May 4, 2021 • 22 mins
Bobby shows Sophie exactly how to make the perfect burger. Then they sit and discuss everything from Burgers 101, to ideal toppings, to the childhood memories that make burgers so special to all of us.
Follow Host’s Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay on instagram to get future updates on their brand new podcast, “Always Hungry” from iHeartRadio.
Bobby Flay: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyflay
Sophie Flay: https://www.instagram.com/abc7sophie
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay and I'm here with my
daughter and co host. I'm Sophie Flay. Yes you are,
and I'm Always Hungry. Sophie and I gather around my
stove to cook together. Well, you cook, I asked the questions,
and eat the food. That's also accurate. That's if there's
any food left. We come to the table together to
share a meal, connect as a family, and tell the
(00:26):
stories that matter to us. All right, dad, what are
we talking about on this episode? Talking about burgers? Let's
go Okay, we're recording burger time. Okay, So I'm gonna
make classic cheese burgers because I think that, you know,
you can make all kinds of fancy burgers and stuff
like that, but like, if you know the foundation of
(00:47):
how to make a burger, you can build off from there.
So the first thing you have to decide is like,
how are you gonna cook it? This is gonna be
a beef burger with American cheese. But I'm actually gonna
cook it on top of the stove. And I always
cook my burgers in a cast iron pan like in
Bobby's Burger Palace. We cook it on a griddle, which
is a flat top, not a grill. You could cook
(01:08):
it outside and a grill, but I like it on
a griddle. Do you know why? Why do you know? Okay?
Because you get a really great crust, and then when
the juices come down, it stays in the pan and
then becomes part of the burger itself, as opposed to
falling through the credits, like trapping all the juices. Yeah, exactly,
all right, So I have some burgers here, some beef burgers,
(01:30):
and then I put my thumb in the middle of
the burger and make a well. Yes, yes you do.
That's like your thing, that's your signature things, my thing.
But do you know why I'm doing it? Okay? Great,
Clearly you haven't really been paying attention. Have you have
a cooked a burger? Definitely grilled a burger before? Okay?
(01:51):
You have? Yeah, where I don't know, on vacation. I'm challenging.
I'm challenging that the validity is I'm gonna gracefully bow
out things though. Anyway. The reason why I put a
well in the middle of the burger because when you
cook a burger, it plumps up like a football. Right,
the jewice gets warm inside it, it kind of becomes
like the shape of a football. We wanted to be
the shape of a burger. And what happens is when
(02:12):
that when it plumps up like that, people take the
back of their spatula and they press down on the burger.
They get it back to the shape. But then you're
squeezing out all the juices and you lose all the
flavor and the juiciness. Okay, so what I'm doing is
I'm faking out the burgers so that it comes back
to its normal shape. Oh, got it. It's a good trick. Yeah.
(02:33):
Where do you learn that? Burger school? I don't no idea.
We are in Los Angeles, California, and today we're talking
about what makes a good burger. You're smiling just looking
at me right now because I said the word burger.
It's like, I think everybody feels that way in some way,
shape or form. Even vegetarians like burgers because there's things
like veggie burgers and oh yeah, we're going to talk
(02:54):
about that the impossible burger. Do you have many strong,
hard feelings about burgers that we need to know or
can just get right into it. I mean, we can
just get right into it. It's pretty easy. We both
love cheeseburger. Yeah, salt and pepper on both sides are
like a lot of salt and pepper, social salt, cractic
black pepper. Okay. So now, so we have canoa oil
and we have a hotcast iron pan, and you can
(03:15):
hear it sizzle immediately. This isn't fake podcast sound. This
is real burger sound. And what happens now is you
do nothing. You notice I'm just standing here at the
stove looking at you, and I'm not touching it. You
have the burger on direct heat on the pan. What's happening?
What do you mean? It's creating a crust. If you
(03:36):
flip and turning, flipper stearing, it's searing. Exactly. If you
flip and turn, and you flip and turn, you're not
gonna get a nice brown crush. It's gonna be gray.
You're not leaving it long enough, exactly. You're not allowing
the direct heat of the pan to do its job.
All right, let's get down to the components. I always
say that the burger is the quintessential sandwich. There's lots
(03:57):
of choices to make when it comes to a burger
for six tests. First, let's talk about beef. There's a
ratio when you go to the store or you go
to the butcher shop or whatever it is, you'll have
choices there. If it's really really lean, if it says
like lean, in my opinion, that's not good enough. You
need more fat in your burger. So, like the classic
ratio is beef fat. When the fat melts while you're
(04:22):
cooking the burger, it creates juiciness, and obviously fat means flavor.
If it's too lean, it's dry. So that's the no
go I feel about turkey burgers. I don't love turkey burgers.
A non beef burger that I do like is like
a salmon burger that I really like. Yeah, but I
actually have a question for you. Okay, So the patty
that you made and that you typically make for a
(04:44):
burger is usually thicker. I feel like we kind of
have like a thin patty and then there's like a
thick patty. There's I guess you call them smash burgers.
At this point. They smash them down, and that burger
it literally has no chance of being medium rare, let's say, right,
because you're smashing out all the juices out of it.
