Smash Burgers Are Extra Artistic (and Scrumptious) Than Ever

In 2019, the chef Jae Lee had an concept. What if he may make a smash burger—an iconic quick meals dish that includes a smashed patty, American cheese, pickles, and a burger sauce—even higher? He began to tinker with a kimchi-based burger sauce, and a seasoning mix for the patty (the recipe for which he holds very near the chest). He served his first kimchi smash burger at his New York pop-up, and the fanfare was quick. After Gothamist declared that Lee’s tackle the basic was “considered one of NYC’s biggest burgers,” it turned an area obsession. Only a few months later, he opened his first restaurant, Nowon, the place he nonetheless serves this smash burger to its many followers—clocking in at about 1,200 burgers offered every week.

During the last 5 years, smash burgers have turn out to be more popular than ever. And quite a few cooks throughout the nation are becoming a member of Lee in treating smash burgers as a canvas for all kinds of reinterpretation and creativity. For them, updating the smash burger is, partially, an train in tapping into nostalgia—each for quick meals and the dishes they cherished as kids. Lee’s kimchi smash burger, as an illustration, is a tackle a Large Mac, which was his favourite burger rising up. Chef Sky Haneul Kim’s bulgogi smash burger, on the menu at Gift Horse in Providence, calls again to her most-loved meal in Korea. “In Korean McDonald’s [back then], that they had a bulgogi burger, however that they had an choice so as to add an egg,” she says. “That’s how I get it each time I’m there.”

These cooks are constructing on the distinctly American culinary custom of burger patties smashed flat for expediency and taste. This dish might need been solid on the flat-top grills of lunch counters and diners, however at this time’s greatest smash burgers are something however old-school.

The latest boom is partly pushed by the draw of conventional smash burgers. They seem at pop-ups; in vibey, dimly lit eating rooms; on Shake Shack menus throughout the nation; and naturally, at the eponymous chain, which has areas in 30 states, in addition to in Washington D.C. and Canada. For diners, these slender burgers current a comparatively cheap choice (many price lower than $8), and restaurant homeowners admire that they cook dinner shortly. The skinny, crisped burgers make regular appearances on influencer’s feeds, too, due to their aesthetic enchantment. The oozing cheese, lacy edges, and golden buns are in all places.

Simply because the 2010s noticed an increase in cooks remixing and reimagining juicy, basic, decidedly un-smashed burgers, a wave of cooks has discovered methods to place their spin on the crowd-pleasing smash burger. In San Francisco, the Filipino smash burger at Bundok’s Burgers options zippy longanisa patties sandwiched between two halves of a purple ube bun. Little Grenjai in Brooklyn made headlines with a Thai krapow smash burger, which overflows with chili and oyster sauce, in addition to a lemongrass and hen’s eye chili giardiniera. Lore, one other New York spot, adds a masala aioli to their smash burger. There’s a vodka sauce smash burger, and the Kim Burger, at Kim’s in Minneapolis, which comes on a hotteok bun—a candy Korean pancake—with savory, tart onion jam.

At Windfall restaurant Present Horse, Kim labored with chef-owner Benjamin Sukle to create a bulgogi burger that the pair added to their menu in early February. It begins with a bulgogi sauce—much like the one Kim’s mom made when she was rising up—that features soy sauce, garlic, onion, and pear, which helps to tenderize the meat. The patty marinates within the tangy bulgogi sauce, which additionally goes on high of the cooked patty, together with an over-easy egg. “It needs to be over-easy,” Kim says, “as a result of the yolk turns into one other sauce for the burger.” Kim says a variety of diners at Present Horse aren’t acquainted with bulgogi, however as soon as they’ve tried her crisp-edged, egg-topped smash burger “they all the time come again for an additional one.”

Some cooks have tweaked and constructed on the acquainted smash burger method till one thing fully new is born. Chef Bob Somsith opened his Austin meals truck Sekse Fud Ko in 2018, and is within the means of opening a brick and mortar restaurant, Lao’d Bar. When he began to see different eating places round city serving smash burgers, he determined to create his personal take with a Lao spin. “In Laos, we do not eat a variety of beef,” he says. “What we do eat is a variety of pork or rooster.”

Somsith’s mom, Nouanchanh, makes a floor pork sausage base for the burger, utilizing lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and each oyster and fish sauce. Somsith smashes the aromatic sausage on a griddle, leading to an herbaceous, and barely candy patty with caramelized, craggly edges. To high the burger, Somsith mixes jeow bong, a chili-based paste, with mayonnaise to make an aioli of kinds. Bacon and a slice of American cheese draped over the patty pull all the things collectively. For a of entirety, Somsith makes cucumber pickles utilizing rice flour, Thai chili, garlic, fish sauce, and sugar. Between the pickles and the patty, Somsith’s tackle the easy burger takes three days to make.

When their collaborative burger first landed on Sekse Fud Ko’s menu, Somsith’s mom was shocked to listen to how widespread it was. “She was like, ‘Oh okay, so People like that?’” Somsith says. As with Lee’s kimchi smash burger in New York, folks have clamored to strive Somsith’s spin. Somsith says that having the liberty to get artistic along with his tackle the basic burger has allowed him to introduce Lao flavors to diners who may not be acquainted with them—whereas connecting with a dish he loves. “I wasn’t born in America, however I’ve been right here since I used to be three months outdated,” he says. “A cheeseburger is a part of my weight loss plan.”