First up, this morning,
this secret to a great burger.
Is it the way you cook the
meat or when you put the cheese
on the meat or the sauce?
Well here with us to tell us all the
secrets to his specialty burger at
Victor Tavern is chef Ethan Stowell.
Thank you for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it and thanks for
giving Joseph that recipe.
No, no problem. I mean, I'm I'm
glad to hear stories about that.
It's really cool when you share something
like that that someone loves so much. It's
and the fact that he's
still making it is amazing.
I know you should have made
it for you today. I know we're
right next time. Next time, alright.
We are making a burger today,
not broccoli. So right,
are all burgers created equal? No,
certainly not.
I mean obviously there's, you know,
there's a, there's a a bunch
of different burgers out there,
whether it's a hamburger,
a pork burger or beef burger,
whatever it may be.
I think they usually fall
into 2 categories in my,
in my opinion is there is
the gourmet burger, yes,
which tends to be your half pound
eight ounce burger Patty on a
thick brioche bun with all kinds
of different condiments on it.
And then there's your fast food.
About Burger,
which is more of a on a griddle,
more, you know,
more you know more seared and cooked like a,
you know,
like they make it at ***** driving right?
Yeah,
so this is kind of a combination of the two.
I like the style of a fast food burger,
but I like the quality of the
ingredients of the gourmet burger.
I like this so Ibid burger.
Yeah, a little hybrid so we have.
We've got some double R Ranch
Reserve ground beef here.
We've got some brioche buns we're
gonna teach you how to make a little
secret sauce secret sauce is so good.
Yeah, it's the best.
It's the best thing out there.
So first thing when I when I'm
cooking a burger 1st I want to
make sure my pan is nice and hot.
OK,
next thing I want to do and I do this
with all proteins whether it's fish,
chicken, beef, burgers,
whatever it is proteins in general,
all proteins in general.
Make sure I'm patting them nice and
dry. Ohh what does that do?
What is the difference? What you
want to do is make sure what your
when your pants hot you don't want the
moisture to be there where it's steams.
So if you if it's if you're getting a
really nice sear it's gonna get crispy
on the outside and if you don't pat
it dry it's going to create steam.
Then have that brown meat
doesn't caramelize properly.
Yeah. No one wants that.
Nobody wants to know what I've
been doing wrong all this time.
Well, that's the thing.
You know, there's a lot of,
there's a lot of people out there that
don't really understand what's going on,
but they're with their product and it's
and it's really just pretty simple.
It's having a proper temperature of
a pan and having a nice dry protein.
It is science. It's cooking science.
That's right.
I
love it. Alright, so you use,
when you're not grilling and
you're doing this inside,
you use a little olive oil.
I use a little grape seed oil,
has a little higher burn temp.
OK, and then a little bit of
salt and pepper and make it
pretty simple in these things.
Grapeseed oil, by the way,
it's also very good.
Your skin is it? I didn't know.
You should try it sometime.
I'm gonna. I'm gonna do it right
after the show. I've got something
that's all over the place.
So you have a little salt and pepper,
so very little seasoning. None of this,
like, over the top seasoning.
Well, you can. I mean,
I'm teaching you, you know,
this is our signature
burger from Victor Tavern,
which is one of our newer restaurants
downtown and South Lake Union.
You can do whatever you want.
You know, if you wanna spicy,
you want to you want all kinds of different,
different things in there and mix it up.
That's fine. That's
great. So more about Victor Tavern.
What else do you serve?
Well, Victor Taverns kind
of our take on a kind of a,
you know, an adult sports bar.
I like you know,
some place we can go watch the game.
It's not super noisy.
You actually get decent freshly
made food and it's great for
groups and people want to hang out,
watch the game and or just relax and
have a burger for lunch or a salad.
I like that. I'm,
I'm a little old for some sports bars.
To be honest, right now at this stage,
so I'm impressed this is seeking.
