GO BIG! - First Light Steak Club
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LU X U R Y W I T H O U T C O M P R O M I S E
T HE
GI VI NG
IS SUE
GO
BIG!
48 out-of-this-world
gifts exclusively
for you
PLUS:
The quiet crisis
gripping philanthropy
What’s eating
car collecting’s
biggest names?
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FOOD & DRINK
Meat and Greet
First Light Steak Club delivers superb Wagyu beef and everything—seriously,
everything—you need to cook it to perfection.
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T
he beef did not arrive alone. My flavor but with the marbling you’d expect
introductory shipment from from grain-finished.
First Light Steak Club was Greenberg ordered beef for the
preceded by a cavalcade of gear restaurant, then steaks for his own
and gadgets, from a heavy- enjoyment. He became such an evangelist
duty cast-iron griddle to an infrared laser that he approached First Light with the
thermometer. Along with an app filled idea for a steak club run like an actual club,
with instructional videos, I had everything with limited membership and a robust
I needed to cook the grass-fed New community. Along with the recipes and
Zealand Wagyu to the club’s exact—and techniques on the password-protected
proprietary—specifications. app, members share pictures, favorite
Such wonkish devotion to ingredients steak pairings and their own cooking
and preparation is a hallmark of First experiments.
Light co-owner Jerry Greenberg, who But entry into this bovine brotherhood
in 1990, as a 25-year-old Harvard grad, isn’t guaranteed, at least not right away.
cofounded Sapient, the digital marketing Anyone can sign up for the waiting list, but
and consulting firm that Publicis since the beef supply is limited, gaining
eventually bought in 2015 for $3.7 billion. access might take a few months. (Unless
But even before food became his new you know someone on the inside: having
profession more than a decade ago, it was a current member vouch for you can
a hobby bordering on obsession: When move you up the queue.) Once admitted,
traveling as Sapient’s co-CEO, Greenberg there are three levels to the club, each
sought out the best sushi spot in every city requiring a $150 fee that includes all the
he visited. In 1995, that led him to Studio gear you’ll need. For $105 per month, the
City in the sunburnt San Fernando Valley, Light membership features three pounds
where irascible sushi master Kazunori of different cuts, from tenderloin to short
Nozawa served an omakase experience ribs; the $150-monthly Classic plan is the
that had become a local legend, in part for same but for five pounds of meat; and the
his willingness to throw even celebrities Steakhouse level, at $195, includes only
out of his restaurant if they requested too the best cuts—tenderloin, ribeye and New
many modifications or ate too slowly. York strip.
“First bite and I thought, ‘This is First Light’s recipes vary depending on
crazy,’!” Greenberg says. “I thought I was a the pre-portioned cut being prepared, but
sushi expert. I was wrong. I started eating each follows a similar pattern. The cooking
there whenever I could. I lived in Boston, technique—which the club asks members
but I’d still be at his place every week.” not to divulge—is, unsurprisingly,
The cooking technique is
methodical and technical but in the
service of presenting the
steak a way a purist would love.
In Greenberg, Nozawa found a like- methodical and technical but in the service
minded respect for food, so much so that of presenting the steak in a way a purist
after years of turning away every suitor would love. Other than salt and pepper, it’s
wanting to open a restaurant with him, unadorned with sauces or seasonings; the
the sushi master teamed with Greenberg, idea is to taste the quality of the beef and
who by then had relocated to Los Angeles. otherwise get out of the way. And it’s not
The pair opened Sugarfish in 2008, a process for people who enjoy coloring
with a typically Greenbergian approach, outside the lines. Cooking the ribeye,
obsessively deconstructing how the for example, requires more than a dozen
master created sushi, from butchering fish steps—plus a gadget with four timers
to making rice, in order to teach the exact preset to exacting intervals to keep your
method to employees. movements on schedule—that include
After Sugarfish established itself with tempering the meat and melting rendered
multiple locations, Greenberg started Wagyu fat (a jar of which is included in the
working on other restaurant concepts. starter kit) to brush on the steak.
One, a Wagyu burger joint called HiHo But the method works, creating a
that launched in 2015, had him scouring hard sear but no dreaded gray ring of
First Light's the globe for top beef suppliers. That led overcooked meat around the warm, rare
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methodology is all him to First Light, a New Zealand ranch center. So if you’re beef-obsessed and
about showcasing that raises crossbred Wagyu beef. Though on the hunt for all the tips and tricks
the flavor of not as intensely fatty as A5 Kobe, it has the necessary to cook the perfect steak every
superlative meat. best of both worlds: rich, beefy grass-fed time, well, join the club. Jeremy Repanich
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