Burgers going hard as great drawcards for your business

“Burgers are like blue jeans – they never go out of fashion!” That’s how Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef for ALH Group, sums up the perennial appeal of this now-ubiquitous menu item. “The style and cut might change from time to time, but the essentials stay the same.”

Gary says the key to a great burger is getting the pattie and the burger bun right – “everything else is icing on the cake, or pickle on the bun, to coin a phrase! We use a mixture of two different meat grinds – a 5ml and a 3ml – and two or three different primal cuts. As a rule of thumb, the fat content should be between 15 to 18 per cent, that way you’re sure to end up with a really juicy burger. We also make sure the pattie reaches right to the edge of the bun.”

‘Smashed’ burger patties are a trending presentation style right now, which Gary’s team prepare on flat grills. “Once you’ve put the pattie on, you use a burger press to flatten it down which increases the heat penetration and gives really nice caramelisation around the edges. You need to have the grill pretty hot, but it’s just delicious – a little bit crunchy on the outside, and nice and juicy in the middle.”

Gary also recommends going with simple ingredients – as opposed to hugely loaded burgers with double or triple patties, which he describes as “Frankstein food”! “It might be eyecatching, but you can’t eat it and you’ll certainly struggle to hold it together – it might appeal to a small percentage of diners but not with the wider customer base. It’s more of a showpiece or something to brag about on Instagram.”

Instead, he suggests choosing three or four ingredients which will enhance the flavour of the meat and bun rather than masking it and finishing with a complementary sauce. “We find the classic burger is always a big drawcard – we offer these as a ‘build your own’ so customers can add bacon, cheese, beetroot, whatever they want from the traditional list of ingredients. We’re also serving up some different flavour combos, like a peanut butter and maple bacon burger built around a pork base, which is just delicious. We’ll serve a teriyaki beef burger on a green matcha and sesame seed bun, with wasabi mayo and Japanese pickles. Or we might go down the Middle Eastern path with a grilled lamb burger, a beetroot bun, beetroot relish and Persian feta. It’s all about choosing flavours, textures and colours which complement each other. There’s always a great profit margin in burgers done well!”

Start with the pattie

Sam Burke, Corporate Chef for Meat & Livestock Australia, says “Burgers are going hard right now, people love them, they’re easy to eat, they’re a great comfort meal and if anything they’ve become even more popular through Covid with the evolution of drive-through and delivery. We’re seeing big American burger chains like Five Guys coming to Australia now – they’ve opened two outlets in Sydney and one in Melbourne, and we’ve now heard Wendy’s are also opening up here.

“Even just a simple cheeseburger can be a great drawcard for your business, as long as it’s done right. I always say to start with the pattie, and use a blend of different meats, like chuck or brisket; create your own distinctive pattie and call out the cuts, call out the grind size, make these selling points on the menu. We’re also seeing some foodservice operators dry-aging secondary cuts, trimming them and then adding them to their burgers for a point of difference – this gives a more intense, beefier flavour. And we’re seeing burger shops calling out which meats they’re using and where they’re sourced from – bringing the provenance story into play to add a little bit of storytelling around the meal. It’s all about premiumisation, which adds an extra element to the traditional beef burger that my generation grew up with up.”

Sam echoes Gary’s comments about the rise of smashed burgers, adding “Businesses are serving up smashed patties with some American Monterey jack cheese, ketchup and a zesty pickle on a soft and they’re commanding big dollars, because it’s an experience – who doesn’t love a great, authentic American style burger? In a way, it’s about going back to the classic approach – making burgers the way they taste best, honing in on those elements that really deliver flavour, texture and mouthfeel.”

The right bun for the burger

With both Gary and Sam emphasising the importance of choosing the right bun for your burger, we asked Darren O’Brien, Innovation Manager at Tip Top, for his thoughts on what makes a great burger bun and which among Tip Top’s range are in most demand.

“We’ve found that premiumisation is the go right now - our premium burger buns range is growing at around 30 per cent year on year, which is big,” Darren affirms. “At the same time the overall burger bun category is growing by around eight per cen. As an aside to that, our research shows that over the last few years the incidence of burgers on menus has continued to grow, thanks to the ease of making them and their suitably for home delivery, takeaway and pickup during Covid.

