When I was preparing for season 10, I did cook with a lot of different kinds of meats and proteins. Lamb, duck, pork, chicken, scallops, fileting and then cooking with whole fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, black cod, I even practiced cooking ribeye for steaks. I never thought to practice with filet mignon. And as expected, that was the protein that actually eliminated me on the show. I had prepared Taiwanese styled noodles with langoustine, truffle, and yuzu, as well as a ginger butter-basted filet with maitake mushrooms. Yuzu and truffle combination being a bit weird aside, the main thing that eliminated me was that my steak was undercooked. Honestly speaking, I never cooked with any of those three ingredients before. My cooking style is primarily in baking and cooking with off-cuts because they are cheaper cooking options. I love taking inexpensive things and making them look expensive. So with ingredients that collectively cost more than my paycheck, beyond just being above my budget, they aren’t necessarily the things I am passionate about cooking. Hence the name for this dish.

For this filet mignon dish, I am keeping the filet the star. I am not going to use truffles or langoustines, since those were not the things that sent me home. However, I am going to be making essentially the dish I should have made with those three ingredients, just to better tie the three together. It will be a filet mignon with a mushroom reduction sauce, pea puree, blanched peas with roasted mushrooms, and sweet pea agnolotti. The truffle would play in the puree and the agnolotti, while the langoustine shells would go in the mushroom sauce, and the tail meat would be used as a garnish, with the peas and mushrooms. With this dish, there would be a more focal sauce, being the reduction sauce, and the peas tie the filet and langoustine together better. The agnolotti filling would have been another place for both the truffle and some chopped up langoustine meat to come into play.

For the phyllo crisp:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons water
a pinch of salt
thyme
2 tablespoons melted butter

Create dough with flour, water, and salt. Infuse the thyme into the melted butter. Split dough into four pieces and roll out into flat disks. Brush three of the dough on one side with butter, and then stack together so that the top of the top layer and the bottom of the bottom layer are still dry. Roll out as thinly as possible, then transfer to a lined baking sheet. Cut into long strips and bake at 375 degrees F, while weighed down, for 15-20 minutes, or until browned and crispy.

For the sauce:
1/4 cup dried mushrooms
1 cup beef stock
2 tablespoons butter
salt
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
3 tablespoons diced shallot
oil

Rehydrate the mushrooms in warm beef stock. Fish out the mushrooms, and strain out the dirt. Sweat out shallot, garlic, and bay leaf in oil. Deglaze with the mushroom-stock and then add back in the diced rehydrated mushrooms, slowly reducing the liquid down on low heat. Finish with butter, then strain again, pressing to extract as much flavor from the solids as possible.

For the pea puree:
1 cup English peas
1 cup heavy cream (in four parts)
1 cup milk
salt
pepper
thyme
oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Saute off the peas with salt and pepper first. Then hit with three parts of the cream and the milk and simmer until tender. Strain and transfer to a blender, pureeing while slowly adding in the cream first, then finishing with the butter. Pass through a sieve again to achieve an ultra fine texture.

For the pasta dough:
1 1/3 cups flour + more for dusting
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

Mix together. Rest then roll out to the second thinnest pasta setting on your pasta roller.

For the agnolotti filling:
1/3 cup pea puree
1/4 cup roughly chopped blanched peas
2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese or crème fraiche
a pinch of salt
1 egg

Mix together(without the egg) and transfer to a piping bag. Pipe into your prepared pasta dough, and seal with egg wash. Slice and fold into agnolotti and boil for 1-2 minutes. Finish off in the mushroom sauce.

For the peas and mushrooms:
1/2 cup English peas
1 cluster of hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, broken up
salt
pepper
butter
thyme

Roast the mushrooms in a 375 degree F oven for at least 10 minutes. Blanc the peas in heavily salted water for 1 minute then shock in ice. Warm up a pan with butter then saute both together with salt, pepper, and thyme to finish.

For the steak:
8-10 oz filet mignon
salt
pepper
paprika
butter
oil
thyme

Heat up a cast iron. Once hot, add in the oil, then heavily season your steak with salt and pepper. Sear on each side for 3-4 minutes. Once you flip the steak, add in your butter, paprika, and thyme and baste the steak. Sear the steak on the edges as well, about 1 minute per side, just to seal in those juices. Rest for at least 5 minutes.