Kobe Beef Flap
Posted on January 15, 2006
Of the many, MANY questionable methods employed in food marketing, it’s instances of things like “Kobe Beef Burgers” appearing on restaurant menus that will provoke me to split hairs almost without fail. Let’s review some facts before proceeding:
“Meat Marketing Hits New Heights” from the Tacoma News Tribune, Sept 22, 2004
In the case of gullible neophyte restaurateurs, ignorance is definitely bliss. These specimens should go right ahead and believe whatever meat purveyors tell them if it helps them sell hamburgers, and if they can convince the public that they’re serving ACTUAL Kobe beef in hamburger form, I applaud their convenient ignorance of the facts behind the appellation. But, if a restaurant owner from the Businessperson whocaresareus family is fully aware of the distinctions between variously named high-end food items, then expecting everyone to believe that they’re serving something they’re not is a bit daft. An unwise omission of the complete truth.
The “Kobe Beef Burgers” that can be found at a growing number of American restaurants are actually Kobe-style Wagyu beef burgers, produced with the aid of large industrial grinders, patty-formers and hermetic-sealing devices. And then they’re often frozen, a procedure that breaks down the cell walls of any organic matter, thereby altering the texture. The burgers come from Wagyu cattle raised in Texas, Idaho and other fine states by good ol’ boy farmers with nary the time, tradition, climate, environment or artisan’s wherewithal to produce true Kobe beef, which in Japan can run upwards of USD $400.00 per pound.
Turning that sort of protein into hamburger dough is akin to making wing sauce from Dom Perignon, and serving ground American Wagyu beef as “Kobe beef burgers” is slightly comparable to procuring a Hershey’s Kiss from Pennsylvania when a Dutch chocolate truffle was requested.
» Filed Under food and drink
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.