Meet George Motz, the self-proclaimed burger scholar and the owner of Hamburger America in NYC. Serving up a whopping 7,000 burgers a week, Motz is on a mission to spread his undying love for the all-American hamburger. At his joint, it's all about the classics — expect just three options on the menu: the smash burger, the fried onion burger, and a rotating monthly burger special highlighting regional patties across the U.S. For Motz, every burger is a tribute to the craft and culture of this iconic American food.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Somebody said, your burger has magic.
00:07The basic science is that when you smash a ball of beef,
00:10you start to render the fat.
00:12Then you salt it, and the salt starts to mix with the rendered beef fat.
00:15And you add the onions.
00:16Now you have this wild experiment going on.
00:19Onions are trapped under that patty.
00:21They can't go anywhere.
00:22Then you have beef steam.
00:24You put the cheese in the bun on top,
00:26and now you have this science experiment where the beef and onion steam
00:28is now permeating the cheese.
00:30And you're making me hungry.
00:31I'm making myself hungry.
00:33Sorry.
00:34What we're doing is we're recreating classic American burgers
00:38and as authentically as possible.
00:40Every morning we prep beef, which means we ball and portion beef.
00:59This is Donaldo.
01:00Donaldo is one of our great prep cooks.
01:02Look at the beef.
01:03See what it looks like?
01:04See the color of that?
01:06It's pink.
01:07It's not red and white.
01:08It's pink.
01:09It's finely ground.
01:10And that's how you make a great smash burger.
01:12The tighter the grind, the more chance it has to smash
01:16and not break up on the griddle.
01:17We get 75-25 straight chuck primal from Schweinsteins.
01:22We get a lot of it.
01:24We portion it into balls.
01:26I didn't make this up.
01:27This is just a way to ensure that every burger is the same size
01:30by portioning it this way.
01:32This is the perfect size.
01:33And you saw the way he's doing it.
01:35Look at that.
01:36Every ball is exactly the same.
01:38People think it's freezed for ice cream, but we like to use it for burgers.
01:42So 75-25 is not recommended for people who cook at home.
01:45You get kind of fatty.
01:46And if you have a lot of fat on your grill or even inside,
01:49you can cause a freeze fire pretty quickly.
01:51It's best left to the professionals to use a higher fat content burger.
01:56We'll probably do 400 pounds today maybe.
01:59Yeah, it's a lot.
02:02We only use sweet onion.
02:04It's Vidalia sweet onion.
02:05It comes from Peru.
02:06I'm working on the griddle.
02:07If you come from Mexico or the U.S., I can tell right away,
02:09those are definitely Peruvian.
02:11They're sweeter, they slice better, they break down easier.
02:15This is the onion slicing going on down here.
02:17I've got about five minutes before I start to cry.
02:20So this is the machine we use.
02:21I used to cut onions on a deli slicer.
02:23I think every onion was about 120 slices.
02:26Back and forth.
02:27One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
02:29I would count.
02:30And I would get up with like this pile, see right here?
02:32And that would have taken me what I call dark side of the moon.
02:35Because what I would do, I would listen to the dark side of the moon.
02:38It would take me dark side of the moon to slice that much.
02:40It just took this machine maybe 10 seconds to do that.
02:44That's why we're doing it.
02:45We probably go through, just today alone, 250 pounds, you know?
02:49Before there was ketchup and mustard and everything else,
02:51onion was the first condiment.
02:52First time I had an onion burger in Oklahoma,
02:54I was like, I can't eat that.
02:55I can't eat that many onions.
02:56I saw them piling with onions.
02:57I was like, oh, I can't eat that.
02:59And I took a bite and I'm like, oh, that's fine.
03:01It's almost like candy.
03:02I do believe that the hamburger is one of the only food inventions
03:05of the last 125 years in America.
03:08It was ethnic food that came from Germany.
03:10It was actually called steak in the style of Hamburg,
03:13which was shortened to or flipped to Hamburg steak,
03:16which then became just a hamburger.
03:18It became officially an American food, an iconic American food,
03:21at some point in the 1880s in the Midwest at state fairs.
03:28Bun storage.
03:29We're actually low on buns right now.
