Juicy, half-pound burgers are the cornerstone of the menu at Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern, the chain owned by Plano, Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group, but don’t bother asking for one “medium-rare.”
Like many restaurant chains today, Metromedia has a strict policy that burgers will not be cooked less than an internal temperature of 160 to 165 degrees, which is typically medium-well, even if a customer begs for a less-than-thoroughly cooked patty.
It’s not that the company does not want to accommodate customers. It’s a food safety issue, Metromedia officials say. Thorough cooking significantly reduces the risk of foodborne illness from E. coli 0157:H7 or Listeria.
In New York City, however, customers are welcome to order a rare hamburger at BLT Burger, owned by fine-dining chef Laurent Tourondel. A second BLT Burger is scheduled to open in Las Vegas this spring.
Though more than half of its customers ask for burgers cooked medium to medium-well, said Dustin Campbell, BLT’s chef de cuisine, fans of the rare burger can have it their way—if they ask.
BLT Burger, however, is one of a dwindling few restaurants that will accommodate such requests. It seems that finding a burger on the rare side is becoming increasingly rare.
Across the country, health codes vary regarding the cooking of hamburgers, one of America’s favorite dishes. And although federal guidelines generally allow room for restaurant operators to cook them the way their guests want them, many companies say they don’t want to risk serving undercooked ground beef.
Over the past 15 years or so, health officials have been trying to train the American public to prefer well-cooked hamburgers, ever since a 1993 incident in which undercooked, E. coli-tainted burgers from branches of the Jack in the Box chain were linked to the deaths of four children and the sickening of hundreds of other consumers in at least five Western states.
For years following that outbreak, serving a rare burger was perceived as an invitation to a lawsuit. One restaurant in a London hotel received international press coverage after asking patrons requesting medium-rare burgers to sign a release form absolving the establishment of legal liability. The hotel’s operator, Marriott International, quickly put an end to the practice, however.
In recent years, foodborne-illness outbreaks involving produce have been the focus of food safety debates in the industry. Yet health officials urge restaurant operators to remain vigilant about cooking ground beef to pathogen-killing temperatures.
Last year, for example, more than 100 people fell ill after eating E. coli-contaminated hamburgers from the now-defunct Topps Meat Co., prompting the nation’s second-largest meat recall and numerous lawsuits.
Though those patties were sold primarily in grocery stores under various brands, now-routine meat recalls indicate that tainted beef may at any time find its way into a restaurant.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends cooking burgers to a minimum of 155 degrees for 15 seconds, which generally results in a well-done burger. However, the model Food Code, on which only a handful of states have based their code updates, allows for exceptions when customers specifically request a less-cooked patty.
Many states have yet to update their standards to FDA guidelines. Others may modify the federal recommendations, resulting in a patchwork of varying practices across the country.
California’s recently revised food code, for example, allows restaurants to serve a rare burger to customers who request it. However, any restaurant that does not cook burgers to 155 degrees for 15 seconds, or to 158 degrees, is obliged to warn customers orally or in writing on the menu about the risks of foodborne illness.
“In California, people are so litigious, many restaurants have just made it policy to cook their burgers thoroughly,” said Hector Dela Cruz, chief environmental health specialist with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a restaurant serving a burger with a default temperature below what’s recommended.”
Still, it’s not impossible to find a rareish burger in Los Angeles.
One of the area’s most celebrated burgers is found at Father’s Office, a draft-beer specialty bar and grill in Santa Monica, where a burger made from organic, dry-aged beef is served with Gruyère, Maytag blue cheese, caramelized onions, applewood-smoked bacon compote and arugula—no substitutions—though guests are asked how they want their meat cooked and requests for medium-rare are accommodated.
The restaurant has developed a devoted following among restaurant critics and bloggers who glorify its rare burgers as the tastiest. Owner Sang Yoon, who formerly was chef at the celebrated Michael’s in Santa Monica, is scheduled to open a second Father’s Office in Culver City, Calif., in mid-February.
In Minnesota, however, operators aren’t allowed to serve burgers cooked less than the recommended 155 degrees—though operators there probably often do, said April Bogard, supervisor of the Partnership and Workforce Development unit in the environmental-health division of the state’s Department of Public Health.
Health officials there have yet to update the state’s food code to allow for customer-request exemptions, though they plan to do that in 2009. The updated code, however, also likely would require operators to post a warning about the risks associated with serving undercooked foods.
“People in the [restaurant] industry said they don’t want to put an advisory on their menus because they didn’t want to scare people,” Bogard said. “But I think it will educate consumers.”
Bogard recently participated in a survey funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in which 385 restaurant operators in eight states were asked about their burger-cooking practices. About half said they never measure the final cook temperature of their burgers, regardless of customer requests.
“I do think it is very concerning to me that people are ordering rare burgers or that they are getting undercooked burgers,” she said.
At quick-service chains, standard operating procedures dictate safe burger-cooking temperatures, and customers tend not to have a choice.
Among chains that do allow customers to specify doneness, the trend is to tell them that burgers on the rare side are simply not an option because of the liability risks.
The 220-unit Johnny Rockets chain, for example, serves its burgers medium, unless customers request well-done. That means burgers are cooked to a minimum of 155 to 160 degrees, said Chet Bailey, a spokesman for the Lake Forest, Calif.-based chain.
Johnny Rockets patrons who want burgers less cooked are politely told that’s not possible.
“Sometimes customers just can’t have it their way,” said Donna Garren, vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C., which recommends following the FDA’s minimum-cooking temperatures.
“I have been in operations where they may ask you how you want it, but it still comes back well cooked,” she said. “You rarely see a hot pink center” in burgers today.
Indeed, customer preferences indicate a move toward burgers thoroughly cooked. A survey by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association last October found that, of 902 beef-eating adults, 62 percent preferred their burgers well-done.
Five Guys Famous Burgers & Fries, a 220-unit chain based in Arlington, Va., posts signs in all restaurants warning customers that its burgers are served “juicy and well done.” Anything less cooked is not an option, as a matter of taste.
Chad Murrell, one of Five Guys’ owners, believes rare burgers are bland and the chain’s slightly crisp patties taste better.
Scares about “undercooked meat almost have helped us out because customers were OK with well-done burgers, which is always how we’ve served them,” said director of marketing Molly Catalano.
“We do get some customer calls [requesting the option of rare burgers], but not that often,” she added.
Officials of the 4,667-unit Dairy Queen chain, based in Minneapolis, are so concerned about reducing the risks of foodborne illness and corporate liability that burgers are cooked to a minimum temperature of 165 degrees, said Dean Peters, DQ’s director of communications.
In 2002, the chain began testing the use of irradiated meat to further reduce the risk of foodborne illness, though burgers were still cooked to 165 degrees. Customer response was positive, but plans to roll out the process were stymied after San Diego-based SureBeam Corp., which provided irradiation services for Dairy Queen, filed bankruptcy and closed in 2004.
Peters said Dairy Queen saw irradiated meat as “just one more level of safety,” though he added, “I don’t know if we’d look at it again.”
Unfortunately, he noted, “it would probably take another E. coli outbreak” to increase demand for irradiated product, “and none of us in the industry would want that.”