When you cook a smash burger, the one thing that
people are trying to do is just it's basically a thin,
(05:07):
double sided crust. Yeah right, and and people like it.
If you go to Shake Shack, for instance, that's what
they're cooking. They're cooking smash burgers, and they use the
back of the special and they push it down so
that it smashes. That's the whole point. They smash it
on the griddle and they get that really great crust.
So like, to me, there's really two kinds of beef
burgers in the world. There's one that's sort of a
thicker burger that you can cook it to order rare medium,
(05:30):
rare medium, however you want to cook it, and it's
got that sort of beefy flavor to it that you
can really sink your teeth into. And then you have
a smash burger, which is basically just a crusted burger,
both satisfying. I also forgot that when we did the Flaylist,
we went to Black Tap and we had the Theresa burger,
which I also love. That's a not beef pork. So
(05:51):
thereizo is like the Mexican or Spanish style pork sausage.
But you like flavor, which, like I'm happy to say,
like I think that you got that from me feeding you.
You like food with flavor? Yeah, you like food with flavor? Well,
I mean why not? Who want bland food? No? I know.
I But it's funny though, because I always read like
if I see reviews of your restaurants gone yelp or something,
(06:14):
it's like so like some people comment so much salt,
and like, I understand that, but I don't know. I
mean everything we go for it. One of the true
differences between a professional cook and at home cook is
that we really go for when it comes to seasoning.
Just in general, we push the envelope. How you feel
about the Impossible Burger and beyond burger plant based burgers.
(06:34):
It's tricky because I really feel passionate about trying to
do what's best for the environment, and plant based burger
is a more environmentally friendly way to eat a burger.
But I don't like all of them. That being said,
one burger chain that I really like that is a
plant based burger, and Impossible Burger is Monty's Good Burger.
(06:57):
What's that? You know? I don't know if they're outside
of l or California, but there's three locations here. There's
one in Echo Park, there's one in Koreatown, and there's
one somewhere else. And they serve impossible burgers yep, really,
and for me, it's been one of my favorite plant
based burgers that I've had. And the patties are thicker,
(07:17):
which I think is also where because I think you
see like a tooth thin. Usually yeah, they're usually too thin,
but you can also do like double stacked or whatever
they call it. But yeah, I really like this, and
I think it looks the most similar. I feel like
everyone knows what a burger looks like and has that
picture perfect image in their head, and that seems to
also look the most similar to in my opinion, to
(07:38):
a Yeah, but what does it taste like? You feel
like it tastes like a beef burger. I feel like
it tastes very close. Really. Yes, Okay, so you're a fan,
all right, but it's not my first choice, Like I'm not.
What's your choice? How much would it be a beef burger? Yeah? Okay,
so you're still on the beef burger. Yeah, for sure.
I don't know. I think that if they said you
can't have a beef burger or a turkey burger, it
(07:59):
has to be vegetable, as I would go with a
veggie burger, you know, it would make something with either
chickpeas or black beans or keeno or something along those lines.
About mushroom, yeah, I use mushrooms in mine as well.
And mushrooms work really nicely because it has that media
like texture and flavor. Let's take a peep, and I
(08:30):
like mine to be really crusty, nice and brown. This
burger is about six and a half pouncers or something
like that, and it doesn't take that long. How do
you like your bird cooks? Medium? Okay, all right, let's
see you can put it looks pretty good. Yeah, I
think crusty. Let's turn that over. All right, let's move
on to cheese. I would say that of the great
(08:51):
chefs of the world, one American cheeses on their burgers
because it just works. It's one of those things that
works really well and melting credibly well. It has a
tangy flavor to it, and it obviously reminds a lot
of us of our childhood. And that's what a burger
does is great for nostalgia. It's a great satisfying feeling.
I grew up eating cheeseburgers in a place called j G. Melon,
(09:13):
which you know all about, and simplest burger in the world,
but the most satisfying burger. And of course it was
American cheese. But I always have two slices of American
cheese on my burgers, whether it's at Bobby's Burgers or
in my house, like we made it just now. I
think that the cheese that gets used a lot that
I think is not a good choice is Cheddar. Why.
(09:35):
To me, it's all about the meltability of cheese. You
must melt the cheese completely, Okay. I actually have signs
in the kitchen at Bobby's Burgers where people are cooking
it says Bobby says, melt the cheese completely, because it
drives me crazy when you order a burger, because it
just tastes better and it looks bad. Funny, when I
was making the burger just now and I revealed it melted,
you're like, oh, that looks really good. I got you.
(09:58):
You're done, You're finished, Okay, Cheddar sweats it doesn't melt it.
I mean, it melts kind of, but it it's it's
wax here. I don't like the texture of it. I'd
rather use something like Fontina, which is an Italian selt
cheese melts beautifully, has a little nuttiness to it. Munster
another good cheese that you can find easily, melts incredibly well.
(10:19):
Monterey Jack melts well too, but it doesn't taste like anything.
