14 Celebrity Chef Burger Blends You Need To Try At Least Once

You, like many of us, might have been making burgers by reaching for a package of pre-ground beef at your grocery store and calling it a day. With more and more home cooks looking for ways to be more hands-on in the kitchen, many of us are looking at how we can perfect our own burger blends. There are a lot of reasons for this, from rising food costs to wanting more control over what we're eating to simply wanting a better burger.

We've looked to some of our most popular celebrity chefs to see how they make some of their favorite burger blends and we found some good ones for you. As different as the toppings are, there are a few constants with the burgers themselves. Grinding fresh meat seems to be one of the most important things you can do for taste and quality, whether you invest in the equipment yourself or get friendly with your local butcher. Next, touch that meat as little as possible to keep it tender and juicy. Finally, sometimes all a perfect patty needs is a little salt. Let's dive into some delicious burger blends.

Another fan of making beef burgers by grinding the protein yourself (or asking your butcher to do it for you) is Andrew Zimmern, known for wild game and home-style cooking. His go-to burgers for entertaining use freshly ground red meat, including chuck roast and occasionally bison. If you've never tried bison, it's similar to beef but is leaner. Zimmern makes up for this by adding other cuts to his burger blend so they don't end up dry and crumbly. 

One way to do this is to make sure that your mixture contains cuts with a decent amount of fat, which is one of Zimmern's secret steps to leveling up his own burgers. He uses a combination of chuck, some short-rib meat, brisket, and fat. The chef will often save the fattier trimmings from other cuts of meat and add those to the grinder when making burgers at home. His preferred ratio is 75/25 protein to fat because he admits that he likes his burgers a little fattier, but you can go as low as 80/20 and still grill up a nicely juicy burger.

After reading about chefs like Brown and Zimmern grinding cuts like sirloin for their burgers, you might think that even more expensive cuts will make an even better burger. But let us, and Chef Curtis Stone, convince you otherwise. Dropping a ton of money on something like Wagyu or a big hunk of ribeye might sound like a way to ensure that your mid-summer barbeque is the only one people talk about but it's also kind of a waste, according to Stone. While those cuts make for an incredible steak dinner, you're losing the beefy flavor that comes from the meat that goes into ground beef. Tougher, more muscular cuts, like chuck, are where you're going to find the kind of flavor that can stand up to grill marks and loads of toppings. 

Stone also doesn't shy away from adding lots of ingredients to his burger patties, like the shallots, garlic, mustard, egg, and more that make up the meat portion of his Italian-style gourmet burger. Served with prosciutto, fontina cheese, and his own handmade ketchup, we think they might make the case for skipping grinding up the most expensive cut of beef you can get your hands on. 

Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian prefers a blend of brisket, chuck, and ribeye in equal measure when he's whipping up the Iron Chef burger. Again, you can feel free to get your butcher to do this for you but if you've decided that burger perfection is your life calling, then you might want to look into a kitchen appliance that will make the job a cinch. Either way, we urge you to experiment with your burger ingredients to see what all the fuss is about. Zakarian's mixture uses brisket and ribeye, along with chuck, to enhance the beefy flavor and add a little more fat. 

As for cooking these beauties, Zakarian keeps it simple. He doesn't add anything to the beef patties, except a flourish of salt and pepper at the end. However, one special touch he relies on is starting the onions first and then pressing the raw patty into the rings as they cook. That way, you're getting a little bit of caramelization on the onion as well as infusing the patty with a little extra flavor. 

Garten's recipe for Niman Ranch burgers is a pretty simple one, but it still yields terrifically tasty results. Her preferred beef of choice is simple ground chuck (in an 80/20 combination) that has been freshly ground. As well, she doesn't believe in adding too much to the meat — only salt, pepper, and a bit of dry mustard. In this recipe, Garten just brushes the grill with olive oil but she isn't averse to using a little butter in her burgers for extra oomph on occasion. In her blue cheese burger, she actually buries a thin slice of butter right inside the patty, much like Gordon Ramsay. 

Garten has a cool hack for making perfectly formed burgers, too. Once the patties are mixed and shaped, she stows them in the freezer for exactly 15 minutes. this will help the fat to resolidify so the patties keep their shape once they hit the grill. As well, you'll get a great sear on the outer beef, while the interior stays juicy (especially if you add a secret cache of butter).

Known for some pretty over-the-top recipes and antics, Canadian chef Matty Matheson has a particular love for burgers. He recently partnered with A&W to promote his own version of their grass-fed, prime rib burger, topped with cheddar, grilled onions, fried pickles, and garlic aioli. Not only that, Matheson has opened a tiny take-out-only spot in Toronto, called Matty's Patty's Burger Club, serving only five different variations on the burger (including two plant-based options). Orders have to be placed in advance and sell out almost immediately. Like we said, this guy is all about the burgers. 

For his Ultimate Burger, Matheson uses ground brisket, seasoned with only salt and pepper. Minced brisket gives the patty a terrific depth of flavor with a decent amount of fat (about the same as ground chuck, 80/20). If you often cook brisket at home, this might be another incentive for you to pick up that meat grinder. Save the trimmings from a few brisket dinners and you'll be able to pad out your burgers without a huge expense. Better burgers for fewer bucks? Sounds like perfection to us. 

Michael Symon's Fat Doug Burger is made from one-third each of sirloin, brisket, and short rib for the ultimate texture, fat, and flavor. One of the reasons Symon prefers to grind his own beef, aside from knowing exactly what you're eating, is that he likes a coarser grind that gives his patties a more luxurious and meatier texture. He also likes a 25% fat content but no less than 20% for the best finish. Symon also adds nothing else to his patties, aside from a liberal sprinkling of kosher salt and black pepper. 

What if you wanted to try this burger blend but were also in the mood for a smash burger? Symon says that the best way to achieve the crispy crust that makes it so crave-worthy is with force and a little bit of oiled butcher paper. His simple tip for the perfect smash burger actually consists of two things. Make sure to slip a piece of oiled butcher paper between your meat and the implement. This will prevent the meat from sticking and coming apart — and ultimately destroying that crispy crust. Finally, be aggressive with the smashing. Use a burger press if you can and make sure the meat is in full contact with the grill for best results.

Take a spin through Tyler Florence's burger recipes and see that the chef uses all sorts of blends for all sorts of burgers. The one thing that remains constant, however, is that he's not adding a ton of seasoning to the meat, aside from salt and pepper. His recipe for The Burger Bar, hamburgers with a full-on tableful of toppings, relies on only ground brisket. He does recommend a decent amount of fat, at least 25%, in whatever protein combo you choose.

He's also a fan of making smash burgers at home and has a few tips for making them. In the recipe, he doesn't specify any particular blend of protein so we assume he's gone with ground chuck with a good percentage of fat. To avoid overworking it, he simply rolls the meat into a ball and drops it onto the grill, where he flattens it with a spatula. Not only does this keep the beef tender, but it also helps to get those crispy, smashed edges that we all love.