Craving the burger from ‘The Menu’ movie? Charlotte chef shares how to make it — but better
Spoilers ahead: Go watch “The Menu” and then come back and read this!
No one can stop talking about “The Menu” these days, right? After finally watching it a couple of weeks ago, I understood immediately why. The dark comedy/thriller (now streaming on HBO Max) not only entertains us, it serves up a commentary on our society’s foodie and consumer culture.
And if the movie left you craving a cheeseburger on your way out of the theater (or while sitting on your couch), you’re not alone. And guess what? One Charlotte chef is about to teach us how to recreate it — but better.
Check out the video ⬆️ to get a free cooking lesson from Bang Bang Burgers owner Joe Huang on how to make the perfect burger at home.
Foodies, listen up: He’ll also tell us the two key steps the movie missed.
But first, about the movie:
- “The Menu” features an all-star cast — Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Judith Licht, John Leguizamo, Janet McTeer and more.
- The plot is dark, twisted and disturbing. It centers around guests who are willing to pay $1,250 a plate for a dinner at a private island prepared by Chef Julian Slowik (played by Fiennes.)
- The dinner courses are obnoxious and outrageous — including a breadless bread plate, chicken with scissors in it and of course — “The Mess”.
Why is the burger scene so pivotal? Why a burger?
I’ll spare you too many details leading up to The Burger Scene (seriously, go watch it!), but today, we’re here to talk about that pivotal moment in which main character Margot (played by Taylor-Joy) orders up a cheeseburger, takes a bite of it then asks to take the rest to-go.
This is a pivotal moment in the movie — this interaction saves Margot’s life. So, why is the burger so perfectly cast here? “I think burgers harkened back to the earlier and arguably happier years when Chef was just starting out as a cook,” Huang said. “The framed picture in Chef’s bedroom showed him as a young ‘employee of the month’ at Hamburger Howie’s. Revealingly, the Hamburger Howie picture was the only picture where Chef was smiling.
“Also, I don’t think there is a more common, unpretentious, universally loved food in America than a really good cheeseburger with fries,” Huang said. “A cheeseburger is the perfect opposite to all the other snobby overly engineered fancy food. It was perfect way to illustrate how much the other food was just b.s.”
How to make the perfect cheeseburger
So, let’s talk about the burger itself.
If you’ve tried the original Bang Bang Burger from Bang Bang Burgers in Charlotte, you already know where we’re going with this. Huang tells CharlotteFive what we need to know to make this American staple in a way that is just right.
Here’s what Huang had to say about the parts that went right in the burger scene:
- “They are actually cooking the burger on the flat top, which I like.
- It looked like he didn’t overpack the burgers, that was good.
- He melted the American cheese on there.”
Yet the movie cheeseburger was missing two very important steps:
- “I don’t want to sound too stuck up, but they didn’t toast the bun!” Huang said. “Now I think if you ask most chefs or most people who cook, I personally think that’s something that was missing. Toast the bun! Because it’ll taste better.
- “I don’t think I saw a sauce, either.”
Why does a burger need sauce?
Here’s why skipping the cheeseburger’s sauce was a mistake:
In the culinary world, Huang said chefs have all kinds of tricks to make food taste good. For example: “Korean people have kimchi — why do people eat kimchi? Because it’s sour. When it’s sour and spicy, what happens to your mouth? It becomes wet, right? Because you’re salivating because it’s tart. These are tricks. You want to have a little acidity in there. It makes your mouth water. You can taste the food better.”
How does that translate to a burger? “Pickles. Ketchup. A sauce that has a little sweet and sour in there. What that’s going to do is ... that tartness should make your mouth water more, which should make everything taste better.”
So, what about the foodie culture?
Huang said that when he went to culinary school, he was taught complicated and cool techniques. “And now, I own a burger place, I flip burgers. Am I disappointed I’m not doing more complicated stuff? No ... I found myself after graduating trying to do these techniques to show people ... how good a cook I was. And now that we’re just doing burgers, it’s more about, I think in my mind, what does the customer want?”
Even when a customer ask for something like a well-done burger (gasp!) Huang says his mindset has shifted. “Ok, they want a well-done burger. Do I really want to serve them a well-done burger? No ... But I’m going to give them a well-done burger, I’m going to give them a juicy well-done burger, and we’re not going to push that burger all the way to the back and burn the heck out of it just because they want a well-done burger.”
The real culinary magic comes from the heart, Huang said, whether the meal is cooked by an elite chef, like the one in “The Menu”, or by your grandmother, cooking you food because she loves you.
“You have the fancy stuff for people who can afford it and people who enjoy that type of thing. At the end of the day, though, can I make something people just love?
“And then, who doesn’t love burgers?”
Alex Cason contributed reporting.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
