The 'Super Advanced' Steak Only Elon Musk And Professional Chefs Order

When you're as rich as Elon Musk, whose net worth currently exceeds $400 billion, you practically have unfettered access to whatever interests you. That includes the ability to explore various facets of the food world. The technology and social media magnate has previously expressed a desire to open his own drive-in style restaurant (which actually turned out to be an expansive charging station for electric vehicles). Musk has spoken about his fondness for barbecue dishes, French cuisine, and German döner kebab in the past. According to esteemed Michelin-star awarded chef Akira Back, the billionaire also requests an uncommon dish when dining at ABSteak in Beverly Hills (which is a Korean barbecue steakhouse owned by the chef).

Speaking with People, Back stated, "Elon Musk really likes our Ssamjang dry-aged beef," which& is described as a 45-day aged New York strip sirloin in ABSteak's menu. The chef went on to say, "Honestly, only chefs order it, but he [Elon Musk] orders it. He and his son just gulped it." The chef characterized the dish as "super advanced" due to the combination of flavors made possible by the steak aging process as well as the use of ssamjang, which is a spicy, fermented paste that's often added to lettuce wraps for a bit of flavor, or used as a dipping sauce for vegetables and other foods.

A beloved condiment in Korean cooking, ssamjang typically consists of a fermented soybean paste called doenjang and the fermented red chili paste gochujang as well as other ingredients like garlic, sesame oil, and some sort of sweetener. During his interview with People, Akira Back described ABSteak's ssamjang as "a fermented Korean miso and a little bit of gochujang" with an added boost from the dry-aging process it undergoes. For those unaware, miso is a Japanese fermented soybean paste that bears some similarity to doenjang. The key difference is that miso traditionally features some type of grain as well as koji, which is a mold that develops on grains.

In general, ssamjang offers a bold flavor profile replete with umami thanks to the fermentation of the soybeans, but this rich and meaty flavor is complemented by spicy, sweet, and salty notes also evident in ssamjang recipes. As for the flavor of ABSteak's ssamjang dry-aged New York strip, a poster on Reddit who was lucky enough to sample the dish said, "It was great. Dry Aged gave the meat more umami flavor. I couldn't taste the ssamjang flavor but provided saltiness in the meat while ageing."

Chef Akira Back doesn't give much away when it comes to the specific dry-aging process used at ABSteak, but the practice of dry-aging beef is well established in the culinary world. It typically involves hanging cuts of beef in chilled, humidity-controlled environments with temperatures ranging from 32 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. While timelines can vary, most dry-aging sessions span from 20 to 40 days. When done correctly, these conditions help tenderize the meat and unlock an unparalleled flavor befitting of a fine-dining experience.

While it's hard to determine exactly how ssamjang affects the dry-aging process of Elon Musk's preferred dish at ABSteak, the paste may permeate the meat as the steak becomes tenderized. This could provide some insight into why chef Back described his restaurant's ssamjang dry-aged New York strip as so challenging to the palates' of people outside of the culinary industry. "It sounds weird, not too many people order it," admitted Back of his restaurant's signature dish, which illustrates that Musk is a forward thinker in more ways than one.