Tender Cuts Class

Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

If you throw a dinner “just because” and then serve your guests a gorgeous rib roast, they’re going to think you’re some kind of wizard. Deep-brown crust, juicy pink meat—prime rib is elegant, crowd-friendly, and really quite easy to prepare, requiring no special equipment or hard-to-find ingredients. And while we too often corral this carnivore crack into the holiday-meal category, there’s no reason you can’t use rib roast as the inspiration to throw an impromptu party. In fact, we highly encourage it. Pop by the market and pick one up, tell your friends to come by in a few hours with some wine or a side dish, and enjoy a casually spectacular repast with none of that weird stiffness of special-occasion meals. Got leftovers? Lucky you. Roast beef anchors one of the world’s most delicious sandwiches: the French dip. Here, we walk you through the three simple stages of creating a perfect rib roast. Once you’ve tried the well-tested method, we bet you’ll return to it often, reproducing the roast easily without needing to consult a recipe. French the bones yourself or ask your butcher to do it. Swap in whatever fresh herbs you happen to have on hand. Fiddle with doneness until the perfect amount of pinkness is yours. This is destined to become your house specialty, so go ahead and make it your own. A holiday-worthy dish that’s flexible and easy to make on the fly? Now that’s what we call culinary magic.

Classic Oven-Roasted Standing Rib Roast