If your New Year’s resolution to skip the booze or be a vegan lasted til the word “February”was uttered, congratulations on beating 72.2 percent of all of us quitters, a completely unscientific calculation. Well done you. Now, if you really, really want some meat, and you probably do, listen up. Steakhouse Smith & Wollensky are giving people the chance to win a whole cow.
Yes, you heard me right. But don’t worry, you won’t have to take care of it. It’s cooked.
To end any thoughts of detoxing in style, Smith & Wollensky are giving you UK Beasts the chance to win a dinner of 16 (not a typo) courses for yourself and 19 (that is correct, no misprint here) friends to enjoy true “nose to hoof dining” with a specially created menu from Executive Chef Tom Cook.
According to these mad genuises, the idea of the competition came about due to the fact that so many delicious cuts of meat (and offal) are not utilised, because we are lazy diners. We get into habits of knowing what we like, then ordering just that, and lo and behold that’s what restaurants then put on the menu. It’s the Circle of Life, in a carnivorous way. Chef Cook wanted to show diners that so many of the lesser fashionable cuts can be just as delicious, if not more, when cooked the right way, so, why not challenge them to consume an entire beast?
So, if you win, you’ll gather up 19 of your mates and start with a guided tour through S&W’s in-house dry-ageing room. The experts will tell you all about the 28-day ageing process, the different cuts, you’ll meet Chef Cook and the team who will be preparing this gluttonous banquet – your mind will be racing and your stomach rumbling.
And of course you’ll need some booze, so Ernest Reid, Master Mixologist, will then treat you and your guests to cocktails which are the perfect warmup.
But leave room. You’re going to need it.
Set in the Theodore Roosevelt Room, one of Smith & Wollensky’s three private dining rooms, the feast will be paired with the finest wines, hand selected by yet another master of alcoholic delights, Beverage Manager Scott Levy.
Nathan Evans, Operation Director says, “we wanted this menu to be the antithesis of detox after January. We also wanted to educate guests more on the nose to tail dining aspect andalso to show customers the variety of delicious dishes that can be created from just one animal.”
Is this your dream meal? Feeling adventurous? Enter the competition here.
The competition closes on 31 March 2018 with a winner being drawn on that date.
A former ABC National, Dallas and Atlanta radio personality, Martina O'Boyle is now making movies and covering culture in London, Dublin, and as far in Europe as the cheapie flights will take her, for Pop Culture Beast.