Anthony Bourdain's 'One Hand' Tip For Making The Perfect Burger

Although he had extensive fine-dining culinary experience, chef and author Anthony Bourdain was known for his love of lowbrow food and simple, quality cooking. His favorite burger spot in Los Angeles wasn't somewhere with a famously fancy $38 burger like Petit Trois, but rather the consistently reliable and inexpensive burger at In-N-Out. In a video interview with Insider Tech, the late great Bourdain went into detail about what makes a perfect burger, as well as what leads to the downfall of a poorly constructed burger. 

"In a perfect world," Bourdain said, "you should be able to eat a hamburger with one hand and get a representative chunk of all of the elements." He felt that the burger should be small and sturdy enough to hold with a single hand, and that the ingredients should be minimal and well-distributed throughout the burger. You should be able to taste each ingredient in every bite you take, rather than fishing around for a pickle or being left with a bite of just bun edges and lettuce. 

In addition to his one-hand rule, Bourdain noted the importance of the structural integrity while building a burger. Things can begin to get messy if there are too many toppings or sauces on a burger, especially with slippery ingredients like sliced tomatoes or leaves of lettuce. "There's a tectonic slide that occurs when you start to over complicate and add other products," Bourdain commented. 

Never one to shy away from voicing his strong opinions, Bourdain's requirements for a burger were simple, but non-negotiable. In the video, he said that the perfect burger consists of a soft potato bun, good quality beef that's ground well, and meltable cheese preferably from a processed cheese product rather than a slice of high-quality cheese. Also acceptable to Bourdain were two thin patties in place of a single thicker patty. With these simple requirements, it's easy to surmise that Bourdain might have been a fan of smash burgers, given their handheld portability and sturdy construction from a few basic ingredients.  

What was unacceptable to Bourdain, however, was a ratio of bread-to-meat that made the burger difficult to eat, which again falls under the one-handed requirement of a great burger. When building a burger, Bourdain encouraged you to ask yourself if what you're doing or adding to a classic hamburger is actually making it any better, and referred to adding extra ingredients to a burger as "an engineering and structural problem." While you don't necessarily need to eat the burger with only one hand, the idea behind Bourdain's rule is that the burger should be structurally sound and simple enough to maintain it's shape with just one hand. Next time you're making burgers at home, avoid the common mistakes everyone makes with hamburgers and be sure to keep Bourdain's advice about simplicity in mind.