Local Chefs Chime in on What Makes the Perfect Patty

National Cheeseburger Day is one of Rodney Blackwell’s favorite holidays.

He has earned his name as a burger connoisseur for being the founder of Burgerjunkies.com, a blog dedicated to reviewing burgers around the nation.

Blackwell has visited over a dozen cities around the United States and has tasted, photographed, and reviewed every burger he ate along the way, from fast food chains to local mom-and-pop restaurants. Having an eye for good burgers, Blackwell knows the necessities—not just for a good burger, but for a great one.

“It starts with a good foundation. A perfect brioche bun. Use quality meat and some good cheese and you’re pretty much done. Everything else is icing on the burger cake,” Blackwell says. “Things like pickled red onions, bacon and a fried egg usually make me smile a little extra.”

Blackwell is ready to hold the second Sacramento Burger Battle at Raley Field on Sept. 18, 2013 putting a fierce competition behind a classic American meal.  

Burger Battle features all the burger samples you can eat, desserts, beer from local breweries and live music. And don’t worry about the calories; it’s all for a good cause. All proceeds from the event will be donated to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

“At the burger battle, you can do a side-by-side comparison, talk it over with your friends (who doesn’t love a good burger debate) and then cast your vote for your favorite,” explains Blackwell.

The cook-off event will feature chefs from 15 local restaurants who will fight head-to-head to grill up the best tasting burger in town. Those restaurants include Bacon and Butter, de Vere’s, Broderick, Willies, Relish Burger Bar, Formoli’s Bistro, Hawks Restaurant, The Chef’s Table, Krush Burger, Ettore’s, Ten22, The Eatery, Papa Dale’s Drivin’ Diner, Roxy and Capitol Garage. The highly coveted championship belt will be awarded by an esteemed panel of judges, but the “People’s Choice” category will be up to Burger Battle attendees to decide.

“That’s the coolest thing about this event: you have a bunch of chefs that are trying to make something simple at a really high level. Every burger is going to be good at a minimum and most are great,” says Jess Milbourn, competing burger chef from The Eatery.

But how is it even possible to rate different cheese-burgers? What would make a burger better than all the rest?

Submerge caught up with a few of the competing Burger Battle chefs to find out how the best burger is made. While most chefs agreed on quality meat and freshly baked buns, they all had different opinions on special toppings, such as the addition of bacon, butter or aioli. We asked them for tips on how to make the best burger, the ingredients that go above and beyond a typical burger and what burger they would personally prefer to order.

Keith Breedlove
Papa Dale’s Drivin’ Diner and Papa Dale’s Starlite Diner

Tips on how to make the best burger?
Use quality ingredients that have a great flavor of their own. Meat that has rich flavor, enough fat to keep it moist and good bread.

What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger?
Flavorful sauce.

What is your favorite burger to order?
Bacon and blue cheese burger.

Raphael Kendall
Capitol Garage

Tips on how to make the best burger?
Keep it simple and let the burger stand out. Season the meat and pair with toppings that accent the seasoned burger.

What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger?
Bacon and cheese are the most popular added special ingredients, but if you make a nice aioli, you can really bring it together.

What is your favorite burger to order?
Veggie burger. I am a vegan!

Davin Vculek
Krush Burger

Tips on how to make the best burger?
Use fresh, high-quality ingredients, season and sear the patty well during cooking, don’t over-complicate your toppings as this will take away from your great burger base (beef and bun).

What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger?
Fresh, never-frozen ground beef and freshly baked buns are absolute necessities to a great burger.

What is your favorite burger to order?
I most often order a regular cheeseburger. I’m a pretty simple guy when it comes to burgers.

Jay Veregge
TEN22

Tips on how to make the best burger?
Good beef, fresh ground, add butter!

What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger?
The sauce and onions.

Pedro Depina
Ettore’s

Tips on how to make the best burger?
Home made bun. Find the best ground meat possible, wood smoked.

What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger?
Bacon. Making a bacon and cheddar cheese in the bun for the competition. We went with that bun last year and I think we are going to do it again.

What is your favorite burger to order?
I had a burger at the Goose and Gander in Napa with bone marrow, and it was really good. It has bone marrow in it, and it was delicious.

Jess Milbourn
The Eatery

Tips on how to make the best burger?
High heat, use a griddle to get a really nice “crust” on the burger. After cooking, let the meat rest. A really great burger gets cooked like a steak. This lets the juices set up in the meat and keeps all the yumminess in the burger and not dripping all over your hands and plate. Salt and pepper, season and let the salt absorb into meat before cooking.

