- Hey guys, salut!
My name is Alex.
I'm a food geek and a cook and I've got a YouTube channel
where I make food and, sometimes, I even make machines
that make the food.
So, behind me is Shake Shack.
In fact, it is the original Shake Shack location
and it's also the home of the beautiful
and iconic Shake Burger
and that's good, 'cause my mission today
is to recreate that beauty.
So, it's now 8:00 a.m., in eight hours from now,
exactly, Mark Rosati is gonna come
and judge my own recreation.
Wish me luck.
I'm excited, but I'm also a bit nervous.
Oh, here he comes, I think.
I think that's him.
Mark?
- Ah! - Hey, man!
- Alex, how ya doing?
- [Alex] I'm ready.
- Welcome, man. - Yeah.
- Are you ready to go to boot camp today,
burger boot camp, as we call it? (laughs)
- Okay, can I? - Yes please!
I insist! (laughing)
- Wow!
Beef flavor!
- Yes!
- First of all I've got the beef flavor!
I've got the caramelization, the crispiness,
I've got the juices, and because the bun is so soft,
I get the crisp from the beef.
- Yes!
- It's beautiful, man.
- It's nice and simple, but, again, very thoughtful.
Well, we try to be, at least.
- I've got a question about the meat, okay?
I'm thinking sirloin, short rib, and the last one
would be brisket.
What do you think?
- I like you, man, but if I confirm or deny that,
I don't think I'm gonna be working here
much longer, buddy!
What I love to do is I toast the bun first,
because, again, the beef is the most important part.
It's just there to do service to the beef.
Smash it right on in.
So, you wanna get nice, even thickness.
So, I'm looking at the bottom there.
We're gonna start to see a crust develop.
And now you wanna take your spatula and you wanna hold it
almost 45 at a degree angle.
Once you release it, you wanna come in,
give it a flip.
There you go, you got some nice caramelization.
American cheese, it adds a creaminess to it.
So what we have right now, they're all the ingredients
for making our Shack Sauce.
The thing is, when we give people this recipe,
we wanna make it nice and easy.
So, this is a shortcut and it tastes
very, very, very similar to the original.
- [Alex] Fair enough.
- [Mark] There you go!
Shack Burger!
- Merci so much for all these tips.
- That was fun!
- There were so many tips.
I need now to focus.
It's now 9:30, wish me luck.
- I can't wait to try it man.
Best of luck.
- See you then, man. - All right.
- Bye.
Right, I am arriving at the test kitchen.
I'm trying to compile all the information
that I got this morning.
I've got six hours to get this going.
Six hours, let's do this.
Okay, time to make some burgers, guys.
In front of me, I've got three
different cuts of beef.
I've got brisket, I've got sirloin, and I've got chuck.
So what I'm gonna do, first, is taste one patty
from each meat, but separately before
I decide on a ratio.
So in order to grind the meat properly
I've been keeping the parts inside the freezer
'cause you basically want everything
to be as cold as possible otherwise
the fat is gonna melt.
- Just for you information, I'm not gonna smash them
at the moment.
I'm focusing on the taste first.
So I'm gonna go with brisket first.
So brisket definitely has a beefy flavor.
It's lacking fat, it's lacking meltiness.
I'm just gonna go for sirloin then.
The beefy flavor is cleaner, on this one.
Which is super enjoyable.
It's making me salivate at the moment.
And now chuck.
I would say that chuck, probably, has the more moisture.
There is a very nice beefy flavor.
It's stronger than sirloin but it's probably
less intense than brisket.
I think all of these three cuts
will bring something different to the game.
Now, I just need to figure out the proportions.
I'm thinking of three different ratios.
The first one would be 40% chuck,
40% sirloin, and 20% brisket.
Brisket being an accent within this patty.
Then I'm thinking of a cleaner version as well.
50% for sirloin, 30% for chuck,
and still 20% for brisket,
and for the third option, the beefiest one of the lot,
I would go 50% chuck, 30% brisket,
and only 20% sirloin.
That's my guess.
Let's do this.
So right off the bat, I know that the fat ratio on these
is not perfect yet,
but I'm just looking for the right flavor
at the moment.
I've got three different patties in the pan at the moment.
Each one corresponding to one different blend.
I think the balanced one is gonna be the one
that I'm looking for,
but the beefy one, I don't know.
The beefy one could surprise me as well.
I am looking for the closest one to the patty
I had at Shake Shack.
I'm going for the balanced one first.
So first of all, this is very good.
I got the beef vibe from the chuck,
I've got the moisture and the juices from the sirloin,
and I've got that you know, brisket underlying flavor.
That funky, jazzy, brisket flavor underneath.
I can't decide with just one.
I need to taste all of these.
So, clean one.
Right, so mixed feeling about this one.
Instantly I got more juices, straight away.
I would say it's slightly disappointing on the end.
Third one, the beefiness.
It's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be very tough,
'cause this one is extremely good.
It still is very juicy.
All these patties taste good basically.
I'm going for balance all the way.
I'm gonna make a big batch of this,
and then I'll figure out what to do
with the smashing.
I've got about one hour and a half remaining
and I still need to figure out the amount
of pressure I need to put on those patties
to get the right crust.
I thought about a little contraption.
Why not?
That should help me figure out the numbers.
This is what I'm gonna do.
I've got an industrial scale right underneath.
The way I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna place my stove
right on top of it, like so.
This way, it's super stable.
