Uploads from Fallow

This might be the hardest thing we've ever attempted. Three countries, five of the world's best burgers, and months of work to combine every element into a single recipe. And if that's not hard enough, we brought in Jay Raina, the toughest food critic in Britain, to judge if we made the best burger in the world. Okay, chef. So, it's 9:00. Jay Raina is coming in at 10:30. But before we could make our own recipe, we wanted to do as much research as possible to see what really makes the best burgers stand out. We couldn't make a video about the best burger in the world without coming to my personal favorite black burger. This is Jiao, executive pastry chef of our whole group. Jiao's going to get to the bottom of what makes the best burger bun. And look at that. This is the championship burger. Miso butter, mayonnaise on the bottom, bacon, American cheese, three slices of onions, and this incredible demi barrage bun. Cheers, mate. >> Cheers. >> It's really good. like nice, light, doesn't fall apart. Very difficult to make a light bun that doesn't fall apart. >> And I always think that about the potato buns. I always think they disintegrate to nothing. Whereas this one holds its shape. For me though, the sesame adds a whole another sort of dimension to it. >> It does. It's quite heavy, isn't it? On sesame. >> I mean that to be honest, I don't see how you can get a better burger than that. It's just incredible. >> It's really like I can see why it's your favorite now. >> Having tasted this. Are you confident making a an ultimate burger bun? >> I think I think we can do it. How is the first batch of buns? >> Um, well, fail massively, actually. >> They look good. >> They look good. They taste good. Uh, but the texture is a bit off. >> It smells really good. All right, chef. Sure, we'll get there. Nothing to worry about. >> A few days later, after hours of work, Jiao finally cracked [music] the case of the perfect burger bun by combining both demi brios and potato bun. He added potato flakes [music] and a bit of butter and oil to enforce the dough but also give it that signature potato flavor. >> Pour all these eight recipes. >> Eight recipes. [laughter] Look at this. I love it. This is the difference between a pastry chef and a main chef. This this surgical brain. >> Okay. So So we started with like two potato buns. One quite high on mashed potato, quite heavy, right? This one is a little bit less potato and it's a little bit softer. >> It's very soft. That is [music] The knife just literally glides through. [laughter] Right, we'll toast these up. That is light as a feather, my friend. Smells incredible as well. Wow. >> Gets a bit of that milk bread pull. >> As you pull it apart, you can see how well the gluten's developed. Potentially a bit groundbreaking. We should brush it and toast it with a bit of beef fat from the rib. Agree. But not bad for a day old. It's >> amazing. And Jay will be going fresh on the day. He's going to lose his knickers. I should mention that Jay Rainer is one of the most wellrespected critics in all of the UK. So, if we serve him a bad burger, I'm sure he's going to let us know. [music] To find what makes the best burger patty, we flew out to Valencia to what was voted the best burger in the world. 100 burgers. Oh, that smells amazing. >> There are two things that are the most important things to know about the way we do things. One of them is that we make everything ourselves. We don't get the cows from uh butcher. We buy the cows ourselves. Then we dry age them ourselves as well. Every beef here it's dryaged. And I always explain this because it's our main characteristic in terms of flavor is that beefiness. It's very present. >> So it's gissian beef. Do you know the rind side and then hand pressed? >> Yeah. No, no, no, not pressed. It's massage. We call it massage. So we like that it falls apart when it it smells in the mat. That's what we are always looking for. So this is a singular burger. It's got bacon with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese that we import from England, and then a camber sauce on the ground. Yeah. I chose the temperature myself. Okay. >> It's going to be on the lowest range. Okay. >> Oh my god, that looks so good. So like so much more flavor than you get in any other burger cuz the age >> it's very intense. >> The main thing is just how it all marries together cuz you can still taste the predominant flavor is still aged [music] beef. >> We're in burger heavens, eh? >> That has like the level of intricacy of like a fine dining dish but just in a burger form. >> I might as well just bring Jay Rainer here. [laughter] >> Hundred Burgers showed us the importance of sourcing the highest quality dry-aged beef to maximize flavor. So we come to the biggest dry aging fridge in the whole