It just tastes like melted. And then Swiss works nicely too,
you know, a gree air or something like that. Yeah,
what's your number one cheese? I mean for burger definitely
American cheese, But like I was saying before, I like
a goat cheese burger too, and not melts pretty well. Okay,
(10:43):
what happens with goat cheese like fresh coat cheese, is
that it doesn't melt like American cheese melts, So it
doesn't just like surround the burger. Yeah, but if you
soak the goat cheese and olive oil and you wait
a little bit, then it's easier to spread. Could you
The goat cheese tip? Sophy Flay, bring the noise and
goat cheese about all I've got in terms of food tips.
(11:04):
I like that about blue cheese. I can't do it.
It works, but I don't love blue cheese strong flavor. Yeah,
but you know, beef and blue cheese is a classic combination. Yes,
blue cheese with steaks and a red wine sauce, so delicious. Perfect. Okay,
we have the beef, we have the cheese. Button. Now.
You said something to me before about like a bun
is very important. What's your thought? Yes, I think it's
just as important as the patty, for sure, because I
(11:26):
think a bun that's too dry, or that's too soggy,
or two it is tough the right word, too firm
to firm, yeah, ruins a burger for me. It breaks
the burger up. Like I don't love the rio burger
bun trend to buttery. No, not too buttery. I think
it's too firm. Also, the bottom can fall apart easily.
You know what a potato bun is. Yeah, how do
(11:46):
you feel about those? I like potato buns. Yeah, they're nice,
but they get soggy too, especially if they get like
if you take it to go, your burger's ruined by
the time you get sesame season. Yeah. I like sesame seeds.
Do you I do? Too, but not everybody likes. We
serve it at Bobby's Burgers. But a lot of people
have seed allergies or allergies for everything these days, as
we know, so you have to really be careful and
(12:08):
have alternatives for people to eat. We've only flipped our
burger one time. All right, I put two pieces of
cheese on my burger, oh, edgeway, And here's the way
I've melt it. Okay, this is an old sort of
Greek diner like New York City Greek diner trick. You
take some water, okay, and you put it in the
bottom of the pan and you cover it at the
(12:29):
same time. Ready, and you can see it. It creates steam.
So it's doing two things. It's cooking the edges of
the burger because remember, like you have the crust on
both sides. But it's also melting cheese perfectly, and you
must melt the cheese. All right, Right, let's think about Yeah, Wow,
(12:55):
that looks so good. That's the money shot right there,
amazing because you've you there. Oh my god, that looks good, right,
looks so good because that look like your birds. Yeah,
there's there's actually no video evidence of you ever colicking
your burger and there never will be ridiculous. Okay, So basically,
(13:18):
so now here's what we got. We have a cheeseburger
on a bun. Let's go to the continent station. Okay,
all right, let's get right down to the nitty gritty.
What are you going to put on your burger? I
mean that's really the it's really the question today. Just
so so you guys understand. We have ketchup, We have
Dijon mustard. Now, I didn't have any pickles pickles, which
(13:40):
is mistake, a complete mistake. Obviously. I looked at my
refrigerator and I was a gas that didn't have many pickles.
But we do have halopenia pickles. And sometimes I make
pickled red onions, but I have raw red onions because
I know you like raw onion. We have tomatoes. I
also made this for you, which is a Chipotle ketchup,
which is something I love to use. I have a
(14:00):
burger chan called Bobby's Burger Palace, and we use Chippotle
catch up in that story as well. And then there's
all kinds of other things. You can put anything on
the burger, as they say, you know, avocados, mushrooms, you know,
depending on what kind of cheese you want to use,
and then of course let us. The only let us
I had in my refrigerator was rugela, which is, you know,
if you're making sort of an Italian saw burger, that
(14:21):
kind of works, right, But I think you want something
crispier than that. Yeah, I mean, if I'm going to
use a rugla on a burger, then I want like
goat cheese on my burger. Okay, we didn't have that
luxury today though. Sorry. Sorry, I'll get you some goat
cheese for your fancy burger. And so what are you
gonna do here? So I'm probably gonna put everything on
my Yeah, I love this Chippotle catch up because I
(14:47):
actually really like a Chipotle male on my burger, which
is kind of a newer thing I get, I mean
not new new. So can I give you a little
quick little trivia question? Why? Why? Because I want to
make sure that you're learning as we're talking. I'm your father.
That's the whole that's a part of your life is
that you have to answer questions that I ask you.
I know, but you're always asking me questions that you're
(15:07):
the expert on and then I just feel dumb. Oh no, no, no,
that's not true. I ask you questions because I want
you to learn and have knowledge. I want you to
rule the world. You know what a chipotle is for pepper?
That's the answer. What kind of pepper? What do you mean?
What kind of peppers? Well, it's pretty specific. Okay, you're
(15:30):
telling me to go. Okay, Sophie, it's a smoke talapano. Okay, yeah,
there you go. So I'm putting some ketchup on mine
as well, and I'm gonna put some red onion because
I like that crunch. You know that the red onion
gives it, you know, it kind of cuts through the richness.
