of me.

The bones are then wrapped in foil to protect them from browning. Ideally, you want the bones white as possible and not roasted when the dish arrives at the table.
Importantly we seared the lamb in very hot cast iron pans only to sear. We considered it a cardinal sin to have any uneven cooking on the lamb which would later be sliced chop by chop as the orders came in.

Cooking lamb is a real feeling you get. You only get reasonably competent at it after a lot of practice and guidance.  You need to touch the lamb by pressing gently on it to test while cooking it in the oven.

The big secret was to cook the lamb before crusting it for exactly 10 minutes in a roaring hot oven and after that never put it in the fridge. Lamb, similar to other meats, is best cooked from room temperature.

Our lamb was imported from the USA, NYC butcher importers Debragga were the best in the entire USA.  It was Australian lamb as they grow it much bigger there than in New Zealand.  Our lamb had a high marbling  Fat in-between muscle fibers which melts when cooked to offer tenderness and excellent mouthfeel as we call it.

Most popular was the lamb cooked medium.  But for us Chefs who knew the dish,  we know that proper doneness is called Rose or Pink somewhere between Medium Rare and Medium.

Chef Thuet would lose his mind when people ordered it well-done. He would curse and swear and announce what he thought their profession or position in life was.

Then the crusting... just before service we would liberally brush lamb with maple mustard and pack on the green pistachio crust tightly.

You need a razor-sharp knife when cutting this cooked lamb to ensure you did not damage or remove crust in the cutting process.

It was difficult to cook 6 orders all different donenesses to be ready at the exact same time and there are some secrets there for sure.

The dish can be difficult but once mastered you felt like a real chef for a few minutes. Just for a moment actually, until Marc Thuet or David Lee would offer more verbal abuse about something else that I had not mastered yet. As I knew, that is the way it goes in the kitchen!