Over at Food and Wine, Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert break it down…like this:

Fancy Chefs Making Burgers

AB: I understand this trend. It’s dismaying, but I completely understand the impulse. What chef wants to die broke? And let’s face it: Burgers are good. But it is definitely a little dismaying, any time you see really great chefs cooking below their abilities by putting out a burger.

ER: A burger is part of the menu at our Westend Bistro in Washington, DC. Our burger was actually inspired by McDonald’s—except for the quality of the meat, of course. A McDonald’s bun is perfect. You put it in your hands; it’s not too big, it’s not too tall. The ratios, the slice of tomato—for some reason, it’s all perfect. The pickles are perfect. The shredded salad, it’s not too much, not too little. When we did our burger, for us, it was a very interesting research project. We looked at companies like McDonald’s and Burger King and thought, What is great in their approach? And how can we make it great with the meat that we have, which is, obviously, of different quality?

[Photo Via:  Gourmet]

After last night, let’s hope the Yanks have a big, ol’ feast tonight.

Pile it deep and high.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

And here, dig this barbeque tour from Anthony Bourdain:

Part Two:

Albert Brooks used to tell a joke about disk jockeys. He said it was a proven fact that the worst three kinds of people in the world were: incurable lepers, disk jockeys, curable lepers. Said it was a scientific fact, not opinion. Well, I think of this joke whenever I see or read about celebrity chefs who make a good replacement for disk jockeys. I’ve got a friend who thinks that celebrity chefs are one of the most obnoxious cultural trends in years. And I’d be hard-pressed to argue even though I minor in food nerdary.

Anthony Bourdain is an interesting case beacause I can’t tell if I like him or not. His memoir “Kitchen Confidential” made him a celebrity (and if you ever want to convince someone not to to be a chef, look no further). I don’t know that anyone would call him a chef anymore, he’s a food celebrity. But he’s arrogant, funny, hip, full of rock n roll rage and viciousness, not to mention self-parody. And he cares about food.

Bourdain has a new book of essays out and I enjoyed the review of it in the Times Book Review last weekend.

Dig.

[Photo Credit: The Frosting]