Steak Diane

I am old enough to remember when Steak Diane was considered a sophisticated dining choice so I was very interested to read this post from Deanna Sidney. What surprised me was the recipes she quotes. My own recollection is that one of the best features of Steak Diane was the strong garlic flavour  (well this was the 1960s) but the American recipes don't include garlic at all.
Doubting myself I checked with Ted Moloney and Oh, For a French Wife, first published in 1952  'at a time when cooking in this country [Australia] was not very inspired and one could count on one hand the good restaurants in our two biggest cities.'
In the section titled 'Home at Five Thirty' Moloney gives instructions for the following menu

Globe artichokes with hot melted butter (or oysters au natural if artichokes are not in season)

Steak Diane with Pommes de terre Duchesse

Salad

Cuban Bananas

a four course dinner for six people which could be whipped up after work albeit with just a little preparation the night before.

He begins the directions for Steak Diane with 

'To the best of our knowledge it was immaculately groomed Tony Clerici, whom we first knew at Romano's, who introduced Steak Diane to this town. Tony had such flair as he stood beside your table to deftly prepare this steak in a heavy copper pan, tantalize your appetite with its sizzle and aroma, and then serve you.'

Tony Clerici was indeed often credited with the introducing Sydney to Steak Diane and his recipes featured in The Australian Women's Weekly in 1954 (20 October) and again in 1967 (7 June). (Mr Clerici was part of the Sydney restaurant scene for many years, with Romanos in the 1930s and 1940s and later at Primo's Lafayette and at Prunier's Chiswick Gardens.)

Romano's was one of the  places to eat in Sydney in the 1940s and 1950s (you can read more about Azzalin Orlando Romano here).

(These photographs of the interior of Romano's are from the collection of the State Library of NSW)

What Clerici's recipes proved was that whilst garlic may not have been acceptable for the patrons of New York's fashionable eating places it was certainly very much part of Sydney's Steak Diane.

Tony Clerici's recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly 20 October 1954.

The article of June 7 1967 includes a number of variations on the theme from other Australian chefs, all but one of which include garlic, and one from an unnamed American source which not only doesn't mention garlic but doesn't use Worcestershire sauce either!