And then I'm gonna put some potato chips. I always
always potato chips on a burger. I've actually trademarked the
(15:52):
word crunch of five for for Bobby's Burgers, because we
put thin crisp potato chips on any burger for free
if you want it, and it gives it that like
contract and texture that I think of burger needs. And
I'm gonna put some pickled palepenos just because I need
some heat on my burger. So here's my burger. Already
American cheese melted too, slices, thin red onion, pickled halapenos,
(16:14):
and then some ketchup and some potato chips for some crunch.
You go, okay, well, I'm still working on it, but
I have the chipotle catchup, a little digon mustard, putting
some tomato, a little red onion, and potato chips. Oh,
and I'm gonna put some rug law on for some
healthy Noish Mark cheese burgers are just so satisfying. Okay, So,
(17:01):
Sophie l A and you, you you are two huge cities,
lots of burgers, but really a different approach. You come
to l A. It's probably somewhere between twelve and fifteen
seconds before somebody tells you that you have to go
to in and Out. I love in and out? Why
what is it? What's the secret? What's the magic? I
was looking at their website. I was reading like a
little bit about their history, and something I wanted to
(17:22):
ask you about was they say they mustard cook the patties,
so that means that there's a little bit of mustard
on the patties and then they flip it. Because I
knew you were going to ask me this question. If
we talked about in and out, But that was something
that really stood out to me when trying to look
into it a little bit more. Obviously, you know, they're
also known for animal style, so that Thousand Island sauce
we were talking about, that's part of you know, making
(17:45):
your meal or order animal style, right, but mustard cook
have you done that? Do you do that for burgers?
But is that something they talk about or is something
like like the No, it's on their website on there
is about Yep. You know that's really interesting because you know,
we're talked about mayonnaise before, and one of the secrets
to a really good grilled cheese is slathering it with
mayonnaise on the outside and it gives it that golden
(18:07):
brown sort of crispy texture and the mayonnaise really helps it.
So mustard on a burger to cook it. So while
they're cooking it, they use mustard. Yes, wait, hold on,
are you looking it up? Yes, that's a pretty cool idea,
I know, but to me it would sound like it
wouldn't get crusty. Maybe they don't get crusty. So their
history is they do it in kind of like a timeline.
So one animal style burgers prepared. The first animal style
(18:30):
burger is created in response to customer requests. To prepare
your burger animal style, we mustard cook the beef patty
and add your choice of hand leaped lettuce, tomato, and
then you know, whatever else. So they mustard cook it.
I've never even heard that before. Is that interesting? I know?
And then I looked up what mustard cookie was. I
was like, is it what I think it is? Or
and it is. I think in New York City there's
(18:50):
lots of people that have the favorite burgers and stuff
like that, but I think J. G. Melnd is like
the go to So why I don't know. I mean, honestly,
it's like it because of flavor, but also childhood memories
elements kind of mixed in with that. There's some childhood
memories there. But like I grew up in that place.
I was born in nineteen sixty four. It opened in
nineteen seventy two, and I would say from the time
(19:13):
I was eight years old going in there with my
dad after like playing in Little League games, I've been
eating that burger forever. And so yes, it makes me
think about that's what a burger should taste like. It's
the simplest burger. The bun is really simple and soft.
They say that the meat is their own proprietary blend
of different things, so of course there's something there. There's
there's sort of a nice sort of inherent sweetness to
(19:35):
the meat, which is really really nice. They cook it
on a griddle, which is I think is important. So
they get a really nice crust on the outside, and
they put American cheese on it and they give it
to you. Was like, you know, an onion. I mean,
it's like there's like there's nothing visual that you see
that says this is why this is New York's great burger.
But you ask anybody that goes there and they're like, oh,
J G. Mlains, I'm obsessed. It's just you know, In
(19:58):
and Out has that and they just had it has
that sort of that cultural draw. And when you go
into Melons, there's almost has like a saloon type of
feel in there. Has it changed since the day you
remember going in your early years. Not? I don't think it, No,
not at all. I really don't know. That's part of
it too. It's classic. It's it's old school. So I'm
(20:20):
going to tell you a very quick story about something
that you don't know about me that has to do
with J G. Melons. Well, I'm not gonna tell you
all the story because I knew it, but but this
is kind of an interesting one. You know, the drinking
age and across the United States is now, Okay, it
never used to be that way. What are you laughing at?
I felt like I was like getting a pinball machine.
(20:41):
So when I was eighteen years old, I had my
first legal drink at the bar at GG Melons with
a cheeseburger. Okay, literally like a few months later they
changed it to nineteen. So then I had to stop
drinking because it was illegal, and I had to wait
till I was nineteen. So when I was nineteen, I
then had my next first legal drink at the bar JG.
(21:04):
Melons with a cheeseburger. And then you know what they
did after that? They changed in one nightmare. So then
I've had I had my first three legal drinks within
a three year period at JG. Melons with a cheeseburger.
So I just felt like they were doing this just
to me. That's really funny. Yeah, it is, alright, So Sophie,
(21:28):
you're satisfied with your burger and your burger choices. Yes,
you did a great job, Thank you very much. I'm
now full. But do you have to deserve it after
a burger? Or is it you have a milkshake? That's right,
black and white milk drink. Bring out the milkshakes, Bob,
bring out the milkshakes, all right, Fire up the blender.
Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay and Sophie flag.
(21:49):
Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungary is produced, edited,
and mixed by Jonathan hows Dressler. Always Hungry is engineered
by Sophie Flay. For more, pod cast on my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay and I'm here with my
daughter and co host. I'm Sophie Flay. Yes you are,
and I'm Always Hungry. Sophie and I gather around my
stove to cook together. Well, you cook, I asked the questions,
and eat the food. That's also accurate. That's if there's
any food left. We come to the table together to
share a meal, connect as a family, and tell the
(00:26):
stories that matter to us. All right, dad, what are
we talking about on this episode? Talking about burgers? Let's
go Okay, we're recording burger time. Okay, So I'm gonna
make classic cheese burgers because I think that, you know,
you can make all kinds of fancy burgers and stuff
like that, but like, if you know the foundation of
(00:47):
how to make a burger, you can build off from there.
So the first thing you have to decide is like,
how are you gonna cook it? This is gonna be
a beef burger with American cheese. But I'm actually gonna
cook it on top of the stove. And I always
cook my burgers in a cast iron pan like in
Bobby's Burger Palace. We cook it on a griddle, which
is a flat top, not a grill. You could cook
(01:08):
it outside and a grill, but I like it on
a griddle. Do you know why? Why do you know? Okay?
Because you get a really great crust, and then when
the juices come down, it stays in the pan and
then becomes part of the burger itself, as opposed to
falling through the credits, like trapping all the juices. Yeah, exactly,
all right, So I have some burgers here, some beef burgers,
(01:30):
and then I put my thumb in the middle of
the burger and make a well. Yes, yes you do.
That's like your thing, that's your signature things, my thing.
But do you know why I'm doing it? Okay? Great,
Clearly you haven't really been paying attention. Have you have
a cooked a burger? Definitely grilled a burger before? Okay?
(01:51):
You have? Yeah, where I don't know, on vacation. I'm challenging.
I'm challenging that the validity is I'm gonna gracefully bow
out things though. Anyway. The reason why I put a
well in the middle of the burger because when you
cook a burger, it plumps up like a football. Right,
the jewice gets warm inside it, it kind of becomes
like the shape of a football. We wanted to be
the shape of a burger. And what happens is when
(02:12):
that when it plumps up like that, people take the
back of their spatula and they press down on the burger.
They get it back to the shape. But then you're
squeezing out all the juices and you lose all the
flavor and the juiciness. Okay, so what I'm doing is
I'm faking out the burgers so that it comes back
to its normal shape. Oh, got it. It's a good trick. Yeah.
(02:33):
Where do you learn that? Burger school? I don't no idea.
We are in Los Angeles, California, and today we're talking
about what makes a good burger. You're smiling just looking
at me right now because I said the word burger.
It's like, I think everybody feels that way in some way,
shape or form. Even vegetarians like burgers because there's things
like veggie burgers and oh yeah, we're going to talk
(02:54):
about that the impossible burger. Do you have many strong,
hard feelings about burgers that we need to know or
can just get right into it. I mean, we can
just get right into it. It's pretty easy. We both
love cheeseburger. Yeah, salt and pepper on both sides are
like a lot of salt and pepper, social salt, cractic
black pepper. Okay. So now, so we have canoa oil
and we have a hotcast iron pan, and you can
(03:15):
hear it sizzle immediately. This isn't fake podcast sound. This
is real burger sound. And what happens now is you
do nothing. You notice I'm just standing here at the
stove looking at you, and I'm not touching it. You
have the burger on direct heat on the pan. What's happening?
What do you mean? It's creating a crust. If you
(03:36):
flip and turning, flipper stearing, it's searing. Exactly. If you
flip and turn, and you flip and turn, you're not
gonna get a nice brown crush. It's gonna be gray.
You're not leaving it long enough, exactly. You're not allowing
the direct heat of the pan to do its job.
All right, let's get down to the components. I always
say that the burger is the quintessential sandwich. There's lots
(03:57):
of choices to make when it comes to a burger
for six tests. First, let's talk about beef. There's a
ratio when you go to the store or you go
to the butcher shop or whatever it is, you'll have
choices there. If it's really really lean, if it says
like lean, in my opinion, that's not good enough. You
need more fat in your burger. So, like the classic
ratio is beef fat. When the fat melts while you're
(04:22):
cooking the burger, it creates juiciness, and obviously fat means flavor.
If it's too lean, it's dry. So that's the no
go I feel about turkey burgers. I don't love turkey burgers.
A non beef burger that I do like is like
a salmon burger that I really like. Yeah, but I
actually have a question for you. Okay, So the patty
that you made and that you typically make for a
(04:44):
burger is usually thicker. I feel like we kind of
have like a thin patty and then there's like a
thick patty. There's I guess you call them smash burgers.
At this point. They smash them down, and that burger
it literally has no chance of being medium rare, let's say, right,
because you're smashing out all the juices out of it.
When you cook a smash burger, the one thing that
people are trying to do is just it's basically a thin,
(05:07):
double sided crust. Yeah right, and and people like it.