of the south of how many pieces of meat are rotating through this place. >> You just say thousands, I'd say. For thousand thousands and thousands. >> Here we were able to find not only the exact beef they used at 100 burgers, but also a British variation that sounded just as good. Look at the yellow foul on that bad boy. This is what you want. Grass-fed goodness. And that comes from grass. If it's grainfed, it's pure white. It comes from grass. the beta carotene get this really nice golden yellow color. Look at that marbling. And also look at the color of the fat inside. Look. We're going to take them both down. We're going to be able to taste them and test them to see which is the best. So the two beef option, this one comes from Northern Spain. Same type that they use at 100 Burgers. This one pretty gnarly is an English version. So interestingly enough, our friends at 100 Burger agree that this rib cap is one of the best bits in the burger. So, what we're going to do is we're going to take these, trim them down slightly, and we're going to season it and then mince the burgers. And the mince grind that we're going to use is going to be 5 mil as per our good friend at 100 Burgers, Alex. First up, we've got the Spanish Ruby Galithia beef. >> Oh, look at those little aged flexcks of beef going through. We're going in now with the English X dairy. So, once this is all ground, you just very lightly massage the meat together. >> So, I'm going to start doing my one. I've weighed it into 140 g. As our old mate H says that that is the ideal size and weight for a patty. And we're just going to very gently just massage it together. That looks like a sick patty. Similar size. I'm going to fine salt those up and we'll go and cook them up. So, around about 60° 56 50 60°. So, we have our cooked burgers here. Let's try the Gissian first. It's not as funky as I thought. >> No. Makes me wonder how funky his were before they actually got made. >> That's [music] crazy. And the British >> similar. >> I'd say that's funkier. >> I think slightly more tender >> and a tiny bit more buttery. That's delicious. >> Both incredible. The flavor of the aging. You can see the mayard reaction using that dry age be is amazing. Maybe slightly more massaging as well. It's a little bit crumbly, isn't it? >> I think I prefer the British. >> I think there's enough in it to not go British. >> Nice. [music] It's a nice little cheese board you made there, Chef. >> A variation of cheeses ranging from the George Moes American cheese slice. who is the founder of Hamburger America in New York, which we visited and tried his incredible burgers. >> We use very, very high quality American cheese, but it's American cheese. [music] It's not anything else. Not cheddar. It's just American cheese, but it has a high dairy content, so it's a very, very good American cheese. >> Look at that. Unbelievable. >> Oh, just simple, but good. >> The humble cheddar. We've even tracked down the red leester cheddar that Alex used 100 burgers. And then a few other little curved balls from GA Montterrey Jack. So we're going to make 12 little burgers and then we're going to taste them all with a slice of cheese on top to figure out which cheese or cheese combos reign supreme. >> We've used American cheese a fellow or 5 years. So this is a genuinely interesting experiment to see what happens. >> The American there looks the best. >> I mean the Ysburg's packing a >> nice and melty. >> So the orangey ones do look kind of better. The cheddar's like disintegrated into nothingness. >> All the fats come out of the cheddar. >> On first appearances, the red leester looks great. It's nice. All the orangey ones look good. American obviously looks great. I give this one and go. This [music] one looks inviting. >> I will say it doesn't look like it's melted as well as the others. >> It tastes like an old shoe. Real fou. >> I'm going to look at this one. This looks like the best one. Oh, it's still it's really nice melt melter on it as well. Pretty good for me. This red leester melts really nicely. got a really nice flavor. Slightly more mature, but the American cheese is [music] superior for melting, which we knew from trying George Mo's burgers at Hamburg America. A slice of each. I'm very happy with that combination. Onto legish. We're here at Dove restaurant in Notting Hill. This may be London's most in demand burger. We've got a glazed brib with a 55 day aaged beef pin. You got a thick patty which is covered in gorgensola cheese with a champagne brazed onions underneath. They only sell 10 of these bad boys a day. So it's first come first serve. Would you look at that? I love the caramelized onions. It adds a layer of sweetness that's uncomparable to a lot of other burgers I've tried. This might be one of my favorite burgers I've ever had. And