?What are the special ingredients that make a burger go above and beyond the typical burger??
Great bun and fresh, quality meat. There are an infinite amount of sauces, produce, garnish, cheeses, etc., but if you don’t have a great bun and burger everything else just gets lost.

Q&A with Rodney Blackwell founder of Sacramento Burger Battle and Burgerjunkies.com

How did you get started reviewing burgers?
I got started reviewing burgers mainly as a way of documenting all the great burgers I’ve been eating and taking pictures of. I had the idea for a burger review site years ago, but didn’t actually launch it until I started getting more into food photography. As I started sharing more photos on social media and getting feedback, I thought it’d be a good idea to start putting some words with the pictures.

You have eaten many burgers in your day, but where do you order your favorite burger?
I get asked the “favorite burger” question a lot, and it’s such a challenging one to answer since everyone has different burger tastes. I usually ask the person asking what their favorite burger is and try to suggest my favorite burger in that “category.” A few of my favorites in Sacramento include the burgers at Bacon and Butter, de Vere’s, Golden Bear and a recent favorite is the 50/50 (50 percent bacon/50 percent beef) burger at 58 Degrees and Holding.

Being a burger expert, how do you order your burgers? Rare, medium or well done?
Burger confession here. Probably about 10 years ago, I thought well done or medium well was how beef was supposed to be cooked. After a few funny looks at nice restaurants, I finally learned that you basically lose all the actual beef flavor when beef is cooked that much. Once I had my first medium rare steak at a decent steakhouse, I was hooked. Now all my burgers are ordered medium-rare if I have a say in it.

For burger reviews, you don’t just stick to Sacramento. How many cities have you traveled to and eaten a burger?
Probably more than a dozen. Whenever I travel I do my burger research beforehand to find the best burgers in the city I’m traveling to. I’ve had notable burgers in Santa Ana, Las Vegas, Orlando, New Orleans, Ft. Worth, San Francisco, Portland, etc.

Is it hard to compare a fast food burger with a restaurant burger, even with your Burger Junkies rating?
When I review burgers, I put them in categories like “Fast Food Burger,” “Restaurant Burger,” “Fancy Burger” and “Burger Joint Burger,” which helps to keep the comparables more relevant. I think my Burger Junkies rating scale helps to keep it as scientific as possible.

Raley Field in West Sacramento will host this year’s Sacramento Burger Battle on Sept. 18, 2013. The charity cook-off will satisfy your palate, but will also make you feel like a better person because all your gluttony will be for a great cause. Tickets can be purchased through Sacburgerbattle.com. Please note, this is a 21-and-over event. For more info on the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, go to CCFA.org.

Top notch chefs prepare for Sacramento’s first-ever burger battle

The first time Rodney Blackwell bit into a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, he fell in love. But that was child’s play.

Blackwell, a Sacramento resident, entered the burger big leagues as an adult, ordering variations of the classic stack at fine diners, five-star restaurants and food trucks across the country.

In search of the perfect relationship between bun, patty and condiments, Blackwell started the blog and informational site http://burgerjunkies.com/. His tastes quickly sharpened as he approached burgers no holds barred. A patty topped with fried eggs? Do it. Fiery habañero sauce? Sure.

However, he still couldn’t decide on Sacramento’s champion burger. After attending the Denver Burger Battle, Blackwell realized a side-by-side comparison might answer the question and would also allow locals to vote for their favorites.

“I got inspired at the Denver Burger Battle,” Blackwell says. “It had sold out. There were 12 restaurants, people having a good time with great energy. I wanted to bring that to Sacramento.”

The goal of Blackwell’s burger battle on Sept. 18, 2012 at Raley Field in West Sacramento is twofold: to showcase the dining scene available in the Sacramento area and to raise awareness and much needed funding for a great cause.

Blackwell’s 9-year-old daughter Karina has battled with Crohn’s disease for the past four years. According to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, the disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that affects more than 700,000 people, causing loss of appetite and energy, and sometimes slowing growth and development in children.

“My daughter was diagnosed years ago and since I can’t cure the disease myself, I figured I’d do what I can to help those that are trying,” Blackwell says.

All the proceeds from the Sacramento Burger Battle will be donated to the local CCFA chapter. Blackwell had already raised $12,000 since announcing the battle, and tickets for the event are still available.

“For charity it’s a great feat in and of itself, but I’d still like to sell out tickets,” Blackwell says about the current donations and sales.