If you go to Shake Shack, for instance, that's what
they're cooking. They're cooking smash burgers, and they use the
back of the special and they push it down so
that it smashes. That's the whole point. They smash it
on the griddle and they get that really great crust.
So like, to me, there's really two kinds of beef
burgers in the world. There's one that's sort of a
thicker burger that you can cook it to order rare medium,
(05:30):
rare medium, however you want to cook it, and it's
got that sort of beefy flavor to it that you
can really sink your teeth into. And then you have
a smash burger, which is basically just a crusted burger,
both satisfying. I also forgot that when we did the Flaylist,
we went to Black Tap and we had the Theresa burger,
which I also love. That's a not beef pork. So
(05:51):
thereizo is like the Mexican or Spanish style pork sausage.
But you like flavor, which, like I'm happy to say,
like I think that you got that from me feeding you.
You like food with flavor? Yeah, you like food with flavor? Well,
I mean why not? Who want bland food? No? I know.
I But it's funny though, because I always read like
if I see reviews of your restaurants gone yelp or something,
(06:14):
it's like so like some people comment so much salt,
and like, I understand that, but I don't know. I
mean everything we go for it. One of the true
differences between a professional cook and at home cook is
that we really go for when it comes to seasoning.
Just in general, we push the envelope. How you feel
about the Impossible Burger and beyond burger plant based burgers.
(06:34):
It's tricky because I really feel passionate about trying to
do what's best for the environment, and plant based burger
is a more environmentally friendly way to eat a burger.
But I don't like all of them. That being said,
one burger chain that I really like that is a
plant based burger, and Impossible Burger is Monty's Good Burger.
(06:57):
What's that? You know? I don't know if they're outside
of l or California, but there's three locations here. There's
one in Echo Park, there's one in Koreatown, and there's
one somewhere else. And they serve impossible burgers yep, really,
and for me, it's been one of my favorite plant
based burgers that I've had. And the patties are thicker,
(07:17):
which I think is also where because I think you
see like a tooth thin. Usually yeah, they're usually too thin,
but you can also do like double stacked or whatever
they call it. But yeah, I really like this, and
I think it looks the most similar. I feel like
everyone knows what a burger looks like and has that
picture perfect image in their head, and that seems to
also look the most similar to in my opinion, to
(07:38):
a Yeah, but what does it taste like? You feel
like it tastes like a beef burger. I feel like
it tastes very close. Really. Yes, Okay, so you're a fan,
all right, but it's not my first choice, Like I'm not.
What's your choice? How much would it be a beef burger? Yeah? Okay,
so you're still on the beef burger. Yeah, for sure.
I don't know. I think that if they said you
can't have a beef burger or a turkey burger, it
(07:59):
has to be vegetable, as I would go with a
veggie burger, you know, it would make something with either
chickpeas or black beans or keeno or something along those lines.
About mushroom, yeah, I use mushrooms in mine as well.
And mushrooms work really nicely because it has that media
like texture and flavor. Let's take a peep, and I
(08:30):
like mine to be really crusty, nice and brown. This
burger is about six and a half pouncers or something
like that, and it doesn't take that long. How do
you like your bird cooks? Medium? Okay, all right, let's
see you can put it looks pretty good. Yeah, I
think crusty. Let's turn that over. All right, let's move
on to cheese. I would say that of the great
(08:51):
chefs of the world, one American cheeses on their burgers
because it just works. It's one of those things that
works really well and melting credibly well. It has a
tangy flavor to it, and it obviously reminds a lot
of us of our childhood. And that's what a burger
does is great for nostalgia. It's a great satisfying feeling.
I grew up eating cheeseburgers in a place called j G. Melon,
(09:13):
which you know all about, and simplest burger in the world,
but the most satisfying burger. And of course it was
American cheese. But I always have two slices of American
cheese on my burgers, whether it's at Bobby's Burgers or
in my house, like we made it just now. I
think that the cheese that gets used a lot that
I think is not a good choice is Cheddar. Why.
(09:35):
To me, it's all about the meltability of cheese. You
must melt the cheese completely, Okay. I actually have signs
in the kitchen at Bobby's Burgers where people are cooking
it says Bobby says, melt the cheese completely, because it
drives me crazy when you order a burger, because it
just tastes better and it looks bad. Funny, when I
was making the burger just now and I revealed it melted,
you're like, oh, that looks really good. I got you.
(09:58):
You're done, You're finished, Okay, Cheddar sweats it doesn't melt it.
I mean, it melts kind of, but it it's it's
wax here. I don't like the texture of it. I'd
rather use something like Fontina, which is an Italian selt
cheese melts beautifully, has a little nuttiness to it. Munster
another good cheese that you can find easily, melts incredibly well.
(10:19):
Monterey Jack melts well too, but it doesn't taste like anything.
It just tastes like melted. And then Swiss works nicely too,
you know, a gree air or something like that. Yeah,
what's your number one cheese? I mean for burger definitely
American cheese, But like I was saying before, I like
a goat cheese burger too, and not melts pretty well. Okay,
(10:43):
what happens with goat cheese like fresh coat cheese, is
that it doesn't melt like American cheese melts, So it
doesn't just like surround the burger. Yeah, but if you
soak the goat cheese and olive oil and you wait
a little bit, then it's easier to spread. Could you
The goat cheese tip? Sophy Flay, bring the noise and
goat cheese about all I've got in terms of food tips.
