Steak au poivre

A French bistro steak, the steak au poivre is crusted in coarsely crushed black peppercorns, pan-fried in butter, and served with a sauce made in the same pan from the pepper-flavoured fat, cognac flamed off, stock and cream. It is a twentieth-century dish of Paris and Normandy restaurants, and several chefs of the 1920s and 1930s claimed it; the most repeated attribution is to Émile Lerch at the Restaurant Albert in Paris in 1930, though recipes using a pepper crust appear before that and the claim cannot be settled. The cut is a filet or a thick faux-filet, and the dish belongs with steak-frites and entrecôte béarnaise in the trio of classic bistro steaks; it is the one where the sauce is made to order in front of the guest in older rooms, with the flame of the cognac as part of the show. It is served with frites or potato purée and nothing else of consequence.