I've noticed in my reading over the past year that it has become quite trendy for upscale, fine dining restaurants to offer their spin on the "ultimate" burger. So far, the bar seems to be set at $5,000 for the burger at Fleur De Lys link at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas. DB Bistro Moderne in NY (Daniel Boulud's bistro) offers a similar burger for a paltry $99. What do they all seem to have in common? Apparently, the difference between a simple burger and a moolah-burger is the inclusion of fois gras and black truffles into a mixture of ground Kobe beef. Sounds great, right? Imagine my surprise and joy when during a recent trip to Star Provisions in Atlanta, GA, I found Kobe burgers with fois gras and black truffles in the butcher case for a mere $10 per burger. I quickly snatched up a couple patties and made a run for the door, before they figured out how badly I was ripping them off? $10 for a Kobe/fois gras patty? INCONCEIVABLE.
Driving home with my new found glory, I began to ponder on how I might do these patties justice. A simple burger presentation just seemed too proletarian for a burger made of cows that received daily massages and ducks that had their livers artificially fattened. A recent conversation with Scott Donnely, the sous chef at Haven, had brought up the subject of deconstructed food and these patties seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what I could do from that perspective. I made a quick stop at my farmers market and picked up some delicious looking ramps, heirloom tomatoes, and baby portabella mushrooms. By the time I crossed the threshold of my home, I had a game plan and everything I needed to execute it.
I decided that these burgers were just too precious to subject to the primal heat of my grill. Kobe and fois gras both have in common the fact that they are prized for their fat content. I didn't want my burger to surrender that delicious fat to the grill grates. I wanted these patties to wallow in the delicious lipids while I coaxed them up to a mere 120 degrees, so I decided to saute them. While cooking the burgers, I quickly grilled the ramps and the bread. The tomatoes got just a dash of salt and pepper. The mushrooms were given a quick saute with butter and thyme. I had snatched some of Haven's delicious red pepper ketchup earlier that week, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it up. All that was left was to put it on the plate in a deconstructed fashion. I'm not going to pretend that I completely understand the ins-and-outs of the deconstructed ethos, nor am I sure why it exactly matters. My layman understanding was that I need to take something familiar - a burger- and break it down on the plate into its separate elements. That lead to the presentation you see above. Personally, I thought it was pretty good for a first try.
How did it taste? Excellent. Is the inclusion of the fois gras and truffles a revelation? I can't really say. I didn't notice an exponential increase in flavor, but the burger was damn tasty. What did I spend per plate? I'm guessing around $20 total per person.
Glad you enjoyed that burger - sounds delicious.
Thanks for linking to my blog. Hope you enjoyed your visit. You'll find a few other ridiculously priced items on there, including $1000 dollar for a pizza, $1000 for an ice cream sundae, £5000 for a jar of marmalade, and $90,000 for a bottle of wine. The latter would be a great way to 'wash down' that burger! ;)
Paul
Posted by: Luxury Travel | June 12, 2007 at 03:10 PM