Modern Burger Philosophy

Burgers are not what they used to be. In the 90's, simply adding bacon was great, now? Not so much. Lets factor in the cost of creating a good burger with market draw cards, the veggy tribe, sustainability factors & before we know it, we have a culinary minefield to navigate to simply place a good, competitive burger on our menus. So lets uncomplicate this situation, shall we? How to create a steady stream of cost effective, contemporary burger combinations to wow current clientele.

Firstly we need to throw out all our preconceptions of what a burger should be. Yes, its time to stop the "lettuce, tomato, onion" garnish. It died along time ago. Not to say they have no place anymore but today its all about simplistic, yet potent flavour combinations created with fresh, sustainable ingredients without forgetting that, well, it is a burger. Let us begin with the fundamentals:

The Bun: The bun is more important then any sauce or garnish. Get it wrong & the burger looks bad, doesn't hold together making it difficult to eat & fails to achieve its potential competitiveness. The simplest way to sort out the bun dilemma is to bake it yourself. No time? Enter time management. The trick is to schedule your bun baking activities. Maybe on a Monday & Thursday for example. With a bit of practice, prepping the dough takes around 5-10 min. While it proofs, the kitchen can hammer out breakfast, then get them in the oven. Bam! Fresh buns for lunch! Not to mention that smell wafting through your restaurant! Magic! CLICK HERE for my take on the bun recipe, fluffy, buttery & looks the part.

The Meat: Gone are the days of hiding bland, dry burger meat beneath layers of crappy basting. To maintain the meats juicy greatness, you need to understand 2 things: Fat content & Resting. A good patty should be given the respect of a fillet steak. Rest it after the grill! As for fat content, 70/30 mince is ideal, lean meat is out. If you are heavily knowledgeable with regards to different cuts of meat you can experiment with different cut combos adding excess fats etc. For my patty recipe as well as my trick on limiting shrinkage CLICK HERE. Flavour additives such as hints of garlic, fresh herbs and such can be a great way for you to personalise your flavour making it unique to your restaurant! Think Trademark Burger!

Toppings are endless in scope. Here you do not want to over do it. Less is more. 5 or more toppings are to much. I'm a firm believer burgers should be sauced, but I'm just stubborn that way. Do a great patty with a scraping of butter on a fresh bun and you do not need a sauce. Nonetheless, lets touch on sauce.

Sauce development should be unique to what it is you are doing. A while back I developed a coffee flavoured burger sauce for a coffee café. If your concept has something to do with Olives for instance, experiment with olive flavoured sauce variants as a trademark. Try and avoid the cliched mayo based varieties or anything bought in a bottle. People want to eat at your restaurant, not every restaurant they have eaten at before getting to you.

Lettuce can be awesome on burgers but no Rosa, Biande (Frilly) or Cos varieties. Bitter & gross. The best is and always will be Iceberg. Stick to it.

Tomato should not be raw. It waters down the other flavours. Play with different fried, roasted or confit methods.

Onion can be raw, but very thinly sliced. You want a hint of onion that will effortlessly blend with your patty flavours. And lets not go thick, deep fried onion rings unless they are on the side. They are seen for what they are: A gimmick.

South African influences should be far more utilised by our burger engineers. I created a bobotie inspired variant with grapes from there own vines for clients once with a roasted garlic infused sauce. Why not play with wine, wors, biltong or Cape Millay influences?

Cost wise, now this can be problematic but again this is where we need to understand the time of R40.00 burgers has come and gone. Burgers are now a premium product. Mince alone costs around R82.00/kg. Meaning the patty alone needs to be sold for +_ R41.00. Realistically you should aim for the R80-R130.00 price range.

Seasonal viability in conjunction with odd additional specials help you control variants. I have a handy Seasonal gallery HERE

Nowadays the market is easily swayed by social media as to what great burgers should be, so keep an eye on social hotspots for up to date trends and remember to cover your bases:

For the veggy crowd, there is a simple rule. If you do not like the flavour or texture of the patty, why would they? Spicy? Additional option. Palates are to varied. Healthy options? Um....No. It is a burger, There is no room for diets here. Sustainable? Yes, Yes, Yes. Make it so, always. Local farmers would love to have you punt their wares which allows you to easily pinpoint origins & farming methods to your clients. Try and keep your burgers correctly sized. Play around until you get the bun and meat just right so that your burgers are not to big, not to small keeping in mind any sides etc.

Burgers are awesome in any rule book & they are here to stay. Calling your burgers "Gourmet" Nowadays is just seen as a gimmick. Everyone wants good, creative food even when it comes to their burgers. So up the anti & all hail the sandwich of sandwiches!