Dominque Crenn Teaches Us To Replicate The Menu's Cheeseburger - Exclusive
Ask the movie's culinary consultant, Dominique Crenn: She'll tell you that love is the most important ingredient in the cheeseburger in "The Menu." That's as true in real life as it is in the movie's twisted plot line — but we won't spoil its ending for you. "If you don't use the right ingredient and it doesn't come from [the heart], [it's a] zero. No good. Bye bye. It's true!" the Michelin-star chef quipped in a recent exclusive interview with Tasting Table.
Tony award-winner Ralph Fiennes makes the cheeseburger in "The Menu." On-screen, the actor transforms into Chef Slowik, who you'd be tempted to simplify as a misunderstood Voldemort of the culinary world. The chef may well be the movie's villain — and that's entirely debatable. Crenn, for example, argues that he's a "nice person when you think about it." Slowik's cheeseburger, however, makes him simultaneously and incontrovertibly human.
If Fiennes succeeds in transmitting that on screen, thank Crenn, the three-Michelin-starred chef who taught Fiennes not only how to lead a kitchen but also how to shape perfect, delicious burger patties. If you'd like to give those burgers a shot, you'll have to add the passion yourself, but Crenn was more than happy to walk us through the remaining ingredients and techniques.
How to make a cheeseburger like The Menu's Chef Slowik
Permit us to get corny: A cheeseburger is not haute cuisine. That's precisely what makes the chef's intentions so important. "It's comfort food," Chef Crenn reminded Tasting Table. "If you cook with love, that is going to be the best cheeseburger that you ever had in your life."
From there on out, every component in a good cheeseburger needs to be top quality. "[You have to use] the best ingredient that you can find out there," Crenn told us. The technique itself is not overly complicated. There's no need, in other words, to pay over $1,000 — as Anya Taylor Joy did in "The Menu" to taste what her character, Margot, does at the movie's end.
"Caramelize some onions, get the best meat, grind [the] meat, cook it, caramelize onions, smash the burger on the caramelized onions, put [on] your cheese, get ... beautiful bread, whatever you want to put on that," Crenn advised. "I [would] add some pickle ... You need that. You need that layering of flavor and umami, and then, that's it. It's pretty easy to do."
You can watch Ralph Fiennes make a cheeseburger in "The Menu," which is currently playing in a theater near you.