This is a special message from Kraft Foodservice and A.1. Steak Sauce.
Making a burger stand out in the Golden Age of Hamburgers is no small feat. It seems that everywhere you look, there’s a new ground-beef-on-bun sensation competing for attention.
One way to break out of the pack is to use exceptional toppings. As some of today’s leading burger crafters show, creative garnishes, sauces and condiments make the difference between good and great.
This is especially true in the growing niche of chef-driven burger concepts, where techniques, ingredients and flavors born in fine-dining kitchens uplift the all-American favorite.
“Fast food owned the burger for so long,” said Michael Kornick, chef of DMK Burger Bar in Chicago and co-owner with David Morton. “But as you can see, the segment is no longer under $3 only. There is a marketplace for much more.”
Kornick tops his signature burgers, made with grass-fed beef and priced at $8, with house-made accoutrements like charred balsamic red onions, chili-rubbed onion strings and spicy chipotle ketchup.
He makes the charred balsamic red onions by searing half-inch rounds of red onion seasoned with salt and pepper on a hot, oiled griddle until the edges darken. Then he tosses them in aged balsamic vinegar for a unique tangy-sweet nuance. “I think it makes the best-tasting onions,” said Kornick.
On one of his specialty burgers, Kornick balances the richness of Amish blue cheese with two other robustly flavored garnishes. One is chili-rubbed onion strings, which are thinly cut onions spiced with chiles, cumin, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and black pepper. The other is spicy chipotle ketchup that combines the zest of pureed chipotle chiles with a touch of sweetness.
“I loved the idea of having the rich, fatty Amish blue cheese, but because of the sharpness, I needed the other ingredients,” said Kornick.
At Serious Burger in Appleton, Wis., chef-owner Marc Waltzer’s upscale burgers are made with six ounces of natural, antibiotic- and hormone-free ground beef topped with ingredients that are largely fresh, local and sustainable.
Signatures include the Farm to Table, which is topped with smoked bacon, an organic sunnyside-up egg, aged cheddar and garlic aioli, and the Wild Truffle, which has roasted cremini mushrooms, caramelized onions, black truffle sea salt, organic sunnyside-up egg and smoked provolone. Each is priced at $10. For people who prefer to build their own burgers, he offers more than 20 toppings, ranging from organic ketchup to beer-battered onion rings to charred tomatoes. However, about half of his patrons, typically the foodie crowd, Waltzer said, choose one of his chef-driven specialties.
“It’s fun for them because it’s a chance to try flavor profiles that maybe they wouldn’t have thought of on their own,” said Waltzer.
Whether it’s a custom build or a house specialty, the burger is made with ingredients chosen with two pillars in mind: natural, sustainable food and local sourcing. For example, the cheeses, organic farm eggs, bacon and a number of other products come from Wisconsin. Even the beer in the dark ale mustard he makes is sourced from a craft brewery in nearby Green Bay.
“I try to take it a little further with the farm-to-table approach,” said Waltzer.
At Burger Bar Chicago, chef-proprietor John McLean also has a penchant for using fresh, local ingredients. His calling cards are big stacked burgers with whimsical names, like Fa-Getta-Bod-It, which is topped with prosciutto, fried egg, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil mayo, priced at $14, and Hey Shortay, with eight-hour-braised short ribs and warm fennel-onion slaw, priced at $13.
“The array of different toppings we do here gives our burger bar its gourmet appeal,” said McLean.
He encourages customers to dip their fries in flavored sauces in the Belgian fashion. Some follow suit with their burgers. The options include aioli variations flavored with roasted garlic, chipotle, lemon and pesto, as well as onion jam, lime crema and tomato chutney. The latter is made by stewing fresh tomatoes with onions and coriander.
“We get calls for sauce flights,” said McLean. “We put all of our sauces together on a plate and people dip their burgers and fries into them. We encourage tasting a lot of different things.”