the sweetness from the onions I think is something that I've never tasted in a burger before, which is something I think you should definitely take away. >> So I'm just going to dice the onion up. So, touch of salt at the beginning going to help the onion break down and season it nice and gently throughout. And with cooking anything with a high water content, like an onion, you're going to start off a lot higher cuz the water will release a lot of liquid straight away. And then as the water from the onion cooks out and it starts to reduce, you're going to lower the temperature as it starts to cook and go in with a generous knob of butter. And once the onion's cooked out, that's when we're going to go in with the champagne. Chef, pop the bottle. >> Yes, chef. So with this is based on a shoe crew style onion which is a very classic recipe which uses white wine. But we're making the best burger in the world. We're going with champagne. I think we can all agree is the best version of wine. Just enough to cover. And we're just going to slowly reduce that down [music] to sweet and sticky. I'm going to go with a few nubbins of vinegar. Reduce that down. Oh, and a knob of butter as well. Again, >> very sweet, nice and acidic, really beautiful texture. Sweet and sour onions. This will lift the whole thing. Just as we thought every element of our ultimate burger was done, I remembered a dinner we had in New York again. To a burger that had a garnish that was so epic, we thought we had to add it to our ultimate burger. [music] >> We are here at the most one of the most exclusive restaurants in New York City. This is for Charles Prime Rib is the full name. >> This is it. Wagu Burger. It's unbelievable. I don't think I've ever had bacon as good as that in any burger. It really adds to it. cuz I'm not a bacon in my burger guy. And I ate that burger and I was like, "Only mac and cheese balls. What is that bacon?" So much so that we brought it back to London and we put it on our burger. >> I've literally tried so much bacon in London and H Walters bacon, smoked bacon is 100% the best. These are the only people that I trust to recreate the bacon that we had on the four Charles Burger in New York. Thick cut, really beautifully smoked bacon. This is, I think, going to be the edge for our garnish. But we're going to roast it nicely and caramelize it slowly on one side before removing it, covering it in a maple butter and [music] then just almost poaching it in that butter to finish it. So it's like soft. Crispy on one side but poached on the other. That looks banging. Chef, I think the bacon needs to be cooked a little bit longer like almost like glazed a little bit more so it breaks down a touch more. Let's try something different. So we've got 2our comfy bacon, 1 hour comfy bacon, and we've got steamed whole bacon. So, just a little bit of maple on there. And then it's going to go into a hot oven. Bacon. An hour coffee. Two hours coffee. And this one is steamed. >> That was two. >> Yeah, >> the 2hour one almost feels tougher. Maybe an hour. >> Nice. Now, the most contentious part of all, the sauce. The best sauce I've tasted on this quest was the miso brown butter mayo at Blackberry Burger. It's bloody delightful. In there we've got some lemon juice, touch of miso, and then I'm just going to blend in tiny touch pickle juice and some brown off butter. So the sauce today is very interesting at the end of the day. George Mox was adamant no sauce. >> That is good. Now I'm just going to put in some mayonnaise. This is our leak mayonnaise. So nice and smoky. >> Blend it again. >> Andre, come try this. Score out of 10. Bag eight. >> Eight solid. >> Maybe a touch more sweetness. Fingers. Really? >> Hey, God gave us 10 fingers for a reason. [laughter] It's hard this man. Cuz when I think burger, I thinking Big Mac sauce. >> Well, why don't we take this and add some of the classic things about that we love about the Big Mac sauce. Few chopped gerkins. Tiny tiny bit of ketchup. >> Could be a hybrid. >> Tomato essence ripple through. >> I mean, for me, I think we should try this and see see where it goes. I think it's absolutely delicious. So, we've got all of our elements for our perfect burger here. We've got seated bun. >> So, we're going first of all, we're going to build that base. Very similar to what we had at Dove. We're going to go base of the onions. Next up, the infamous patty. Looks the perfect size as her. Bacon. A tiny more hit here. That maple pickles [music] sauce. Our miso sauce is on the top. I have to say that does look pretty damn good. Look at that. >> It's like a hybrid between 100 burger and four Charles. >> I was a bit worried it was going to be overpowering, but [music] if anything, like it's quite go heavier. >> No, but it's quite harmonious. The onions on the bottom [music] really freshen it all up. You can still taste the meat, but I do think you'll lose a little bit of that dry age flavor. I think we need to rethink the sauce. a chef for a first attempt. I reckon I reckon I reckon we can get this. >> The pickles don't really notice. [music] >> I think Yeah. I mean, I think maybe chopped up through the sauce. More of a traditional burger sauce. >> I have to say, chef, >> the burger, the bun is great. >> Hey, we're doing a good job. >> We have. What do you think about quantity of beef? [music] >> Tiny bit more. >> Tiny bit more, I think. So, yeah. >> So, tiny bit more beef. Ask onions are perfect. Toast in the bun's [music] perfect. Cheese is spot on. And a rethink on the sauce. Hey, it's a good start. >> Okay, that's right. >> After weeks of research, trying five burgers from three different countries, it was finally time to make our ultimate burger. [music] >> Jiao how the buns. >> I'm happy. >> They are perfect. Look at those. It's all come together. All come together at the end. Getting nervous, man. Just going to hand press it very lightly. We want to grow it by about 10 to 15%. So then as it caramelizes, it's going to shrink back into position. We add a little drizzling of brown butter just to help melt through the burger as it's searing. Tiny seasoning over the top just around the base of the tray as well. Going to put my cheese on as it rests. Got the one slice of American, the one slice of the red leester. Just going to let that sit under the lights and drizzle down. Just play around with different ratios of the sauce. We've got tomato base, smoked mayor base, and the mito base. Just mixing them together to see how they taste together. It looks like a proper traditional burger sauce. Bit more tomato. I think it's good >> in the middle. Finally, right, let's go with that. We're just going to dice up these pickles. So, instead of having like three or four pickles on the burger, we're going to have a nice little bruno, which will just scatter over the top of the bun. These should add a bit of a texture and acidity to the burger. Ready to plate? >> We're going to go onions on the bottom, the patty. >> Oh, yes. Perfect size. Chef, you want to go with the bacon? >> I'm going to go on with two beautiful pieces of bacon, glazed to perfection. >> Then we've got our girkin mix. And then we're going to finish it with our supercharged burger sauce. >> Actually making me a little bit emotional. >> What a journey, chef. It's all come to this point. I have a newfound respect for the [music] burger. All right, this is it. The moment of truth. Let's get this upstairs for Jay to taste. Here we go. >> Your baby. >> My big greasy baby. >> Never so nervous considering we serve thousand burgers a week. [laughter] So we've got potato bun which is slightly enriched. Heavy sesame which give you a texture for the bun without too much of that softness you get with gash aged patty 55 days old served just pink 60° and hand massaged together. We have some thick cut smoked bacon which has been conf butter and then [music] seasoned with black pepper and then we have some gerkins and miso burger sauce. It does look fabulous. And that thick cut bacon obe as no rabbi has ever said. [laughter] Okay. Yeah. [music] I mean, what's [laughter] what's really interesting is sometimes when you pile things on top of a burger, you lose the taste of the patty. >> You can definitely taste this beef. I need to check again. >> It's been a real journey for us. There's so many little nuances to the burger making process that we've like taken inspiration from. >> Can I be honest? I know your stuff. I watch your your channel a lot and there's lots of sort of performative stunts and they're fantastic. And I slightly worried when you invited me to do this that I would just have to be nice for the camera. [music] >> No, it's really really bloody good. >> Yes, it's really good. [laughter] >> We've essentially combined it seems like endless burgers, but probably not as endless amount of recipes in this new book that you've read. >> It is me coming up with recipes inspired by my favorite restaurant dishes. They're not a replacement for going to those restaurants at all, [music] but they are a way of bringing a bit of those ideas into your own kitchen. But it means I get to tell the stories while offering recipes from all over. >> This video is [music] we made the best burger in the world. What do you think? >> I am deeply suspicious of the idea of the best of anything, but you can have a burger which is part of that frothy top uh on top of the mid burgers which are not worth your time. We made the frothy top. >> You've made the frothy top, boys. You have reached >> the heights of the frothy top. >> The heights of the frothy top. You are the head on my burger beer. [laughter]