How to Build a One-of-a-Kind Burger
Four inventive builds that prove burgers’ infinite potential
How to Build a One-of-a-Kind Burger
Four inventive builds that prove burgers’ infinite potential
By Flavor & The Menu
March 12, 2024
By Flavor & The Menu
March 12, 2024
When it comes to iconic American dishes, it’s hard to beat the burger. In many ways, the hearty handheld can be credited with the existence—and success—of the fast-food industry, thanks to its simplicity and near universal appeal. That said, burgers transcend service formats, price points and even cuisines. Over the years, chefs have employed unexpected flavor combinations, global ingredients and different cooking methods to breathe new life into the dish without upending the classic formula.
Because of burgers’ ubiquity, the idea of creating a one-of-a-kind rendition can be daunting. Menu developers may, understandably, wonder if the flavor possibilities have already been tapped out.
But the possibilities remain near limitless. Whether incorporating unexpected ingredients, doubling down on visual appeal or heightening gourmet elements, the burger still offers plenty to explore—as the following four examples demonstrate.
Embrace Flavor Contrasts
Photo Credit: Pincho A medley of flavors, from blue cheese to salty potato sticks, create a singular taste in Pincho’s Tremendo Burger, but the guava-bacon jam proves a headliner ingredient, bringing spicy, sweet and smoky notes.
The menu at Miami-based fast casual Pincho features more than half a dozen burgers, ranging from a classic cheeseburger to the Bacon Me Gouda, with caramelized onions, applewood-smoked bacon, buttermilk ranch and chipotle sauce.
Pincho infuses South Florida flavor into many of its builds, often through one or two unexpected ingredients. The Toston Burger swaps out the bun for two fried plantain rounds while Pipo’s Choice brings sweet notes through chopped maduros and guava ketchup. One past LTO, the Tremendo Burger, mingles several strong flavors; the beef patty and fried queso blanco bring out savory notes while the crispy potato sticks kick up the saltiness. A housemade sauce packed with blue cheese adds a bit of tang, but the pièce de résistance is a guava-bacon jam, which nails the “swicy” trend and also imbues a bit of smokiness.
[Read more about the Tremendo Burger]
Add a Pop of Color
Photo Credit: Pink Love Donuts & More In keeping with its bubblegum-pink branding, Pink Love Donuts & More adds beet powder to its bun mixture.
Taste is only part of the equation in building a better burger. As with any dish, presentation and intriguing visual elements are key. Over the years, fast-food giant Burger King has taken a playful approach to brightening up its menu, with a slew of LTOs featuring colorfully hued buns, from the Green Nightmare King to the red Spider-Verse Whopper. Other restaurants have also embraced colorful carriers—albeit, most eschew less appetizing colors like green.
Last year, when two-unit Pink Love Donuts & More decided to add burgers to the menu at its Miami Beach location, color was a key consideration. The café already boasted an array of eye-catching doughnuts as well as a bubblegum-pink motif—so why not extend the pop of color to savory items?
Rather than artificial food coloring, Pink Love Donuts uses beet powder to create rosy-hued buns for the Pink Burger and the Pink Panther. The former features two Angus beef patties, provolone, onion strings and chimichurri, while the latter variation swaps out the onion strings for arugula and tomato.
[Read more about the Pink Burger]
Lean Into Decadence
Photo Credit: Eugene Marchuk The Raclette Burger ups the ante on indulgence with a rich beef patty, pork belly and a thick layer of melted raclette cheese.
Certain modifications can make a burger “healthier,” whether it’s replacing the buns with lettuce wedges, using leaner proteins or leaving out the cheese, fried onions or other fillings. But by nature, burgers are a more indulgent food, with some of the tastiest versions celebrating its inherent decadence.
Left Bank Brasserie, with four locations in Northern California, pulls out all the stops in its luxe take on the bacon cheeseburger. The Raclette Burger features both a rich ground-beef patty (sporting a 70:30 protein-to-fat ratio) and maple-glazed pork belly. Red wine-shallot marmalade brings sweet, tangy notes to balance melted raclette cheese, whose nutty, umami-packed flavor profile has won a legion of new fans in recent years.
[Read more about the Raclette Burger]
Class Up Your Cut
Photo Credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst The ground-beef patty gets an upgrade in this Seared Ribeye Burger, which also features melted cheddar, scrambled eggs with morel mushrooms, and microgreens.
Just as buns are the default bread for burgers, so too are ground-beef patties the default protein. Ground turkey, portobello mushrooms and bean patties have become common substitutes, but when it’s a beef burger, it’s almost certainly ground chuck shaped into a patty.
Not so with the Seared Ribeye Burger at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose dining program is regularly named best in the country. The dish features finely sliced ribeye, making it essentially a steak sandwich in a more casual carrier. It’s also loaded with other elevated fillings—melted cheddar, scrambled eggs with morel mushrooms and a flourish of microgreens—proving the burger is a familiar vessel with refined potential.