It's not going anywhere
and it's maybe not the perfect set-up,
but a good set up to see how much pressure,
in terms of weight, I'm applying to the pan.
Now with this in mind, I'm gonna make
at least, two, three different patties
at different strengths, different pressure,
and see which one has the crust that I need.
First one, I'm gonna go light on the pressure.
So my guess at the moment is that
it's clearly not thin enough.
So that problem I see right now
is because the patty is a bit too thick.
It hasn't been pressed enough.
It's gonna take, maybe, too much time to be cooked the way
I want it to be cooked.
So the crust might be burned on the bottom.
(grunting)
I can see that the crust is really, really dark.
Almost burned at the moment.
But the patty still needs a bit of cooking
so I'm confused.
Okay, whatever.
Ooh.
Next, let's apply some serious pressure to it.
Wow!
That's a beautiful crust.
It's not that far.
Probably just a tad less pressure.
All right, for the second one I think
I went a little overboard.
For the first one, well I probably went under-board.
If that makes sense.
For this one, I need to be onboard.
What do you think?
Onboard, onboard for this one.
When you press it, as soon as it just
overflows the spatula, I think you're good.
I mean, it also depends on the size
of your spatula, basically.
But, you get my point.
It's exciting, 'cause I'm recreating a Shake Shack.
It's an icon in the food world.
Next time I'm making a patty at my place,
this is the thing I'm cooking.
For sure.
Yeah I know the guy.
I know Mark.
Mark told me about the recipe.
You know it's just, he's a good guy.
I really want to unstick those caramelized bits
from the bottom.
Oh la la.
This is looking amazing, this one.
Let me have a quick check.
It's just right.
So 18 pounds, this is the way to go.
Lucky for us, this is the sweet spot,
'cause I only have 30 minutes left,
and I've still got to toast the bun, cut tomatoes,
and of course, make the sauce.
I'm starting to lose it.
Mark is supposed to arrive.
I'm almost ready but, I don't know.
There's always a bit of pressure 'til the end.
I really hope it's gonna turn okay.
Let's talk about sauces for a second.
I think he showed me a simpler version
of the real Shake Shack sauce.
I've been ordering a few extra cups of the real
Shake Shack sauce.
I'm gonna taste it and see if I can sense things
that I did not sense, this morning.
I think it's more tangy.
It has more flavor.
Maybe a touch of garlic.
There is a touch, a touch of heat in there.
This is very good.
I could eat this all day.
I'd say a cup of mayonnaise, about a cup,
ketchup, Dijon, pickle juice, cayenne
Just a touch of cayenne.
Paprika, a pinch of garlic powder,
another pinch of onion powder.
Flavor-wise, I am definitely there.
The sauce is too liquidy at the moment,
but I've got no time, so I'm gonna run with this.
One minute before Mark comes in.
I've got everything ready.
I've got the pan, I've got my instructions,
and then I've got the tomatoes already prepped.
I've got the lettuce, which is cut perfectly, cheese,
sauce, and then visual indications just for the build up.
(exhaling)
(knocking)
I think they are here.
I think Mark is here.
Okay, whoa!
- Hey, how's it going buddy?
- Let's do this.
A bit French on the butter.
- Yes, yes yes.
Glad I walked over here today.
- [Alex] That seems about right.
- Oh that looks good.
Looks a little thin, but you know,
as long as the flavor is there.
Now that's something I didn't tell you
that you picked up.
See there's two sides.
We always train our team to put the dull side down
so when you shut the burger, the guest
sees that nice deep green, shiny side.
I don't even have to tell you everything.
You're gonna pick it up.
Okay, I like what I'm seeing here.
When you flip it, that's what'll be the real sign.
- The juices start to come out.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- So it's time to flip. - Okay, let's do it.
You.
All right, ah!
- [Alex] This is for you, man.
- That looks awesome.
I'm gonna give it a taste right now.
It smells good, smells good.
- [Alex] I stopped breathing like two minutes ago.
(laughing)
- The bun is perfect.
If you just said to me, "I just cooked a burger
and I want you to try it," I'd fall in love with this.
It's a really good burger.
You can see the grind on this and everything.
It's really good.
The only thing I'm missing, is a little bit of juiciness.
- [Alex] You think it come from the blend?
- I think maybe your fat content might
be a little low on this, too.
- I should have gone higher on the fat.
- The textures here are very much on point.
Tomatoes are good, lettuce is good.
You got those down.
The bun. - What about the bun?
- Nailed the bun.
- The bun is amazing. - Nailed the bun.
You know what?
Something else that comes to mind is the cheese.
The cheese has a different flavor profile too,
than ours, so.
Even the sauce, there's a little higher amount of acidity
in there than our sauce.
The one thing I think, that was amazing,
that hit me right away here,
is the power of freshly-ground meat.
If you did not use freshly ground meat
I would have noticed.
- Oh wow, why?
- Well the difference is, it loses all its flavor.
Again. all the flavors actually in the steak itself.
The stuff on the outside just doesn't have that
same amount of flavor.
So biting into that, the one thing I did get,
it wasn't our blend I was tasting,
but I was tasting beautiful, robust meat.
And, that right there again
is what makes this a great burger.
So if I shut my eye, it's not Shake Shack I'm eating,
but it is rich and powerful and it's a good burger.
- I'll take that.
(Mark laughs)
Okay thank you man, so much.
- Come on, come on. - It's good, it's good.
(clapping)
That's it guys.
(gentle music)