'The Today Show' Showcases Veal Porterhouse
Date: Thursday, January 05, 2006Contacts: Polly Ruhland 303/850-3394 pruhland@beef.org
Diane Henderson 303/850-3465 dhenderson@beefboard.org
“THE Today Show” SHOWCASES Veal Porterhouse
CENTENNIAL, COLO. (Jan. 3, 2006) – Veal porterhouse was the star of NBC’s “The Today Show” on Dec. 12, as Chef Laurent Tourondel of BLT Steak in New York City joined Today Show Host Al Roker in demonstrating an elegant holiday veal recipe. The four-minute segment reached more than 6 million viewers nationwide.
The chef led viewers through preparation of Marinated Veal Porterhouse using Worcestershire sauce, mustard oil, honey, steak sauce, herbs and other ingredients. The complete recipe and additional information on Chef Tourondel can be found on the beef checkoff-funded veal Web site www.vealstore.com.
During the segment, Chef Tourondel provided excellent publicity for the veal site, calling www.vealstore.com a “good source to get some good veal at home.” On the day the segment aired with Chef Tourondel’s comments, daily hits to the www.vealstore.com Web site were nearly four times more than normal, with nearly 7,000 hits that day alone. Hits to the Web site remained higher than usual for the remainder of that week.
Chef Tourondel’s appearance was arranged through the beef checkoff’s veal program. Chef Tourondel has worked closely with the program in the past.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Funded by the Beef Checkoff.