03:30This will probably get us through the day,
03:33but we have another delivery coming in soon, especially for the weekend.
03:36We'll go through three times this in the weekend for sure.
03:39We use a lot of Martin's, as you can see.
03:41Big fan of Martin's potato rolls,
03:42because it's basically one of the most perfect hamburger buns out there.
03:46They're a little denser, and they hold up to burger grease
03:50and toasting much better than just about any bun out there.
03:55A lot of buns, if you toast them, that involves heat,
03:58and steam goes through the bun,
03:59and can start to break down the actual structure of the bun.
04:02But because this bun is so dense,
04:05it actually lasts a little bit longer in your hand.
04:08This is kind of the perfect bun for enjoying a hamburger.
04:12When you bite into a burger,
04:13the first thing that happens is your nose hits the top of the bun,
04:16and it's very important for the flavor profile of the first bite.
04:20And with Martin's potato rolls, the first thing you smell is yeast.
04:23And whenever you smell yeast, your brain says,
04:26ho, let's go, here we go, it's going to be fun.
04:29And then there's all this crazy action that happens when you take your first bite.
04:33Depending on what's in that first bite,
04:34hopefully everything that's on the burger,
04:36it is going to only add to that experience.
04:38Your brain has already been exposed to yeast and that complex compound,
04:43and it's just ready for whatever's next.
04:46We only have three burgers on the menu,
04:48the classic smash, the fried onion burger,
04:50but we have a special rotating burger called the monthly burger special.
04:54For example, right now we have the doodle burger on the menu.
04:56Doodle burger comes from now-closed Yankee Doodle in New Haven, Connecticut.
05:00No one's had this burger in 16 years before we put it on the menu,
05:03and people actually got worked up.
05:04We had people crying at the counter.
05:06We're going to make a doodle burger.
05:08We always set up our specials over here in this corner.
05:11The bun, it's from Rockland Bakery.
05:13It's a pretty standard, small version of a classic white, squishy bun.
05:18It's the closest thing we could find to what they made at Yankee Doodle 16 years ago.
05:23We're using actually a smaller ball.
05:25This is actually a 2-ounce ball.
05:27They had smaller patties.
05:29It would be too big if it was 3-ounce.
05:31So 100% shock, 75-25.
05:33In the case of the doodle,
05:35there are people who have actually tried to recreate the doodle,
05:37and I was shocked at how they really just didn't get it right.
05:39They didn't look at the details.
05:41I had to get it in the head of Rick Beckwith, Jr.,
05:45the grandson of the Beckwith family
05:48who ran the doodle at the very end before he closed it.
05:57So this burger only gets salt for seasoning,
06:00and it also gets a tiny pinch of onion right in the center.
06:06That's the way Rick did it.
06:08Rick didn't really care about spreading it out.
06:11He would use yellow American cheese.
06:14He would use the cheapest hothouse tomatoes.
06:18We have tried to recreate that burger exactly the way it was
06:21because there's something about all those cheap-ass elements together
06:24that really create a great burger and a great burger experience.
06:28So we created a burger that really generated and sets memory.
06:32We do this to keep it authentic.
06:35So I wanted to make sure we were getting it right,
06:38so I asked a bunch of friends of mine who remembered the doodle.
06:41So I called some friends who went to Yale and grew up in New Haven
06:44and said, did I get it right?
06:46And all of them said, 100%, you nailed it.
06:49The only thing I got wrong, the beef was better.
06:51Every time we make one of these monthly burger specials,
06:54it blows my mind that we can actually pull it off.
06:56Even the way we have it on the plate
06:58was exactly the way the Beckwiths did it back in the day,
07:00where it was served open-face,
07:02served with a small paper ramekin full of red relish.
07:04And people look at me and say, what do you do next?
07:06I think I pick up the red relish and I squeeze it on top, exactly.
07:13I love this burger.
07:15This is the bun toaster.
07:17This is one of the greatest things we have in the restaurant.
07:19It's also fascinating, because this is all butter.
07:21See, it's all butter. Ooh, see that?
07:23It's so basic. I'll show you how this thing works.
07:25Butter on there, drop in there. Toaster, that's it.
07:28Well, it's very Willy Wonka.
07:30You know, it's got drippy stuff happening, and it's in the open.
