 This kind of fillet was beef minced by hand, lightly salted, often smoked, and usually served raw in a dish along with onions and bread crumbs.The oldest document that refers to the Hamburg steak is a Delmonico's Restaurant menu from 1873 that offered customers an 11-cent plate of Hamburg steak that had been developed by American chef Charles Ranhofer (1836–1899).This price was high for the time, twice the price of a simple fillet of beef steak.