Sauces
Diane Sauce
The classic steak Diane sauce: shallots and mushrooms in the steak pan, a splash of brandy, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, stock and cream. Ready in 10 minutes.
- Serves 2
- Prep 5 min
- Cook 10 min
- American
Method
Cook the steaks first (for steak Diane, two thin fillet or sirloin steaks, beaten out to about 1 cm thick, need only 1 minute a side in a very hot pan) and keep them warm on a plate. Do not wash the pan.
Turn the heat to medium, add the butter to the pan and, when it foams, the shallot and mushrooms. Cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits, for 3–4 minutes until the shallot is soft and the mushrooms are golden. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds.
Take the pan off the heat and pour in the brandy. Put it back on the heat and either let it bubble for 30 seconds or, if you are confident, tilt the pan to the flame (or use a long match) and let it burn until the flames die down. Keep your face back and a lid to hand.
Stir in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce, then the stock. Boil hard for 2–3 minutes until reduced by about half.
Add the cream and any juices from the resting steaks and simmer gently for 1–2 minutes, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the chives and spoon over the steaks.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Serve with: Perfect Steak
- Perfect Steak: cuts and cooking guide
- Sirloin Steak (US: New York Strip Steak)
- Rump Steak (US: Top Sirloin Steak)
- Fillet Steak (US: Filet Mignon)
- T-bone Steak (US: T-bone or Porterhouse)
- Rib-eye Steak (US: Ribeye Steak)
More sauces for steak: Peppercorn Sauce, Béarnaise, Diane Sauce, Chimichurri, Steakhouse Sauce, Blue Cheese Sauce, Horseradish Cream, Garlic and Herb Butter, Maître d’Hôtel Butter.
Chef’s notes
- Flambéing is for show; simply boiling the brandy for 30 seconds drives off the harsh alcohol just as well.
- Crème fraîche can replace the double cream (it will not split when boiled).
- Diane sauce is also good with pork fillet medallions and chicken: see our Goujon of Chicken Diane.
About this dish
Steak Diane is a mid-20th-century New York restaurant dish, not an old French one. A Washington Post report of 1 October 1948 says it was created by Nino (Beniamino Schiavon), maître d’hôtel of the Drake Room at the Drake Hotel on Park Avenue, and named after his young daughter.
By 25 January 1953 Jane Nickerson of the New York Times found the Drake, the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and the Colony Restaurant all serving their own versions, with Nino claiming to have introduced it to the United States. That version was steak pounded thin, fried in butter and finished with chive butter; the brandy flambé, mustard, Worcestershire and cream came later as it became a tableside showpiece.
Other claims are contested and undocumented: London’s Café de Paris has said Lord and Lady Mountbatten ordered steak Diane there in the 1930s, and the Copacabana Palace in Rio is sometimes named. Escoffier’s much older sauce Diane is a different, peppery cream sauce for venison, named after Diana, goddess of the hunt (CooksInfo; American Dialect Society list; Politico).
How this recipe was developed
A composite of the best-rated British versions and the mid-century New York originals, written in our own words.
- Shallot and mushrooms. BBC Food’s Diane sauce adds sliced mushrooms; we keep them as an option.
- Brandy then mustard and Worcestershire. the order used by Barney Desmazery (BBC Good Food) so the alcohol cooks off before the flavourings go in.
- Stock reduced before the cream. Antony Worrall Thompson reduces wine and stock first; it gives body without much cream.
- Chives. the Colony Restaurant’s 1953 version finished the steak with chive butter.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):
- BBC Good Food (Barney Desmazery): Steak Diane (4.7/5, 27 ratings)
- BBC Food (Antony Worrall Thompson): Steak Diane (Saturday Kitchen) (4.2/5, 5 ratings)
- BBC Food: Diane sauce
- History: CooksInfo: Steak Diane
- History: American Dialect Society list (Barry Popik): Steak Diane (1948)
- History: Politico: Lost foods of New York City: steak Diane
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.