The Question Anthony Bourdain Thinks You Should Ask Yourself Before Getting Creative With Burgers

The late, great Anthony Bourdain was never one to hold back his fierce opinions about cuisine. Whether he was praising the chef who made him the best thing he'd ever eaten or espousing his absolute hatred of the James Beard Foundation, his unfiltered, bleak critiques and refreshing honesty were all part of his captivating charm. Perhaps his most endearing quality as a professional chef was his deep appreciation for humble comfort food. Although Bourdain typically didn't order ground beef dishes, the iconic cheeseburger held a special place in his heart. Yet, his admiration of this unpretentious classic also led him to conclude they shouldn't be fooled around with too much.

Many of us home cooks relish the chance to flex our culinary muscles from time to time and find inventive ways to upgrade time-honored fare. But when it comes to a burger, Bourdain believed folks should ask themselves one question before attempting to elevate it: "Is this thing I'm doing to this perfectly good classic dish, is it making it better?" (via Insider Tech). Honestly, that's a fair question to ask yourself before trying to enhance any iconic cuisine.

Yet, where burgers specifically are concerned, Bourdain's assessment was that simple is better, and attempting to embellish them in one way or another was often all show and no substance. "It might make it more entertaining. It might dazzle people and say, 'Oh look how clever he is,'" he said in the same interview. "You might deconstruct it in a way that impresses people or delights them or astounds them, but does it make it better?"

Anthony Bourdain's adoration of one of life's simple pleasures was about more than just the taste. He said of making the perfect burger, "It is an engineering and structural problem as much as it is a flavor experience" (via Insider Tech). The celebrity chef held the opinion that "[i]n a perfect world, you should be able to eat a hamburger with one hand." Once you start letting your imagination run wild, topping it with all sorts of ingredients you think will add that "wow" factor, you've actually ruined one of the key facets that makes it an impeccable culinary achievement: the ease of eating it.

According to Bourdain, all a burger needs to be all it can be is a "soft, squishy potato bun, a hunk of well-ground, good-quality beef, and processed, meltable cheese." I couldn't agree more on the cheese aspect. Too many restaurants like to think they are doing something special by topping their beef with cheddar or some other type of hard cheese, but it just ends up being a sweaty, waxy abomination barely clinging to the patty. A salty, creamy, flawlessly melted slice of American cheese is always the most appropriate choice for a burger, as far as I'm concerned.

Still, that's not to say there is no other way to make an outstanding burger. One of Bourdain's favorite fast-food chains, In-N-Out Burger, does things a bit differently, typically offering customers a couple of flattened "twin-gray patties," in his words, sandwiched between cheese and a bun. But it still has enough structural integrity to ensure it won't be spilling its insides out as you dig in. As Bourdain said, "A burger is a beautiful thing — it's not beautiful when you're wearing half of it."