Methods/steps

Bring the roast to room temperature before cooking. Trim the tenderloin of fat and silver skin, or have your butcher do it for you. (The silver skin is a silvery-white connective tissue. It doesn’t dissolve when the tenderloin is cooked, so it needs to be trimmed away. If the silver skin is not trimmed off, it will cause the tenderloin to curl up into the shape of a quarter moon.)

Pat the beef dry with paper towels. Lightly oil the outside of the roast all the way around.

In a mortar and pestle, coarsely crush the peppercorns, fennel, thyme and lavender. Rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425°. Unwrap the roast and place it on a rack in a shallow baking pan. Tuck the thin side under to make it as thick as the rest of the roast. Roast for 15 minutes to sear the meat. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° and continue to roast until the internal temperature reaches the desired doneness—120° for rare, 125° for medium rare, 130° for medium.

Remove the roast from the oven and transfer it to a cutting board. Let stand 15 minutes before carving (the meat will continue to cook during the resting period, and the temperature will rise 5 to 10 degrees). Slice to desired thickness and serve with any accumulated juices.