Eye Fillet - Wagyu F1 x Angus

The Beef: this is 100% grass-fed F1 Wagyu, a first-cross of Full-blood Wagyu over Angus, raised for superior quality and grown with a deep respect for the land. The F1 cross is the sweet spot: it takes the Wagyu's fine intramuscular marbling and pairs it with the Angus frame and the deep, beefy flavour Australian cattle are known for. In a cut as lean as the eye fillet, that marbling is everything, it's the difference between merely tender and genuinely luxurious.

The Cut: The eye fillet is the psoas major, a long, tapered muscle that sits tucked beneath the spine along the inside of the ribcage. It does almost no work over the animal's life, and that's precisely the point — no load-bearing means no connective tissue, and the result is a texture so fine it barely needs teeth. It's the smallest premium cut on the carcass, which is why it commands what it does. Trim it, and a whole beast yields only a couple of kilos.

Because it's lean, it's also the least forgiving. There's very little fat to buy you a margin for error, so precision matters more here than on any other steak.

How to Cook It: Bring to room temperature for 30 minutes and pat completely dry. Season with salt just before it hits the heat.

Get a heavy pan very hot. Sear 2–3 minutes per side for a 4cm medallion, then roll it onto its edges to colour all the way around, a fillet is round, so give it the full turn. Drop the heat, add butter, garlic and thyme, and baste for a minute or two.

Grass-fed Wagyu fat renders at a lower temperature than grain-fed, so once the crust is on, ease off. Chasing colour past the point of a good sear is the fastest way to waste this cut.

Pull at 50–52°C for medium-rare, or 48°C for rare. Do not push past medium-rare — everything you're paying for lives in that window. Rest 5–8 minutes.

Tips: Thick medallions only. Aim for 4cm-plus; a thin fillet is a contradiction in terms.

• Consider a reverse sear or sous vide. The lean profile makes edge-to-edge evenness genuinely worth the effort.
• It wants a partner. Lean means the fillet welcomes richness, a peppercorn sauce, a red wine jus, a knob of café de Paris butter, or simply the pan butter it was basted in.
• A bacon or fat wrap around the perimeter is a classic move for a reason: it protects the lean sides and bastes as it goes.
• Never marinate. There's nothing to break down and nothing to hide.

A Little History: The eye fillet has been the aristocrat of the carcass for as long as butchery has had hierarchies. It's the source of Chateaubriand, named for the 19th-century French statesman whose chef is said to have roasted a thick centre-cut between two lesser steaks, sacrificing them to protect the prize inside. The same muscle gives us Beef Wellington and tournedos Rossini, dishes built around a cut so tender it invites embellishment rather than resisting it. The French call it filet mignon when it comes from the tapered tail end; in Australia, we mostly just call it the fillet and treat it, quite rightly, as the good stuff.