Steak (R)evolution

This film opened my eyes to the world of beef. As with all things there is always more to learn.

I had my set ideas on what a steak is and how it is to be cooked and enjoyed. My ideas had come from watching a thousand cooking shows cooking a thousand steaks. I thought I'd seen all there was to see. Now I realize that those ideas came from watching a thousand North American cooking shows with very strict methods and rules.

It seems to me that a world view of anything, including beef, is always better. I'll be doing more investigation about the origins of my beef and trying more things concerning it's handling and preparation from now on.

"Steak (R)Evoultion" is an amazingly long documentary that, in effect, says almost nothing that the viewer can internalize and use. The film consists of many, many interviews with various beef producers, restaurateurs and the like as they talk about what makes up the best beef. Yet, none of them completely agree and the documentary itself isn't particularly interesting and lasts well over two hours.

Some say that the cow should be young when it's slaughtered, yet one guy claims to make the best beef and his cows are over a dozen years old when slaughtered. Many say there should be lots of fat marbled in the meat...others declare they want beef that is lean. There's even a Swedish guy who wants leaner Wagyu beef--even though its fattiness is why it's so highly prized. Then there are the grass- fed versus grain-fed folks. No wonder I left feeling confused and dissatisfied. Perhaps beef snobs and chefs will enjoy this film.

The bottom line is that the filmmakers went to a TON of trouble to make this film--going to many countries and having the film in about a dozen languages...but for the average viewer I don't think this will particularly matter.

I think this documentary has rich content. But the director can't tell the story in a smooth and beautiful way. If he had shot the video and then give it to a computer program to edit and cut, he might have better results. It is very hard to concentrate on the documentary since there are random cuts and jumps between subjects and countries. and meaningless random countdown of different parts (up to 10 I guess, or 12) does not help either.

This is an unfair review as by these standards there would only be one brand of cheese, one style of bread, and one, only one of flavour of ice cream (who could live with that?!?!). This documentary took us beyond showing how different breeds of beef are raised and handled, the alternate feeding and aging processes used, and how beef has been enjoyed in all parts of the world by many cultures. Different beef have different flavours, and it is the consumer to decide what he enjoys and what he is willing to pay for. My wife and i thoroughly enjoyed it and immediately went and bought some Argentinian beef to enjoy that night. The Japanese Wagyu beef section was particularly interesting and I also enjoyed the pride the farmers had raising their brand of beef.

I'm not much of a meat eater but this is one well-done movie (pun intended). I was sort of expecting a film about U.S. steak snobs and new cooking techniques but in fact it is a surprisingly informative and passionate documentary about cow breeds, breeders and butchers in many different parts of the world. It starts from France and covers the growing concern of local butchers that French beef isn't really matching up to high global standards (due to lower fat content). From there on it moves to many other countries such as USA, Argentina, England and Scotland with their old breeds, Japan and wagyu beef growers in other parts of the world...until it reaches Spain where the authors believe to have found the best steak in the world. The strange numbering of the parts is I believe the rating authors gave to the best steaks they tasted.