I'm glad to see there's one where it's just,
you know what you're getting,
you're getting quality. Yeah.
Alright. How long do you let
a burger go on each side for?
So I have got a technique that
I use for most things, right?
Most a lot of secrets today.
I know I'm gonna teach you
on the secret sauce you next,
but I usually do 2 minutes.
I'm pretty hard, you know,
I'm pretty high heat.
OK, on each side.
And then if it's a steak
or anything like that,
I put it in the oven for a couple minutes.
Take the whole pan.
This one, we're just going to see
her on 2 minutes on each side.
Then let it rest for a little
bit and resting.
We'll have a cook all way through.
OK, got it. So, so where we got the,
the, the heat, like almost towards high,
almost towards high.
You wanna make sure you have a good hard,
hard sear and sizzle going on. OK.
And I'm sorry to tell, you know,
you know, for people at home,
if you're cooking a burger or
steak or anything at, you know,
at home you have to use high heat
and your stove is going to get
messy, no question about
smoking in that kitchen.
Right, so the secret sauce?
Well, secret sauce is really, you know,
it's kind of a fast food sauce sauce.
I know like you know,
**** driven has one ever talks
about in and out Burger Shake Shack.
You know they're all a variation on on a
on a on a couple simple things, right?
You've got a mayonnaise base, OK?
A lot of people put relish in it.
Yeah, I'm a fan of sweet
pickle relish on my burgers.
Yeah, because I want to make sure that
the sweetness kind of bounce bounces.
The richness of the burger.
OK, and then I just keep mine.
Pretty simple. I go.
I go a little bit of ketchup.
And and frenches mustard yellow.
You just take all the condiments
instead of putting them in,
just mix them together making
it real easy peasy. Yep,
and everybody has their own ratio,
right? Some people use dill pickle
recipes. That's not a
recipe you just went for
it. Well, I've made this so many times.
Yeah, you know so.
Keep it pretty simple.
I mean, a lot of people mix things up.
They do, you know, minced onion in there.
They do. Different herbs.
OK, I'm just teaching you the the
very basic one for you to have
a really good burger at home.
OK alright,
which is easy.
I mean and that's great too.
Honestly, even if you have kids,
you don't need them messing with
all the things you could just put
it all together and plop it on.
And kids love it. I guarantee
it every time. OK, so
so when I'm searing,
if I'm doing a fast food style burger
I'm gonna press it down a little bit. OK,
I thought you weren't supposed to do that.
I'm not in the camp of on a fast
food style burger that's, you know,
there's not temperatures taking.
You're basically cook every
burger kind of medium ish.
OK you know if you're a gourmet
burger like we serve it like Goldfinch
Tavern at The Four Seasons Hotel.
Yes, you know, that's an 8 ounce burger.
We take temperatures, you know,
that's got, you know and so hey,
how do you want that cooked?
Rare, medium rare, medium well.
I have no idea.
OK, so I like it though so you can push
it down a little, get it nice and crispy,
get it nice and crispy as the plant
here you got this and I'm gonna slice
up a couple of condiments on this.
OK do you want me to do anything
you want to do any of this
stuff? I can't. I'm here
for you, I'm your sous chef.
I'll tell you what I'll do.
The onions you tomatoes.
I think you're old once just do all of it.
Right now you're my my now I didn't
know you wanted to get to work.
Cutting skills are gonna be
very embarrassing right now.
That's alright, alright.
So while we're doing this,
tell me about salad bruising dice.
Flip it over so it has a nice
crispy crispy outside to it.
Yeah, OK, so Ballard brews
and bites is the main nice
work. Thank you. That's good. Is
the main fundraising event for the
bowl food bank, so the bowl food.
Because it's super important organization,
you know and those who don't
know our offices are in Ballard,
so we we you know,
we're big supporters of the Ballard,
food banks and so on.
