A steak (from Old Norse steik, "roast") is generally a cut of meat or fish cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, or of fish cut perpendicular to the spine. Meat steaks are usually grilled, pan-fried, or broiled, while fish steaks may also be baked.

Steak can also be meat cooked in sauce (cf. steak and kidney pie) or minced meat formed into a steak shape (cf. Salisbury steak, hamburger steak).

Without qualification, the word "steak" generally refers to beefsteak. Steaks from other animals are usually qualified as, e.g., 'swordfish steak' or 'venison steak'.

Beefsteak[link]

A beefsteak being cooked on a barbecue

The more tender cuts of beef, from the loin and rib, are cooked quickly, using dry heat, and served whole. Less tender cuts from the chuck or round are cooked with moist heat or are mechanically tenderized (cf. cube steak). Steak can be cooked to a level of very rare, rare, medium rare, medium, medium well done, or well done.

Fish steaks[link]

For fish, steaks are cut perpendicular to the spine and include bones. In North America, fish usually cooked as steaks include swordfish, halibut, and tuna. Other fish often cooked as steaks include salmon and mahi-mahi, though they are also frequently cooked as fillets or whole.

Unlike beefsteaks, fish steaks are often baked in sauce.

Mark Bittman (born c.1950) is an American food journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times.

Education[link]

Bittman is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School Class of 1967 and of Clark University.^[1]

Career[link]

Bittman is a prolific author on the topic of food and cooking. Three of his books, including Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef, have been given the IACP/Julia Child and/or James Beard awards.

Bittman published his book Leafy Greens in 1995, How to Cook Everything in 1998, Fish - The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking in 1999 and Simple to Spectacular in 2000.

In 2005 he published the book, The Best Recipes in the World and Bittman Takes On America's Chefs and hosted the Public Television series Bittman Takes on America's Chefs which won the James Beard Award for best cooking series.^[2]

In 2007 he published How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and created the film "What's wrong with what we eat?".

Bittman appeared with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali, in a PBS series called Spain... on the road Again in 2008.

In 2009 Bittman published the book Food Matters on food related topics such as environmental challenges, lifestyle diseases, overproduction and over consumption of meat and simple carbohydrates, and began the TV series Kitchen Express.

In 2010, Bittman created The Food Matters Cookbook; an expansion of the principles and recipes in his prior book.

Bittman has written books related to his New York Times column: The Minimalist Cooks at Home, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner and The Minimalist Entertains^[2] His final Minimalist column was published on January 26, 2011. Bittman continued writing as a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and had a column in the paper's Opinion section; he also blogged.^[3]:

Bittman wrote a pair of articles for The New York Times Week in Review, called “Rethinking the Meat Guzzler” and “The Future of Fish”.

Bittman has appeared on NBC's The Today Show and NPR's All Things Considered.^[2] and appeared as a guest judge on the Food Network competition series Chopped.^{[citation needed]} He also hosts a weekly cooking video on the New York Times website.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Bittman lives in New York City with his wife, Kelly Doe, a New York Times graphic designer and art director.^{[citation needed]} He has two adult daughters from a prior marriage. Bittman runs marathons and is a licensed pilot.^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Video: Voting with your mouth with Mark Bittman and Ezra Klein
• Video: Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat at EG Conference in 2007