“If you take all the premium burger buns, such as brioche, milk buns and potato buns together, they now outsell our regular buns by 20 per cent. The standard white sesame seed Tip Top bun is now selling less than premium buns as a whole – the takeaway shops are still using standard buns, but cafes, pubs and restaurants have all gone premium.”

Within the premium range, the starting point tends to be the potato bun: “People say, I want to go premium, I’ve heard about potato buns, and when our field team go and talk to them they then make a decision about whether they’ll go with that, or brioche, or milk. The potato bun is ultra-soft with a savoury twist. But chefs tend not to call out what bun they’re using because they don’t want to polarise customers – we did a lot chefs panels and research and we’ve found that if you say it’s a potato bun, customers may respond ‘I don’t want too much potato’. Or if you call out a milk bun they may say ‘I don’t like milk’. More than anything it’s a question of working out which bun works best for your burger builds – in just the same way you pair wine with food.

“I often describe the milk bun as having a cooling, smooth flavour to it – so it works really well for spicy fillings. Some customers can’t get enough chilli on their burgers and milk buns are ideal for them, as are spicy Korean or Mexican style sauces – the bun calms down the heat.

“With the brioche buns, we actually add a little more dough weight to them so they are a little heavier, while still being soft. This doesn’t make them more dense but gives a sweet, buttery flavour which works well with highly sauced burgers – fillings such as double meats, American style barbecue or a brisket with barbecue sauce. Because the bun is denser, it can hold that heavier build where there’s a lot of moisture, and the flavour of the bun complements the sweetness of the meat and doesn’t fight against it.”

The potato bun is Tip Top’s vegan option and also works well with gourmet burger builds, although Darren adds, “It’s a product that tends to work right across the board because it doesn’t have the sweetness of the brioche or the milkiness of the milk, but does have a slight savoury note to it. So it works really well for an Italian style burger with pizza style fillings, such some chorizo, roasted capsicum, some pulled meats.”

He also recommends that no matter what burger bun you’re using, you toast the inside before adding sauce and filling. “Don’t worry about the outside, but toasting the inside helps create a barrier for the liquids, by sealing the crumb texture. It helps the hold and it also brings up the flavour. We’re even seeing the rise of charred burger buns, which is coming in from overseas – in some of the more upmarket venues you’ll see wood-burning open grills, where they’ll stick on the buns so they have char lines upon serving. This is probably a bit of a trend to come – smoked flavour is becoming bigger all the time, as is open grilling as opposed to on the hotplate, so I think we’ll see that come to Australia before long.”

Plant-based burgers on the rise

Plant-based proteins are another option for burger patties which have really taken off in the past two years, driven by the growing demand for ‘flexitarian’ style menu choices. Nestlé Professional now markets plant-based Sensational Burger patties under its Harvest Gourmet brand. It cites the Food Frontier 2020 State of the Industry Report which states 42 per cent of Australians are actively reducing the intake of animal products in their diet, thereby driving the rise of flexitarians who choose to replace their animal proteins with plant-based alternatives for some meals.

Simplot Australia also markets a plant-based burger pattie under the Edgell brand, and Executive Chef David White argues that it’s imperative to offer a plant-based option on the burger menu in order to cater for all customer needs. “It’s no longer a novelty, in fact it’s almost becoming more of a staple,” David says, “in that consumers are familiar with plant-based now and expecting to see it, so if you don’t offer it then you’re going to miss out on sales. So for burgers it’s become a common option – this is my beef burger, my chicken, my double stacker, my plant-based.”

David says a good plant-based pattie should be able to be used as a straight swap with the meat alternative – “it should deliver the right mouthfeel, the right colour profile and cook in the same way as a meat pattie, so you don’t have to do anything different. The quality of plant-based products has really evolved over the last couple of years – in the old days they used to have quite strong cereal notes and now the market is really moving away from that, to products which are more flavour-neutral with a clean mouthfeel. You want your plant-based pattie to have a nice savoury flavour without those strong cereal notes which you would otherwise have to compensate for with extra sauce and so on.”