Pitt Cue: switching pork for Highland cow

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The Soho restaurant’s nose-to-tail cattle cookout for one night only

Fact no 1: a mature Highland cow weighs around 1,100lb. So take two of these animals and you have a lot of meat. This is something Pitt Cue Co restaurant will be embracing on Sunday March 9, when it will be moving away from its usual pork fare and serving up a nose-to-tail menu of beef dishes from two such behemoths.

“We like to do a special night occasionally, where we have the chance to get something really extraordinary into the kitchen, but on a scale that would only really work for a specific night,” says Pitt Cue head chef and co-founder Tom Adams.  

Pitt Cue has had a dynamic and interesting journey from its inception, during the summer of 2011, when it served Southern American BBQ with the finest-quality British pork produce from a trailer on London’s Southbank. Such was the finger-lickin’ success that within six months Adams and his business partner Jamie Berger had opened a standalone restaurant in Soho, with queues round the block, thanks to their no-bookings policy.

Fact no 2: Highland cows look like bulls. It’s the horns that do it. The idea for this special evening came about “because we farm our pigs a few miles away from a local beef farmer, Derek Broad, in Cornwall”, Adams continues. “I stayed with him in December 2012 and he showed us the Highland cattle and it became a case of him letting us know when something might be right for the restaurant.”

Fact no 3: Highland cattle can survive seriously testing climatic conditions. “They are also a beautiful breed from Scotland that traditionally produces some unbelievable meat.” Fact no 4: that meat is very lean and low in cholesterol.

Starters will include beef scrumpet (aka deep-fried snacks of beef, £5), beef and bone-marrow pasties (£6) and, for entrees, 300g sirloin steak (£18.50) and rib of beef (the prices of which will be announced on the night). With only 28 covers in the restaurant, it will be first come, first served.

Adams is confident of success on the night. “We had a whole sirloin in the kitchen the other day just to try and it was spectacular. I hope we can do the cows justice.” We don’t doubt it for a second. Sharpened elbows at the ready.