07:33It's a wise piece of hamburger machinery.
07:35We need it, because we toast probably 1,500 buns a day.
07:40So, I'm going to start by making
07:42two onion burgers and two all-the-way singles.
07:46That's that.
07:47At this point, the Oklahoma fried onion burger is now 102 years old.
07:50The other burger on the menu is sort of an amalgamation
07:53of what I consider to be one of the most classic,
07:56best burgers in America, the classic smash,
07:59but specifically all-the-way, which we call all-the-way,
08:02which is mustard, onion, pickle.
08:04MOP. M-O-P.
08:06That's it.
08:07So, it's basically diced onion, a small squirt of mustard,
08:10and two dill pickle chips, and that's it.
08:13And that is pretty classic to the Midwest.
08:20So, onion burger with onions, obviously.
08:22First, the smash method only came about for speed,
08:25because the guys who were selling hamburgers back in the day
08:27were usually set up outside of factories,
08:29and factory workers only had a short lunch.
08:31They had to eat quick.
08:32They had to feed a lot of factory workers at the same time.
08:34Smashing a patty meant speed, and that was it.
08:38These are mine. I made these.
08:40These are custom-made.
08:41We have them made at a metal shop in Argentina,
08:44but it weighs a pound. It weighs one pound.
08:46And the angle and everything is designed just for the way I like to make burgers.
08:49There's a point at about seven minutes in when you're cooking,
08:51at the right temperature and the right ingredients and everything.
08:54About seven minutes in, the onions break,
08:57almost in the same way like you break down
09:00the connective tissue in brisket after like 12 hours,
09:03whatever it is, when you're smoking brisket.
09:05There's that moment where it just breaks.
09:06It just gives up.
09:07You're like, okay, I give up.
09:08And that's when it tastes the best.
09:09So, these are called a set-up, the bun set-up, right?
09:13This is the fastest, best way to make sure your bun is ready for the burger.
09:17The reason it's been done for years,
09:18because this is a very simple way to make sure the buns stay soft.
09:24The buns are already soft as they are,
09:26but the buns will collect a lot of airborne beef grease and onion steam.
09:31That's all onion steam happening right there.
09:34A lot of onions burnt, smash, mash, put it to the side,
09:37cook it for seven, eight minutes, and then serve it.
09:40I actually like to observe what's going on.
09:42I tell all of our cooks to be part of the process,
09:46to actually be aware of what you're doing.
09:49Fry Dump.
09:50Somebody asked me, he said, why are these fries so good?
09:52I said, because you're sitting at the counter.
09:54I said, they only travel nine feet to get to your mouth.
09:56That's why these are good.
09:58I'll make one of my favorite sodas.
09:59You ready?
10:00Check this out.
10:01Slice, right?
10:03You ready for this one?
10:04You watching?
10:10Skip Diet Coke.
10:12Go to Coke.
10:13This is a drink called the Whip.
10:15Go to Coke.
10:16This is a drink called the Witch Doctor.
10:19The Witch Doctor is from a burger spot in North Carolina
10:23called What A Burger.
10:24Not What A Burger, but What A Burger.
10:26The reason this is so good is because the pickle
10:28adds a complexity that you wouldn't normally find in a soda.
10:31It's not like a one-note sweet soda.
10:34It's like a two-note, three-note soda
10:36with the complexity of garlic and vinegar, basically,
10:40in your soda.
10:41It's on the off menu.
10:42Maybe it's a secret.
10:43I feel like it's been my life mission to make sure
10:45that people appreciate the American hamburger
10:47on a much more complex, deeper level.
10:50There's a lot more to the origin stories of all these burgers.
10:54And I wanted to point out that in America,
10:56regional diversity abounds.
10:57There's so much going on out there in the world of hamburgers
11:00that people just don't realize.
11:01Even I don't realize yet.
11:02The counter's pretty full right now.
11:04This is nice.
11:05We're off and running.
11:06It's only the beginning of the day.
11:07We're open for another 10 hours, 11 hours today.
11:09The customer experience really should be positive.
11:11People walk up to me and they say,
11:12it just feels so good in here.
11:14I feel like my job is to make people happy
11:17through hamburgers.