Lamb chops are tops: ribs rack up fine-dining points

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 9, 1998 by Alan Liddle

Whether roasted to render exotic crusts or grilled to produce flavors that could spring only from the meeting of marinade, flesh and flame, racks and chops are the king of lamb cuts.

Racks are the entire rib-chop section from one side of a lamb and come with seven to nine rib bones, depending on the way the animal was butchered. While there are several kinds of lamb "chops" -- including loin, arm and shoulder blade chops -- the chops sold by many upscale dinner houses are actually from split racks. However, some chefs say they use slightly less tender loin chops to lower food costs.

"Rack of lamb is the best-known, most appealing and `fanciest' cut" in the minds of most restaurant customers, chef-restaurateur Hubert Keller of San Francisco's Fleur de Lys says, expressing an opinion voiced by many other operators.

Results of the First-Ever Bon Appetit Survey support the notion that chops are tops: The greatest percentage of respondents to that reader survey -- 39.8 percent -- said that cut is their favorite; runner-up leg of lamb got 31.1 percent of the vote.

Whether chefs sell racks or split-rack chops, most serve their bone-in lamb rare to medium rare, unless asked to prepare it otherwise. And many, if not most, strip away meat and fat from much of the rib bone and trim all but a thin layer of fatty cap meat from around the fleshy eye of the chop; pieces prepared in this fashion are said to be Frenched.

At Fleur de Lys, Keller carves up a half rack to create two double-cut, blanched garlic-stuffed chops wrapped in crunchy Julienne potato and sells the dish for $32.50. He pan-sears and then oven-roasts the chops and plates them with a pool of Merlot-vanilla bean sauce.

Colorado is the leading lamb-producing state, claiming 28.4 percent of U.S. production as of 1990, the American Sheep Industry Association reports. Chef-owner Charles Dale of 52-seat Renaissance in Aspen, Colo., flies his state's lamb banner, selling, among other dishes, chops that are marinated in a puree of stewed dates and chipotle peppers before being cooked on a grooved griddle.

"You get spicy `heat' from the chipotle and caramelization from the dates," he says, explaining why people are drawn to the $34 dish served with a black lentil compote.

Denver's Papillon Cafe sells grilled chops with a tapenade pesto sauce, chive-infused mashed potatoes and vegetable for $22. Chef Radek Cerny creates the pesto by combining in a food processor black Greek and domestic olives, toasted pine nuts, basil, chopped parsley, Parmesan cheese, red bell peppers and olive oil. He adds the pesto, oven-dried tomatoes, more Greek olives and roasted shallots to a veal-stock-based sauce and reduces the mixture's volume by about half before finishing it with chives and a splash of chicken stock.

Traci Des Jardins, chef-owner of Jardiniere in San Francisco, offers chops a la nicoise. She pan-sears, roasts and splits a rack and then creates a sauce using cooking juices, diced fennel, basil, scallions, oil-cured olives, oven-dried tomatoes and fruity French olive oil.

Grilled chops with a spicy tomato glaze and crown of goat cheese with garlic and herbs is $26 and a signature at Mediterraneo in Dallas, says David Holben, executive chef for the restaurant's owner, Foodstar Restaurant Group. Holben says a $32 pepper-crusted, roasted rack with mango-mint chutney is a big seller at his company's The Riviera.

At Sierra Grill in Houston, chef-partner Charles Watkins rubs chops with a proprietary 15-spice seasoning blend that includes mild chili peppers, lemon, garlic and onion. He then presses a coating of chopped pistachios onto the meat. He sautes or bakes the chops in nonstick cookware with olive oil and serves them with chili-crusted onion rings, roasted corn and Texas port demi-glace for $19.95.

"We don't use any batter, so the true taste of the nuts and the lamb comes through," Watkins says, explaining why he eschews egg dips and other binders for his crust.

David Bergen, chef and co-owner of Tina's in Dundee, Ore., likes to rub seared lamb cuts with mustard and then coat them with a mixture of ground hazelnut, lemon zest and garlic before roasting. Bergen also flavors lamb with a rub of whole fennel seeds and then teams the finished product with a fig sauce.

In San Francisco John Gilbert takes two chops, grills them until they are rare, dips them in a sweet-and-sour sauce and tosses them in coarsely ground pecans. He finishes the chops in the oven to toast the pecans lightly and serves his entree with whipped sweet potatoes for $16.75. The sauce has a tomato base, molasses, brown sugar, jalapeno, soy sauce and Zinfandel vinegar.

Another San Francisco chef, George Morrone of One Market Restaurant, turns out a roasted half rack with horseradish-potato gratin and pools of pimento coulis and lamb jus. The rack, which is split into four single or two double-cut chops after roasting, sells for $29.

Julian Serrano of nearby Masa's, says he serves his half rack intact because the meat, when served that way, retains more of its flavorful internal juices. For a terrific perfume that "makes you want to eat the lamb right away," Serrano says he adds chopped cumin and caraway seeds to a reduction sauce of lamb stock, red wine. tomato paste, shallots and cream. The Masa's half rack is available on $72- and $77-multicourse tasting menus.