Cafe de Paris Butter: Recipe, Taste, History & Steak Uses

There’s a reason steakhouses keep Cafe de Paris butter off the menu as a side—it transforms a basic cut into something memorable. This compound butter packs garlic, herbs, anchovies, and a whisper of curry into a log you slice onto hot steak, letting it melt into a glossy, savory sauce. The best part: you don’t need a restaurant kitchen or a secret recipe. Most home cooks pull it together in under 15 minutes.

Primary Use: Steak topping · Key Ingredients: Garlic, herbs, mustard, lemon · Origin Hint: Café de Paris restaurant · Form: Flavoured compound butter · Top Pairing: T-bone steaks

Here are the core specs across most recipes.

What is Cafe de Paris butter?

Cafe de Paris butter is a seasoned compound butter — a log of softened butter blended with savory aromatics, then chilled until firm enough to slice. Unlike plain butter, this version carries herbs, garlic, anchovies, mustard, and a hint of curry powder that melt into a glossy sauce the moment it hits a hot steak.

Core ingredients

Across virtually every recipe, you’ll find a consistent backbone: unsalted butter, a generous handful of flat-leaf parsley, and garlic. From there, the aromatics branch out. Most versions call for shallot or eschalot, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard for sharpness. Anchovies appear in nearly every variation — not for fishiness, but for deep umami that salt alone cannot replicate.

RecipeTin Eats builds their butter around 100g of softened unsalted butter, adding eschalot, two garlic cloves, a tablespoon of curry powder, a teaspoon each of Dijon mustard and Worcestershire, three anchovy fillets, and a squeeze of lemon. The result is bright, savory, and carries just enough curry warmth to set it apart from plain herb butter.

Butter base

Unsalted butter is the standard choice across professional and home recipes. The reasoning is practical: added ingredients like anchovies and Worcestershire already carry salt, so controlling the butter’s sodium level requires starting with a neutral base.

RecipeTin Eats specifies French-style unsalted butter for authenticity, though Land O’Lakes and standard supermarket butter work equally well for everyday cooking. The fat quality matters most — aim for a butter with at least 82% fat content for proper slicing and melting behavior.

What does Cafe de Paris butter taste like?

The flavor profile defies easy description because Cafe de Paris butter blends several distinct taste dimensions into something cohesive. Rich butter forms the backdrop, but it’s immediately lifted by bright lemon acidity, savory depth from anchovies and Worcestershire, and a subtle warmth from curry powder that lingers on the finish.

Flavor profile

Chef Not Required’s version adds Parmesan to the mix, introducing a nutty, salty edge that differentiates it from more traditional preparations. The Happy Foodie features Tim Hayward’s recipe, which includes tomato ketchup and English mustard alongside capers and anchovies — a slightly sweeter, more British interpretation.

Thomas Straker’s video recipe takes a different angle entirely: his butter includes Tabasco, pushing heat forward alongside the herbs and anchovies. This variation suits those who prefer a bit of spice with their steak.

Key tasting notes

The core tasting notes across all recipes converge on garlic-forward sharpness, herbaceous freshness from parsley and chives, briny umami from anchovies, and a curious whisper of curry that most people can’t quite identify — which is precisely what makes the butter intriguing.

Land O’Lakes simplifies the formula to shallots and tarragon, omitting curry entirely. The result is more reminiscent of a French herb butter, leaner in character but still delicious on a properly seared steak.

The pattern: the curry powder distinguishes Cafe de Paris butter from other compound butters, even when everything else about the recipe changes.

Why is it called Cafe de Paris Butter?

The name traces to a now-legendary restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland — Café de Paris — which served this specific butter alongside its signature steaks from the 1930s through the post-WWII era. The restaurant operated for decades, and its compound butter became as much a reason to visit as the steaks themselves.

Restaurant origin

Café de Paris in Geneva was a steakhouse institution, famous enough to draw international travelers. Unlike most restaurants that adapted to changing tastes, Café de Paris maintained its signature preparation for years, becoming synonymous with a particular way of serving meat — sliced butter laid atop a hot steak, melting into the juices.

The restaurant closed years ago, but its legacy lives on in every log of Cafe de Paris butter made in home kitchens worldwide.

Name history

Chef Not Required notes that the exact recipe remains a long-held secret — the restaurant never publicly disclosed its precise formulation. What emerged instead were approximation attempts by home cooks, chefs, and food writers who tasted the original and tried to reverse-engineer it.

The name itself became a descriptor rather than a brand. “Cafe de Paris butter” now refers generically to any compound butter built on the garlic-herb-anchovy-curry template, regardless of who makes it.

What is Cafe de Paris butter used for?

The primary use is straightforward: slice it onto hot steak and watch it melt into a glossy, savory sauce. But the butter’s versatility extends beyond beef. Desert Island Dishes lists chicken and seafood as equally valid pairings, and several recipes suggest using it as a basting butter during cooking rather than a finishing touch.

