Street View Street Food
Beef Wellington
History
Culture
Beef Wellington is a preparation of fillet steak coated
with pâté (often pâté de foie gras) and duxelles, which
is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked. Some recipes
include wrapping the coated meat in a crêpe to retain
the moisture and prevent it from making the pastry
soggy. There is a mention of “fillet of beef, a la Wellington” in
The Los Angeles Times of 1903, but the first occurrence
of the dish itself is in the Oxford English Dictionary
which cites a 1939 New York food guide with “Tenderloin
of Beef Wellington” which is cooked, left to cool and
rolled in a pie crust.
A whole tenderloin may be wrapped and baked, and
then sliced for serving, or the tenderloin may be sliced
into individual portions prior to wrapping and baking. Clarissa Dickson Wright argues that “This dish has
nothing to do with that splendid hero, the Duke of
Wellington; it was invented for a civic reception in
Wellington, New Zealand, but it is a splendid addition to
any party.
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