Is Well-Done Steak Bad? Stinky Meat & Temperature Illiteracy

People who like their steaks well-cooked often ask this question. Why do people look down their noses at someone who orders a well-done steak? is well-done steak bad? No, well-done steaks are not bad. There are a couple of primary reasons that people say they are bad. 1) They’ve learned to hate well-done steaks from foodie culture. 2) They’ve been convinced by food “experts” that cooking a steak well-done ruins it, and 3) They truly believe that a steak cooked to rare, medium well, or medium tastes much better, and they don’t want you to miss out on a truly great steak. But, is there anything wrong with having your steak well done?

well-done steak, cooked to perfection on grill

No, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having your steak well done. Many chefs, including one notable grumpy chef book writer who most other chefs love to quote on social media, hold a number of misconceptions about the term “well done.” I do not want to fall into a “thought leadership role” (a bad habit of mine), but not liking something and it being bad are two entirely different things.

Why is Well-Done Steak Frowned Upon? The Bourdain Myth

Much of the modern disdain for well-done steak can be traced back to the late Anthony Bourdain, who famously claimed that kitchens ‘save’ their worst, most ‘stinky’ cuts for well-done orders. While Bourdain was a brilliant storyteller, he was also a master of culinary myth-making. The idea that a modern, high-volume restaurant would risk a health code violation or a negative review just to save $4.00 on food cost is pure fiction. In reality, the ‘Save for Well-Done’ mantra was more of a 1970s kitchen legend than a standard operating procedure. By continuing to parrot this trope, modern ‘foodies’ aren’t showing their expertise, they’re just repeating a serial exaggeration that hasn’t been true for decades.

Much like the sizzling fajita shortcut I discussed, dismissing well-done steak as ‘ruined’ is a way for the kitchen to avoid a ‘kink in the chain.’ To a skilled cook, a well-marbled steak at 160°F isn’t dry, it’s an test of skill and precision. Can you do cook a juicy well-done steak? Yes! If a chef tells you it can’t be done, they aren’t protecting the meat; they are protecting their own prep-line speed. For all the brouhaha about the perfect cooking temperature, it is easier to cook at steak “under” than “over.”

More Restaurant Myth-Busting: The Free Bread Warning: Is the complimentary bread at your table a welcoming gift or a recycled hazard? Read: Should You Never Eat Complimentary Bread at Restaurants?

The Snobby Gatekeepers of the Kitchen: A Good Chef Wants to Please His Customers, Not Judge Them

I want to get into those misconceptions about well-done steak, but first, let me correct the record. When a customer orders a well-done steak, a good chef who wants to make his guest happy will seek out the best, freshest, most well-marbled piece of meat he can find. This way, he can produce the juiciest and tastiest well-done steak possible. Cooking a well-done steak without drying it out and ruining it is a test of skill. I know, I did it many times.

Some snooty chefs in high-end restaurants generally assume that anyone who orders a well-done steak doesn’t care how it turns out. So, while they will not offer a terrible piece of beef, they will choose the thinner and less carefully portioned steaks for this customer. This doesn’t mean there will be less steak or that they will not try to cook it well, only that they figure that the customer won’t care that their steak is more oddly shaped, thinner, etc. because that customer just doesn’t care at all about their steak.

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The “Stinky Meat” Myth and Other Well-Done Steak Misconceptions

And that brings me to those misconceptions. I’ll blame Food TV and the internet age for this. Chefs are often portrayed as omniscient kitchen Gods, but even a chef who hardly ever touches a steak feels they have to speak authoritatively on the subject.

The most persistent myth, largely popularized by the ‘stinky meat’ stories of decades past, is that restaurants use their worst cuts for well-done orders. This isn’t just a cynical take; in the modern era, it is a logistical absurdity.

Today’s high-volume restaurants operate under rigorous digital inventory tracking and hyper-strict health codes. The idea that a kitchen would intentionally hold onto a ‘turning’ piece of beef, risk a massive food safety violation, and compromise their entire reputation just to save a few dollars on a single ticket is pure fiction. In a world of social media and instant health department audits, a chef is far more likely to be fired for serving old meat than for losing a point on their food cost. The ‘Save for Well-Done’ mantra is a ghost of the 1970s; today, a well-done order is cooked from the same fresh, premium supply chain as the rare one.

Kitchen Revenge: Is “spitting in food” a real threat or just an industry tall tale meant to scare customers? Read: Is Someone Actually Spitting in Your Food at Restaurants?

The Ego Business vs. The Hospitality Business: Why Steaks Are Service-Oriented

Here is the professional, grounded truth: A steak is not a ‘chef’s creation’ in the traditional sense; it is a short-order specification.

Unlike a complex sauce or a delicate pastry where the chef dictates every parameter, a steak is one of the few items where the customer is the primary architect of the finished product. Compare a steak to a fried egg and you understand it immediately! This is true even for specialty dishes like Steak au Poivre. When you work in hospitality, your job is to execute the guest’s preference to the best of your technical ability, not to dictate their palate.