This Sunday the 28th,
they're having their their first ever
Ballard Bison Bruce where a bunch of
breweries you know like Bale Breaker,
Yonder, Rubens,
Rubens and Stoop and are coming out
and and we're going to have some bands
and some live music and some of us
are going to be making some food.
There's veraci pizza is going to be
there which they've been a great supporter.
There's plenty of clouds coming.
There's a mainstay provisions.
We just haven't seen that place up
on 65th and we're gonna be there
making this burger from Victor Tavern.
Ohh, that's awesome, Ballard.
You've been just some incredible
work and you see it in the community
every day when you're down there.
So that is so great.
Yeah, they're super important.
Sorry to cut you off, but I gotta.
I gotta add that, you know,
they serve as 6000 families a month.
They have after school and weekend
programs for kids that take food home.
They, you know, you know,
25% of their of their clients are
are are kids, 25% are seniors.
So they're super important and they service.
More than just ballad,
they're three months, they're Magnolia.
They're Queen Anne.
They're north Seattle.
There's a lot.
There's a lot of stuff they got going on.
You know what? And now more than ever,
with inflation, with everything going on,
everybody you know it's struggling to be me.
That alright? I'll get out of your
way let's assemble this burger now
assemble burger places with you.
We gotta fly. I did. OK. You said I did.
I think you did offer did a sous chef. I
I'm not gonna lie, I was very
surprised because I'm not a
big huge fan of thick onions.
And you did those perfectly.
Alright, cool. Cool. Things work.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Alright, so cheese. It's,
I'm doing American cheese.
That crap single there.
Yes, it is. I love it.
I think American cheese belongs
on a fast food style burger.
I think it melts properly.
I think a gourmet burger.
Sure. You had beechers.
You had complete whatever you're gonna do,
but a fast food style.
You're an American cheese.
Alright, I I'm 100%
in on that.
I'm asking about the special sauce.
I'm gonna take a see all the
grease splatter I did for you.
That's wonderful.
You're welcome. I appreciate
that. Glad it's over there.
And so I'm just gonna get a little
bit of shredded lettuce here.
We've got our onions already,
which you did beautifully.
It's gonna do a little shredded lettuce
and I'll show you how to assemble
it. OK, I do love shredded lettuce
and I've actually always wondered
how to get the perfect shred.
And now I learned and you
are welcome. We all know now
there you go. OK, OK, it's
gonna toast a bun real quick.
We got a bone toasting too. Yep yeah it's got
a little soft butter.
This is a key to it.
A little bit of soft
butter is always good, OK?
We only have about a minute left.
How long does it take to
toast the bun? Usually just
it takes a little bump,
takes just I'll be done in a minute.
I'll be done awesome. Alright
yeah. Just overall when it comes to
cooking and your theory on cooking
I mean you are the expert so many
people know you in town what?
What is your advice to people when
it comes to to kind of experimenting
in the kitchen and not always
following the recipe? I think
the main thing for people if they're
if they're learning to cook and
they're really getting into cooking,
I think that's The thing is, you know.
Try the same thing over again
and people talk about restaurants
and how we're really good tomato.
For me, no tomato for you. OK,
I hate tomatoes.
That's trying to tell you that,
but I cut it for you.
OK, I appreciate that,
but I think it's I think it's practice.
Everybody says oh, the you know these
people and the restaurants can can
can cook a you know a steak despite
you know knowing the temperature
and the reason we've done that,
we can do that is because we've I've cooked.
I've cooked 10,000 steaks right.
This is yours. Of course, careful,
I don't want anything on your fancy jacket.
Post jacket alright.
Thank you so much for this. I'm gonna try it.
Oh my God.
You see the lipstick on the perfect.
See where it's at? This is so good.
Alright. Thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, thank you
and please people please show up for
Ballard bites and bruises this weekend.
It's gonna be super fun event,
great food, great music, great beer.
We have all the details on our
website too. It sounds delicious.