(11:04):
I like that about blue cheese. I can't do it.
It works, but I don't love blue cheese strong flavor. Yeah,
but you know, beef and blue cheese is a classic combination. Yes,
blue cheese with steaks and a red wine sauce, so delicious. Perfect. Okay,
we have the beef, we have the cheese. Button. Now.
You said something to me before about like a bun
is very important. What's your thought? Yes, I think it's
just as important as the patty, for sure, because I
(11:26):
think a bun that's too dry, or that's too soggy,
or two it is tough the right word, too firm
to firm, yeah, ruins a burger for me. It breaks
the burger up. Like I don't love the rio burger
bun trend to buttery. No, not too buttery. I think
it's too firm. Also, the bottom can fall apart easily.
You know what a potato bun is. Yeah, how do
(11:46):
you feel about those? I like potato buns. Yeah, they're nice,
but they get soggy too, especially if they get like
if you take it to go, your burger's ruined by
the time you get sesame season. Yeah. I like sesame seeds.
Do you I do? Too, but not everybody likes. We
serve it at Bobby's Burgers. But a lot of people
have seed allergies or allergies for everything these days, as
we know, so you have to really be careful and
(12:08):
have alternatives for people to eat. We've only flipped our
burger one time. All right, I put two pieces of
cheese on my burger, oh, edgeway, And here's the way
I've melt it. Okay, this is an old sort of
Greek diner like New York City Greek diner trick. You
take some water, okay, and you put it in the
bottom of the pan and you cover it at the
(12:29):
same time. Ready, and you can see it. It creates steam.
So it's doing two things. It's cooking the edges of
the burger because remember, like you have the crust on
both sides. But it's also melting cheese perfectly, and you
must melt the cheese. All right, Right, let's think about Yeah, Wow,
(12:55):
that looks so good. That's the money shot right there,
amazing because you've you there. Oh my god, that looks good, right,
looks so good because that look like your birds. Yeah,
there's there's actually no video evidence of you ever colicking
your burger and there never will be ridiculous. Okay, So basically,
(13:18):
so now here's what we got. We have a cheeseburger
on a bun. Let's go to the continent station. Okay,
all right, let's get right down to the nitty gritty.
What are you going to put on your burger? I
mean that's really the it's really the question today. Just
so so you guys understand. We have ketchup, We have
Dijon mustard. Now, I didn't have any pickles pickles, which
(13:40):
is mistake, a complete mistake. Obviously. I looked at my
refrigerator and I was a gas that didn't have many pickles.
But we do have halopenia pickles. And sometimes I make
pickled red onions, but I have raw red onions because
I know you like raw onion. We have tomatoes. I
also made this for you, which is a Chipotle ketchup,
which is something I love to use. I have a
(14:00):
burger chan called Bobby's Burger Palace, and we use Chippotle
catch up in that story as well. And then there's
all kinds of other things. You can put anything on
the burger, as they say, you know, avocados, mushrooms, you know,
depending on what kind of cheese you want to use,
and then of course let us. The only let us
I had in my refrigerator was rugela, which is, you know,
if you're making sort of an Italian saw burger, that
(14:21):
kind of works, right, But I think you want something
crispier than that. Yeah, I mean, if I'm going to
use a rugla on a burger, then I want like
goat cheese on my burger. Okay, we didn't have that
luxury today though. Sorry. Sorry, I'll get you some goat
cheese for your fancy burger. And so what are you
gonna do here? So I'm probably gonna put everything on
my Yeah, I love this Chippotle catch up because I
(14:47):
actually really like a Chipotle male on my burger, which
is kind of a newer thing I get, I mean
not new new. So can I give you a little
quick little trivia question? Why? Why? Because I want to
make sure that you're learning as we're talking. I'm your father.
That's the whole that's a part of your life is
that you have to answer questions that I ask you.
I know, but you're always asking me questions that you're
(15:07):
the expert on and then I just feel dumb. Oh no, no, no,
that's not true. I ask you questions because I want
you to learn and have knowledge. I want you to
rule the world. You know what a chipotle is for pepper?
That's the answer. What kind of pepper? What do you mean?
What kind of peppers? Well, it's pretty specific. Okay, you're
(15:30):
telling me to go. Okay, Sophie, it's a smoke talapano. Okay, yeah,
there you go. So I'm putting some ketchup on mine
as well, and I'm gonna put some red onion because
I like that crunch. You know that the red onion
gives it, you know, it kind of cuts through the richness.
And then I'm gonna put some potato chips. I always
always potato chips on a burger. I've actually trademarked the
(15:52):
word crunch of five for for Bobby's Burgers, because we
put thin crisp potato chips on any burger for free
if you want it, and it gives it that like
contract and texture that I think of burger needs. And
I'm gonna put some pickled palepenos just because I need
some heat on my burger. So here's my burger. Already
American cheese melted too, slices, thin red onion, pickled halapenos,
(16:14):
and then some ketchup and some potato chips for some crunch.
