Ongoing innovation drives the latest trends in burger builds
“The burger has almost become the ultimate challenge, with everyone trying to outdo each other,” says Chef Peter Wright. “You only have to search Instagram and you’ll find the most amazing builds. Presentation has become a bit part of it – you want your burger to look as good as it tastes, and have a certain height and depth to it – so that when it’s being served other people look around with envy and say, ‘I should have ordered that!’”
Peter says as creative chefs keep striving to innovate their burgers by changing fillings, condiments and buns, new varieties are constantly coming on trend. “A Korean crispy fried chicken burger, with flavoured batter or crumb and chilli sauce is very popular right now. Brioche buns made with butter are a preferred choice – the feeling seems to be the more indulgent you can make the bun, the better the burger’s going to be.
“When you’re talking classic beef burgers, any connoisseur will tell you a blend of different meat cuts is good – but there’s got to be the right ratio of meat to fat, you don’t want a lot of sinew in the mince as that stops them blending well together. My personal preference is for grass fed beef on the chuck, with a nice amount of fat and not too much sinew. The beautiful thing about getting the mix right is that it will still be juicy even if you overcook it.”
Next step is the sauces: “These days a good burger has more than one sauce – preferably one sauce at the top, another at the bottom, and while you don’t want excess sauce so it’s running down the customer’s hand, having enough that there’s some on the side of the lips and the face is good!
“You need to think about not just flavour but texture – there has to be some crunch.”
Gluten free haloumi burger
“To anyone who’s looking at adding burgers to the menu, I’d be saying: have a look at how Grill’d do it, they’re probably the most successful Australian burger chain right now and they offer a choice of buns from panini and brioche to gluten free, even a no-bun burger, and you really should be offering that level of variation. For me the best burger is a brioche bun with chuck steak, a good melting burger cheese with a cheddar flavour, two sauces – say a tomato and barbecue or a chipotle and barbecue, or a chutney and mayo, pesto and green goddess sauce – there’s a thousand options these days.
“And you need to think about not just flavour but texture – there has to be some crunch. The bun is soft, the pattie and sauces are all soft, so add something crunchy for contrast. Think about a deep fried Mac and Cheese Croquet, or a hash brown, deep fried onion rings. You can even get a good crunch out of butter lettuce that’s been washed and dried – not wet lettuce which is the bane of any burger bun. And don’t overlook the menu description – that’s very important in selling the burger. If you get it right, you’re gonna get plenty of repeat business, because everyone loves a great burger!”
“It’s a return to that old approach where you make the pattie in a round ball and really flatten it out on the grill.”
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Smashed is back as burgers go retro
Smashed burgers are an emerging trend which likely herald the growth of the ‘retro’ burger category, as chef Adam Moore points out. “It’s a return to that old Greek milk bar approach where you make the pattie in a round ball and tamper it down like you would with coffee grounds, really flatten it out on the grill. It’s a classic old school approach – three-quarters of a pound of meat patties, flame grilled is what the latest entrants into the market seem to be going for. We’re seeing Wahlburger’s opening in the Rocks in Sydney this month and the entrée of the US Five Guys chain into the Aussie market, so it’s a safe bet these are set to take off.
“The American influence is very strong so you can also expect to see more American style cheese which has a different flavour profile and orange colouration, along with other premiumised ingredients like buttermilk fried chicken, fried pickles, maple-pepper bacon and some really tasty cheddars. Double and triple stacked burgers are on the rise too!”
Alex Patterson, Operations Manager at The Ary Toukley on the NSW Central Coast, says the traditional approach is still working for their club market demographic, emphasising “When it comes to burgers, it’s important to have something for everyone. We’re currently creating a new menu and we want to open up with a bang, so we’ve developed four core burgers – an angus beef, a barramundi burger with a thin-sliced crumbed fillet served with pickle and dill mayo, some iceberg and a little tartare sauce. Then a fried chicken burger, which is a must-have on the menu, and finally a spicy ‘ring of fire’ burger.
“Some people want a works burger, others take the ‘less is more’ approach”
“I think simplicity is the key to good burgers, and you must give customers the opportunity to add or remove fillings. Some people want a works burger with pineapple, bacon and double cheese, others take the ‘less is more’ approach. We’re giving customers the chance to build their own burgers via contactless table ordering – which obviously means we need a substantial range of fillings they can choose from. The aim is also to ensure that any burger can be substituted to a vegan option via a vegan bun and a plant-based pattie, because we really want to cater for everyone once we’re re-open to normal business.”
Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef with the ALH Group overseeing more than 340 hotels, is also seeing a return to the classic burger which he describes as offering “great quality, simple excellence, with the pattie and the bun the two most important ingredients. Some of our upmarket pubs are using handmade patties, beautiful stretched sourdough buns or pretzel buns, which impart their own distinctive flavours to the pizza. The other key element is the cheese – when you’re serving a classic burger, you’ll typically have the meat, the cheese, a really good pickle and sauce. As a contrast to that you can also offer something a little more adventurous which ties in with seasonal trends or customer preferences. One of my recent favourites is a peanut butter and maple bacon pork burger, or you might do Cajun spiced fried chicken with slaw ranch dressing, or maybe a miso beef burger on a green matcha bun with wasabi mayo and Japanese pickles.
“I think when it comes to burgers, the only real limit is the chef’s imagination - as long as the flavours complement each other and don’t override or disguise each other and you’re using the right bun in the right venue. I saw a funny one the other day on one of the American websites - it was a fried chicken and cheetos burger with fried chicken, liquid cheese, mayo and some cheetos in a toasted bun. And I thought, only in America!”
