Sourcing the best Britain has to offer can spoil a good burger in short order. A prized cut of dry-aged, grass-fed beef that’s ideal for a steak might be too lean and therefore eat too dry for a burger. The finest farmhouse raw-milk Cheddar can re-solidify as the heat-exuded moisture evaporates, seizing up the smooth, melty texture a cheeseburger demands. And award-winning dry cure back bacon can be too chewy to cut cleanly with your teeth. You bite into a burger and end up pulling an entire rasher (strip) out from under the soft bun. [Read more...]
Beating the Back Bacon Burger Bind
3 October 2011 By 9 Comments
What Ava Gardner Can Teach Us About Two London Burgers
At the age of 14 I was already a liberal New Yorker precociously attuned to injustices in the world around me. It’s a shame, I recall telling my father, that the American big band vocalist Jo Stafford (above right) did not have the flawless curves of Hollywood actress Ava Gardner (about left) nor Ava, Jo’s sultry voice. My father laughed, then, recognising a life’s lesson moment, turned sympathetic.
“Sorry, kiddo,” he said.”You can’t have it all.”
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25 August 2011 By Leave a Comment
Princess Burger Transformed Into Prince Meatloaf
Come mid-August I welcome a glass of pink wine or pink lemonade for cool refreshment. But oddly I’m no happy camper when my Provence rosé tastes like old-fashioned lemonade, or when my freshly squeezed lemonade is no sweeter or pulpier than a dry rosé. I’m funny that way.
Same with burgers and meatloaf sandwiches: At their best I love them both. But give me a burger patty with the mealy, mushy consistency of moulded meatloaf and I’m transformed from young&foodish to young&moodish. How fortunate that no one saw this side of me when I, seated solo with no one to the left or right, tried the squashy Aberdeen Angus beef shin burger with foie gras and white truffle mayonnaise (£10.95) at the handsome Princess of Shoreditch pub in London. [Read more...]
20 August 2011 By 2 Comments
Wimpy Mega Burger an Endangered Classic in Fast-Food Design
The genius of the Wimpy Mega Burger may not by immediately apparent to those of you grew up with and later grew weary of that national chain of fast-food hamburger bars.
But to an American introduced to the uncertain charms of Wimpy 57 years after its launch on Coventry Street in London and decades past its sell-by date this Mega achievement stands out like yellow mustard on a white shirt collar. Behold a monument in modernist fast-food design: The cheeseburger hot dog cohabitation. [Read more...]
10 August 2011 By 8 Comments
Joe Allen BurgerMonday Meatup Slides from Buffalo to Broadway
For the opening act of the 4th of July BurgerMonday Meatup at the West End haunt Joe Allen chef Marc Brown decided to wing it. [Read more...]
18 July 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Lionel Lévy BurgerMonday Pop-Up Question
Lionel Lévy, the Michelin-starred chef at Une Table, au Sud in Marseille, loves to revisit the classics. The protégé of Gérard Garrigues and Alain Ducasse has made a name for himself with his bouillabaisse milkshake and other signature (re)inventions. He added another to his repertoire as guest chef at my BurgerMonday pop-up on the 23rd of May at Andrew’s Gray’s Inn greasy spoon in London. 
He merged two American standards, the burger and the BLT sandwich, replacing their customary condiments with the Provençal accessories he prepared at his restaurant, packed in sous-vide bags and stashed with ice packs inside his hand luggage for the flight from Marseille to London.
When just 15 minutes before service Lévy showed me the very first version ever of his stunning pop-up burger BLT I was startled. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, or how to eat it. As you can see in the video above many diners had the same initial reaction, if varied answers to the question: Which end is ‘wich?
13 July 2011 By 6 Comments
My Confidence Cracked in the Bistro du Vin Burger
I figured my visit to the new Bistro du Vin at 36 Dean Street in Soho would be uneventful. To update my top 10 burgers in London list I needed only to verify its burger was as good as the chargrilled sensation at the Bistro du Vin on St John Street. I was also curious to see if the chefs had addressed its instability issue. As good as the burger was it didn’t sit all that securely on its layered foundation of tomato, red onion and round lettuce hanging way out the sides. [Read more...]
6 July 2011 By 15 Comments
Jaws Drop at Goodman BurgerMonday Pop-Up
photo by Paul Winch-Furness
Why did jaws drop throughout Andrew’s Gray’s Inn greasy spoon when London chef John Cadieux of Goodman steakhouses and butcher Darragh O’Shea of O’Shea’s of Knightsbridge revealed their BurgerMonday pop-up burger? Were diners expressing astonishment at the unreasonable height and drippiness of this bacon cheeseburger? Or was it more the reflexive action of carnivores stretching and shaping their mouths for the imminent entrance of that brioche bun and all the beef, special sauce and accoutrements John stacked beneath his homemade, egg-polished, sesame-seeded dome? [Read more...]
30 June 2011 By 3 Comments