You go, okay, well, I'm still working on it, but
I have the chipotle catchup, a little digon mustard, putting
some tomato, a little red onion, and potato chips. Oh,
and I'm gonna put some rug law on for some
healthy Noish Mark cheese burgers are just so satisfying. Okay, So,
(17:01):
Sophie l A and you, you you are two huge cities,
lots of burgers, but really a different approach. You come
to l A. It's probably somewhere between twelve and fifteen
seconds before somebody tells you that you have to go
to in and Out. I love in and out? Why
what is it? What's the secret? What's the magic? I
was looking at their website. I was reading like a
little bit about their history, and something I wanted to
(17:22):
ask you about was they say they mustard cook the patties,
so that means that there's a little bit of mustard
on the patties and then they flip it. Because I
knew you were going to ask me this question. If
we talked about in and out, But that was something
that really stood out to me when trying to look
into it a little bit more. Obviously, you know, they're
also known for animal style, so that Thousand Island sauce
we were talking about, that's part of you know, making
(17:45):
your meal or order animal style, right, but mustard cook
have you done that? Do you do that for burgers?
But is that something they talk about or is something
like like the No, it's on their website on there
is about Yep. You know that's really interesting because you know,
we're talked about mayonnaise before, and one of the secrets
to a really good grilled cheese is slathering it with
mayonnaise on the outside and it gives it that golden
(18:07):
brown sort of crispy texture and the mayonnaise really helps it.
So mustard on a burger to cook it. So while
they're cooking it, they use mustard. Yes, wait, hold on,
are you looking it up? Yes, that's a pretty cool idea,
I know, but to me it would sound like it
wouldn't get crusty. Maybe they don't get crusty. So their
history is they do it in kind of like a timeline.
So one animal style burgers prepared. The first animal style
(18:30):
burger is created in response to customer requests. To prepare
your burger animal style, we mustard cook the beef patty
and add your choice of hand leaped lettuce, tomato, and
then you know, whatever else. So they mustard cook it.
I've never even heard that before. Is that interesting? I know?
And then I looked up what mustard cookie was. I
was like, is it what I think it is? Or
and it is. I think in New York City there's
(18:50):
lots of people that have the favorite burgers and stuff
like that, but I think J. G. Melnd is like
the go to So why I don't know. I mean, honestly,
it's like it because of flavor, but also childhood memories
elements kind of mixed in with that. There's some childhood
memories there. But like I grew up in that place.
I was born in nineteen sixty four. It opened in
nineteen seventy two, and I would say from the time
(19:13):
I was eight years old going in there with my
dad after like playing in Little League games, I've been
eating that burger forever. And so yes, it makes me
think about that's what a burger should taste like. It's
the simplest burger. The bun is really simple and soft.
They say that the meat is their own proprietary blend
of different things, so of course there's something there. There's
there's sort of a nice sort of inherent sweetness to
(19:35):
the meat, which is really really nice. They cook it
on a griddle, which is I think is important. So
they get a really nice crust on the outside, and
they put American cheese on it and they give it
to you. Was like, you know, an onion. I mean,
it's like there's like there's nothing visual that you see
that says this is why this is New York's great burger.
But you ask anybody that goes there and they're like, oh,
J G. Mlains, I'm obsessed. It's just you know, In
(19:58):
and Out has that and they just had it has
that sort of that cultural draw. And when you go
into Melons, there's almost has like a saloon type of
feel in there. Has it changed since the day you
remember going in your early years. Not? I don't think it, No,
not at all. I really don't know. That's part of
it too. It's classic. It's it's old school. So I'm
(20:20):
going to tell you a very quick story about something
that you don't know about me that has to do
with J G. Melons. Well, I'm not gonna tell you
all the story because I knew it, but but this
is kind of an interesting one. You know, the drinking
age and across the United States is now, Okay, it
never used to be that way. What are you laughing at?
I felt like I was like getting a pinball machine.
(20:41):
So when I was eighteen years old, I had my
first legal drink at the bar at GG Melons with
a cheeseburger. Okay, literally like a few months later they
changed it to nineteen. So then I had to stop
drinking because it was illegal, and I had to wait
till I was nineteen. So when I was nineteen, I
then had my next first legal drink at the bar JG.
(21:04):
Melons with a cheeseburger. And then you know what they
did after that? They changed in one nightmare. So then
I've had I had my first three legal drinks within
a three year period at JG. Melons with a cheeseburger.
So I just felt like they were doing this just
to me. That's really funny. Yeah, it is, alright, So Sophie,
(21:28):
you're satisfied with your burger and your burger choices. Yes,
you did a great job, Thank you very much. I'm
now full. But do you have to deserve it after
a burger? Or is it you have a milkshake? That's right,
black and white milk drink. Bring out the milkshakes, Bob,
bring out the milkshakes, all right, Fire up the blender.
Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay and Sophie flag.
(21:49):
Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungary is produced, edited,
and mixed by Jonathan hows Dressler. Always Hungry is engineered
by Sophie Flay. For more, pod cast on my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.