The $55 entry ticket covers the generous burger samples from 15 high-caliber restaurants; craft beer from Sierra Nevada, Ruhstaller and Lagunitas; wine tastings from Crystal Basin and Perry Creek; Woodchuck cider; non-alcoholic beverages; live music and parking.

Attendees will have to pace themselves with the burgers–despite being sample-size, several chefs plan to pack big flavors into those few bites.

Chef Jose Silva, known for his exotic meat patties at the Flaming Grill, says judges and attendees might get their chance at trying wild boar, antelope, goat, camel or even kangaroo.

“We try to keep it simple–with a good bun and sauce and high quality meat,” Silva says.

For Chef Pedro Depina of Ettore’s European Bakery and Restaurant, the burger bun is extremely important in making a top notch burger, “because it’s the first thing you taste.”

“We’re going to let our bun speak for itself,” Depina says, noting the buns are made at Ettore’s. “Then comes the meat, and we use all natural Niman Ranch.”

As for the other ingredients, Depina says freshness, quality and the marriage of the flavors are the best ways to know a burger is made well.

“We’re going to keep it classic,” he adds of the Ettore’s entry. “No bells and whistles, just in your face.”

Asked which Sacramento burger is his favorite, Depina has no shame.

“The one we make here, I eat one once a week, but don’t tell my wife,” he laughs.

Other major players in the battle include burger award-winner Thir13een, de Vere’s Irish Pub, Kupros Bistro, Shady Lady Saloon, The Porch, Squeeze Inn and several others.

“All the chefs, we’re all good friends,” says Depina. “We eat at each other’s restaurants so this will be a friendly throw-down.”

One local chef is not competing, but judging. Bret Bohlmann, chef and owner of Boulevard Bistro in Elk Grove, will be one of five judges. Blackwell says he reached out to Bohlmann because he makes a great burger, but his restaurant no longer has it on the menu so he figured judging would be his next best option.

Other judges include Congressman John Garamendi, food writer and blogger Erin Jackson, Corti Brothers Food Director Rick Mindermann and Executive Chef Mike Ward of Feeding Crane Farms.

Though Bohlmann has never judged a burger competition, he does have an idea for his approach that day. 

“First, it has to be visually appealing,” he says.

Then, he adds, the burger must have quality ingredients and be cooked properly.

From there, judges will look at the kinds of extra ingredients used and whether those ingredients “marry well–belong together so that when you take a bite, everything works,” says Bohlmann.

One concern Bohlmann does have is burning out on burger too early, meaning after a few, he doesn’t want all the different entries melding together to cause faulty judging.

“A burger is quite fatty. A meat patty can have 15 to 20 percent fat, which coats your mouth, so we need a palate cleanser,” he says. “It’s something to think about because you want to taste everyone’s unique creation.”

A light, refreshing pilsner might do the trick.

Bohlmann is also hoping the burger challenge will spark continued creativity to the already impressive menus and styles now available in Sacramento.

“I think this will make people rise up and create something new for their menus,” he says. “In the last 10 years we’ve really grown. Zagat came through and rated everybody, and we’re really putting our mark on California.”

Depina adds that the culinary landscape of Sacramento has changed for the better during the 20 years he’s been in the business, and a competition like this is comparable to other California cities that boast the best in dining.

“Sacramento is one of the heavy hitters in the food industry now, like Napa and San Francisco,” he says. “You don’t have to travel all the way over there to get good food. We’re the breadbasket of the state, with all this good local produce. We’re all pushing to eat in our own neighborhood, our own backyard.”

Blackwell has been doing just that for many years, but says he is looking forward to what the chefs come up with for the burger battle.

“I’ve tried them all, so I’m looking forward to trying them side by side,” Blackwell adds. “It’s hard to say when you spread out eating them one week at a time which is best. All of these are some of my favorites I’ve tried and reviewed.”

Blackwell also recently received a call from an organizer of the World Food Championships, which will be held in Las Vegas in November, asking if the burger battle could be used as a qualifier for the championship.

The stakes have been raised a bit because of this announcement, Blackwell says, but he feels the burger chefs of Sacramento would be able to represent their country well if any of them makes it to the world competition.

Sept. 18 is National Cheeseburger Day, and also the date of the Sacramento Burger Battle. This will be a slobber knocker of meaty proportions, so don’t miss out. For more information or to buy tickets, visit Sacburgerbattle.com. You must be 21 years or older to attend. Eat hearty knowing the proceeds will go toward a worthy cause. To learn more about the Northern California chapter of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, go to http://ccfa.org/chapters/northerncalifornia/.