A chef who frowns upon a customer’s choice or insults their ‘well-done’ order has forgotten which business they are in. It is the hospitality business, not the ego business. If a cook finds it beneath them to prepare a high-quality piece of meat to a customer’s specific temperature, they should quite frankly find a line of work that doesn’t involve serving the public. In a real kitchen, the test of skill isn’t in the gatekeeping, it’s in the execution.

The Temperature Illiteracy of the Modern Chef: Why “Well” Doesn’t Mean “Burnt”

The biggest misconception in the professional kitchen is that many chefs—even those at high-end houses, don’t actually understand the terminology they are discussing. They have been conditioned to view the term ‘Well Done’ as a synonym for ‘cremated.’ They think that when a customer orders this steak, they are asking for a steak that is “charred until gray, dry, and rubbery.” This is rarely the case!

Here is the professional reality: There is no ‘simply done’ stage between Medium-Well and Well-Done. In the binary world of kitchen temperatures, once you pass 155°F, you have reached the final stage of cooking. While a specific customer might want a charred, blackened piece of carbon, that is a customization, not the definition.

By confusing ‘Well Done’ with ‘Burnt,’ these chefs reveal a surprising lack of technical precision. They are tilting at windmills, defending an imaginary culinary middle ground that doesn’t exist. To a skilled technician, 160°F is a target to be hit with precision, not an excuse to abandon the grill and incinerate the meat.

Rare: 120-125°F (fairly cool red center)
Medium Rare: 130-135°F (warm red center)
Medium: 140-145°F (warm pink center)
Medium Well: 150-155°F (slightly pink center)
Well Done: 160° F and above (little or no pink)

Well done does not say “incinerated and gray.” A good steak restaurant will ensure that even well-done steaks are tender and flavorful. A steak cooked to a full 160°F will not be as juicy as a lesser-done steak, but if a well-marbled, high-quality piece of beef is chosen, it can still be somewhat juicy and certainly flavorful.

What does 160°F and above mean? Well, if you order your steak well done at a good restaurant, they will likely cook it to just around 160° F. Some may consider 155° to 160° to be well done. Only if you, the customer, specify specifically that you want the steak cooked very, very well done, with absolutely no possibility of pink, etc., will they cook the steak above this temperature. They may or may not use a thermometer instead of a touch test, and their experience and skill. Generally, a well-done steak will be firm with little to no give. But it won’t feel like an asphalt shingle.

Professional Precision: How the World’s Best Steakhouses Handle Well-Done Steaks

Let’s look at how Ruth’s Chris Steak House describes well-done steak:

Well-Done Steak: 160° to 165°: A well-done steak spends the maximum amount of time on the heat, resulting in a center with no pink. If you want to cook your steak to this level of doneness, make sure to stop cooking it when the temperature hits 155°. You don’t want to overcook the meat, or else it can become chewy and dry. Instead, let it finish cooking off the heat for a few minutes while you finish getting dinner on the table. You’ll be amazed how a little patience really pays off and creates the juiciest possible steak.

I might quibble about the no pink at all part. A tiny amount of pink may be present in what some cooks consider well-done. There is no universal consensus. But, notice that they didn’t say the steak would be dry, they noted ways to keep it from getting to dry!

Now let’s look at what one of the best steakhouses in Chicago has to say, Rosebud Steakhouse:

Well Done (155°F and above): A well-done steak is cooked fully through, with no pink in the center. The texture is much firmer, and while it loses some juiciness, it still offers a hearty, beefy flavor. At Rosebud Steakhouse, our chefs ensure that even well-done steaks remain tender and flavorful.

Rosebud believes in a slightly lower temp for well-done (remember, no universal consensus). But, I think that last sentence says it all! Our chefs ensure that even well-done steaks remain tender and flavorful. Grumpy chef, I take it, would not have been welcome in their kitchen.

Chefs who think the way the grumpy chef quoted above thinks are probably in the habit of over-cooking well-done steaks. And if they overcook well-done steaks, they probably overcook steaks at other doneness levels too, like rare, medium, etc. Or, conversely, they don’t cook any steaks at all and like to shoot their mouths off on Social Media. Let me repeat for any restaurant cook reading this: If you can’t cook a well-done steak to temperature, then you probably cannot cook any steak to temperature.

I like my steak medium. If I am aware that a restaurant routinely overcooks or undercooks its steaks, I will order medium-well or medium-rare, accordingly. Most restaurants today will not serve rare steaks due to safety concerns. No matter what grumpy Bourdain wannabes on the web say, order your steak the way you want it. If they send you out a burnt piece of rubber full of gristle, then send it back, unless you like that sort of thing. In summary, if a restaurant overcooks and incinerates a steak because you ask for it well-done, it is not your fault; it is theirs.