Burgers must have unfussy appearance, tasty: Chefs

Burgers must have unfussy appearance, tasty: Chefs
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What makes for a classic American burger? It seems chefs and connoisseurs of food in the Washington D.C. may have differing views on this, but one thing is for sure, a majority of them are against ruining the beauty of an American classic.

What makes for a classic American burger? It seems chefs and connoisseurs of food in the Washington D.C. may have differing views on this, but one thing is for sure, a majority of them are against ruining the beauty of an American classic.


Recently, according to the Washington Post, frequent restaurant goers and chefs together, and indulged in note-sharing which revealed small things that could diminish an otherwise nice experience.

For example, take a burger that was once on the menu of the Provision 14's restaurant. It had toppings of goat cheese, foie gras, truffles and lobster, but when bought to the table, it's all too rich ingredients resulted in it falling apart. It cost USD 28.

According to the daily, chefs and restaurant owners were asked whether these eye-catching and often high priced concoctions were any good.

Jackie Greenbaum, owner of the Quarry House, was quoted by the paper, as saying that she did not like to go in for experimentation for the sake of experimentation, and is a believer that burgers have to be unfussy in appearance and good in taste. She was quite clearly not in favour of the ornate variety.

Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema said he tried the DBGB's SpongeBob-inspired "Crabbie" burger, and described it as a letdown because of its "damp, barely-there pancake of seafood in the high-rise."

It, too, was removed from the menu, he added.

Then, there are the burgers that try to hook you with their eye-boggling size such as the towering Greene Burger at Stanton and Greene, which is a double-patty burger with bacon slices, bacon aioli, smoked Gouda and onion rings, which three people could not even finish together, or the Holy Cow's bacon-egg-and-cheeseburger on a doughnut, or the Ramen burger.

Chef Michael Schlow of Tico was quoted, as saying that he prefers burgers that are simple and have quality ingredients, and not the ones that have luxurious toppings.

He said he likes tasting the meat and the bun, and said it would be very hard for him to decide whether a burger was good or not if it had over 40 ingredients in it.

Greenbaum said she taste-tests each combination to make sure that it makes sense to her as well as her customers.
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