Steak pairing

Sirloin and T-bone steaks are the classic pairings. RecipeTin Eats recommends searing 2cm-thick sirloin steaks for 30–40 seconds per side over high heat, then resting the meat for 5–10 minutes before topping with cold butter slices. The temperature differential is crucial — cold butter hitting hot steak ensures proper melting and sauce formation.

Bennett Opie’s recipe follows a similar approach, emphasizing that the butter transforms a simple steak frites preparation into something restaurant-worthy. The capers and pink peppercorns in his version add textural pops of salt and gentle spice that complement the richness of the butter.

Other uses

Paris Dining Club’s recipe includes extra anchovies — six fillets compared to the typical three to five — making their butter particularly potent. This version works well dolloped onto grilled fish or stirred into pasta sauces for a quick flavor boost.

Desert Island Dishes notes that the butter can be melted into a saucepan and used for basting chicken legs or corn on the cob. The possibilities extend wherever you’d use a flavored butter: roasted vegetables, steamed shellfish, or simply spread on crusty bread.

What this means: once you master the base recipe, you can adapt it across proteins and preparations without losing the signature character that makes Cafe de Paris butter distinctive.

How do you make Café de Paris butter?

The method requires no cooking — only mixing, shaping, and chilling. Most recipes agree on the core sequence: soften the butter, blend in the aromatics, roll into a log, and refrigerate until firm enough to slice.

Ingredients list

RecipeTin Eats uses 100g unsalted butter, one eschalot (finely diced), two garlic cloves (minced or grated), one tablespoon curry powder, one teaspoon Dijon mustard, one teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, three anchovy fillets (roughly chopped), and half a lemon (juice only). The butter must be soft enough to mix easily but not melted — room temperature for 30–60 minutes before starting.

Chef Not Required doubles the butter to 200g and adds Parmesan, more parsley, chives, and replaces curry powder with additional fresh herbs. The result is greener and more herb-forward.

Tim Hayward’s recipe (via The Happy Foodie) deviates most interestingly: 250g butter with tomato ketchup, English mustard, capers, anchovies, and garlic. The ketchup addition introduces a subtle sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the mustard and anchovies.

The variation across sources is worth noting.

Step-by-step instructions

Begin by placing softened butter in a mixing bowl. Add all prepared aromatics: diced shallot, minced garlic, curry powder, mustard, Worcestershire, chopped anchovies, and lemon juice. Use a fork to mash the anchovies into the butter — this helps them distribute evenly rather than bunching up.

Mix vigorously until all ingredients are fully incorporated. The mixture should be uniform in color, with no visible butter separation. For a smoother texture, Desert Island Dishes recommends processing everything in a food processor for 30 seconds.

Lay a sheet of cling wrap on a work surface, spoon the butter mixture into a line along one edge, and roll the cling wrap around the butter, twisting the ends like a candy wrapper to form a tight log. Refrigerate for at least three hours — RecipeTin Eats specifies this minimum to ensure the butter firms up enough to slice cleanly.

Slice the cold log into rounds approximately 1cm thick. Each slice melts differently depending on steak temperature and thickness, but one to two slices per steak is standard. Any unused portions keep refrigerated for up to three days or frozen for two months.

How should you cook steak for Cafe de Paris butter?

The butter does half the work — the steak does the rest. Proper searing and resting technique ensures the butter melts into the meat’s juices rather than pooling and sliding off.

Preparation steps

RecipeTin Eats recommends bringing steaks to room temperature for 20–30 minutes before cooking. Pat them completely dry with paper towels — surface moisture is the enemy of a proper sear. Season generously with salt and pepper just before cooking.

Heat a heavy skillet (cast iron ideal) over the highest available heat until smoking. Add a thin film of high-smoke-point oil, then lay the steaks in without crowding. Sear for 30–40 seconds per side for a 2cm-thick sirloin, longer for thicker cuts. Do not move the steaks while searing — let the heat develop the crust undisturbed.

Temperature guide

Medium-rare (the classic pairing for Cafe de Paris butter) registers at 52°C internal temperature for a 2cm-thick steak. Use a probe thermometer for accuracy — guessing often results in overcooked meat that the butter cannot salvage.

Rest the steak for 5–10 minutes after removing from heat. This allows muscle fibers to relax and reabsorb juices rather than losing them when cut. The resting period also drops the surface temperature slightly, creating optimal conditions for the cold butter to melt evenly.

“Transform a simple steak dish with this flavour-packed compound butter.”

— Tim Hayward, Author (The Happy Foodie)

“The exact recipe being a long-held secret.”

— Chef Not Required (Chef Not Required)

For home cooks, the choice between versions matters less than starting somewhere. RecipeTin Eats offers the most balanced, classic interpretation with detailed instructions and precise measurements — an ideal entry point. More experienced cooks can branch into Tim Hayward’s ketchup-forward version or Thomas Straker’s heat-added variation. The underlying principle remains consistent across all recipes: bold aromatics, quality butter, and a hot steak waiting to receive them.