The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2022 - Issue 32

Sizzlingly Hot Meat bitecuisine as he says it’s somewhere between a fillet and a rib eye. “You can feel the texture when you’re chewing,” he explained. "Personally, I like it cooked medium rare on the grill, and I love it when the outside layer of fat starts to caramelise. You get an amazing flavour with every bite." He revealed the secret to producing better quality meat is "everything from the welfare of the animal to the food given to it until the day of harvest." Heliot Steak House is named after the flir- tatious and alluring German lion tamer Claire Heliot, one of the early performers at The Hippodrome in the early 1900s. She was renowned for feeding raw meat to her lions on stage and showing no fear of the fourteen big cats. The New York Times not- ed, “She pats them on the back like ponies, hug them like kittens and romps about with them.” Her shows were described as “One of the most thrilling animals acts ever seen.” Madame Heliot always entered the stage to the daredevil music of Carmen but refused to believe any of the lions would hurt her, having tamed them with sentimentality. FromAuguste (the largest one) to Sacha, the lion she used to carry off the stage on her shoulders every night, weighing 175 kg, she was a powerful and fearless woman. Heliot was also part of A Yankee Circus on Mars, appearing at the New York Hippodrome for 20 weeks between 1905 and 1906, and in Chicago in 1906. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated and looked after by the excellent Pa- tricia, who welcomed us with complimen- tary champagne. For cocktails, we had Pink Food Photography: Tony Wellington Bread with butter and chives Hereford Fillet Chateaubriand