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.