[Read more about the Seared Ribeye Burger]
When it comes to iconic American dishes, it’s hard to beat the burger. In many ways, the hearty handheld can be credited with the existence—and success—of the fast-food industry, thanks to its simplicity and near universal appeal. That said, burgers transcend service formats, price points and even cuisines. Over the years, chefs have employed unexpected flavor combinations, global ingredients and different cooking methods to breathe new life into the dish without upending the classic formula.
Because of burgers’ ubiquity, the idea of creating a one-of-a-kind rendition can be daunting. Menu developers may, understandably, wonder if the flavor possibilities have already been tapped out.
But the possibilities remain near limitless. Whether incorporating unexpected ingredients, doubling down on visual appeal or heightening gourmet elements, the burger still offers plenty to explore—as the following four examples demonstrate.
Embrace Flavor Contrasts
Photo Credit: Pincho A medley of flavors, from blue cheese to salty potato sticks, create a singular taste in Pincho’s Tremendo Burger, but the guava-bacon jam proves a headliner ingredient, bringing spicy, sweet and smoky notes.
The menu at Miami-based fast casual Pincho features more than half a dozen burgers, ranging from a classic cheeseburger to the Bacon Me Gouda, with caramelized onions, applewood-smoked bacon, buttermilk ranch and chipotle sauce.
Pincho infuses South Florida flavor into many of its builds, often through one or two unexpected ingredients. The Toston Burger swaps out the bun for two fried plantain rounds while Pipo’s Choice brings sweet notes through chopped maduros and guava ketchup. One past LTO, the Tremendo Burger, mingles several strong flavors; the beef patty and fried queso blanco bring out savory notes while the crispy potato sticks kick up the saltiness. A housemade sauce packed with blue cheese adds a bit of tang, but the pièce de résistance is a guava-bacon jam, which nails the “swicy” trend and also imbues a bit of smokiness.
[Read more about the Tremendo Burger]
Add a Pop of Color
Photo Credit: Pink Love Donuts & More In keeping with its bubblegum-pink branding, Pink Love Donuts & More adds beet powder to its bun mixture.
Taste is only part of the equation in building a better burger. As with any dish, presentation and intriguing visual elements are key. Over the years, fast-food giant Burger King has taken a playful approach to brightening up its menu, with a slew of LTOs featuring colorfully hued buns, from the Green Nightmare King to the red Spider-Verse Whopper. Other restaurants have also embraced colorful carriers—albeit, most eschew less appetizing colors like green.
Last year, when two-unit Pink Love Donuts & More decided to add burgers to the menu at its Miami Beach location, color was a key consideration. The café already boasted an array of eye-catching doughnuts as well as a bubblegum-pink motif—so why not extend the pop of color to savory items?
Rather than artificial food coloring, Pink Love Donuts uses beet powder to create rosy-hued buns for the Pink Burger and the Pink Panther. The former features two Angus beef patties, provolone, onion strings and chimichurri, while the latter variation swaps out the onion strings for arugula and tomato.
[Read more about the Pink Burger]
Lean Into Decadence
Photo Credit: Eugene Marchuk The Raclette Burger ups the ante on indulgence with a rich beef patty, pork belly and a thick layer of melted raclette cheese.
Certain modifications can make a burger “healthier,” whether it’s replacing the buns with lettuce wedges, using leaner proteins or leaving out the cheese, fried onions or other fillings. But by nature, burgers are a more indulgent food, with some of the tastiest versions celebrating its inherent decadence.
Left Bank Brasserie, with four locations in Northern California, pulls out all the stops in its luxe take on the bacon cheeseburger. The Raclette Burger features both a rich ground-beef patty (sporting a 70:30 protein-to-fat ratio) and maple-glazed pork belly. Red wine-shallot marmalade brings sweet, tangy notes to balance melted raclette cheese, whose nutty, umami-packed flavor profile has won a legion of new fans in recent years.
[Read more about the Raclette Burger]
Class Up Your Cut
Photo Credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst The ground-beef patty gets an upgrade in this Seared Ribeye Burger, which also features melted cheddar, scrambled eggs with morel mushrooms, and microgreens.
Just as buns are the default bread for burgers, so too are ground-beef patties the default protein. Ground turkey, portobello mushrooms and bean patties have become common substitutes, but when it’s a beef burger, it’s almost certainly ground chuck shaped into a patty.
Not so with the Seared Ribeye Burger at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose dining program is regularly named best in the country. The dish features finely sliced ribeye, making it essentially a steak sandwich in a more casual carrier. It’s also loaded with other elevated fillings—melted cheddar, scrambled eggs with morel mushrooms and a flourish of microgreens—proving the burger is a familiar vessel with refined potential.
[Read more about the Seared Ribeye Burger]
