Watch $304 vs $21 Hamburger: Pro Chef & Home Cook Swap Ingredients | Pro Chef vs Novice Chef

Hi, chuck. Is chuck okay?

Are you okay, chuck?

You are just full of surprises, chuck.

[gentle music] [words popping]

Hi, I am Eric.

I’m a professional chef,

and these are my $304 burger ingredients.

[gentle music]

[words popping] Hi, my name is Gina.

I’m a home cook, and these are my $21 burger ingredients.

[gentle music]

Oh, [whispers] it’s hurting my feelings.

Oh, no, no, why?

Classic cheeseburger situation,

definitely can do something with this.

Whoa, this is a lot.

[gentle music]

So I was planning on making a Stilton steakhouse burger,

with a bacon marmalade, and a rich demi-glace.

There’s a giant pile of meat in front of me,

and it’s not ground, so-

I was gonna do a burger blend of beef chuck,

brisket, and boneless short rib.

I have never ground my own meat before. [laughing]

There was going to be a Stilton cheese sauce

using a beautiful stilton, creme fraiche,

and a really nice white balsamico.

I didn’t know Balsamic could come in white.

There’s going to be a bacon marmalade

made from slab bacon,

shallots, and tawny port.

Bacon on my hamburger, [tongue clicks] perfect.

And finally,

a rich demi-glace made from beef stock and Merlot,

all served on a toasted pretzel bun.

It was going to be a burger

that may have changed the course of human civilization.

This is a lot fancier than what I would’ve done.

With Gina’s recipe,

we definitely have some simpler ingredients,

stuff you definitely have in your pantry,

or find out your local grocery store.

They’re very approachable,

but with a little technique, we can, sorry,

I don’t wanna point, I don’t wanna do finger guns,

but of course, I am here to over chef them,

so I am going to do some fancy things to it.

So if I had to guess, I think,

everything together here, $21.

[money cha-chings]

Oh wow, really, right on the button, huh?

If I had to guess, this would cost $253,

[money cha-chings]

$304, I’m surprised there’s no gold leaf here.

We will turn you into the finest shrettuce.

I don’t know what we’re doing with any of this.

[gentle music]

So this is Chef Eric’s recipe book,

and it looks like I’ve got some basic steps here

to get me through, whoo-whoo-whoop-whoop.

Gina is going to be making a steakhouse burger,

a thick, hefty piece of meat;

beef first front and foremost,

and everything else is backup vocals.

There’s a whole lot going on here.

It looks like I have to get started

with grinding up this meat.

So Gina,

you’re going to be working with three cuts of beef.

Short rib, brisket, and chuck, my friend Chuck.

Chuck is a really popular cut to use for burgers.

Adding the short rib,

adding the brisket is going to give us

an extra boost of fat and flavor.

These are all parts of the cow that do a lot of work,

so they would be kinda tough if you ate it as a steak.

I have some brisket here.

I need to cut off these filmy bits.

It’s the chewy part that’s hard to chomp on.

Take the time here to use a really sharp knife,

get under the silver skin,

and clean as much as off as you can.

Where are your secrets, chuck?

There’s a nobby bit in here,

and I don’t wanna bite into that, so we’ll chop.

Short rib looks pretty good, so I’m gonna keep it as is.

I’ve got my meat trimmed and cleaned up;

it’s time to dice them up.

I’m gonna start with my friend, chuck.

The chuck,

we’re going to salt lightly

because the way we form this burger later

is a little bit unusual.

The salt is going to help keep it together;

otherwise it’s never gonna stay together.

So the blend I’d like to use here is 50{f8f2f6c3978be4280dba4728e3685952f3615a1d089d426e0671ec3cc6712d50} chuck,

25{f8f2f6c3978be4280dba4728e3685952f3615a1d089d426e0671ec3cc6712d50} boneless short rib, 25{f8f2f6c3978be4280dba4728e3685952f3615a1d089d426e0671ec3cc6712d50} brisket.

That’s six. I like brisket, I wanna put six in.

Don’t tell Chef Eric I put six.

Meat is diced and ready to be chilled in the fridge.

If your meat gets too warm, it’s going to smear,

it’s going to break the fat and the emulsion that you want.

Time to grind some meat!

Plan is take the brisket and the short ribs,

this meat is gonna land on you,

run them through the grinder.

[grinder running] Oh, that’s really gross.

Oh my God, they’re gonna come out.

Toss them into the chuck

and then run it through the grinder again.

We’re going to grind the chuck a little larger

so we have that nice big crumb of a steakhouse burger,

but then the fine grind on the short rib

and the brisket is really gonna help tie the room together,

if you will,

There you, and [chuckles] so disgusting.

This is a highly-obsessive compulsive way

to make a hamburger.

Typically,

the conventional idea is that you make this burger,

you mix all the meat together,

but then all the meat strands start to bind to one another.

And sometimes that can lead to a kind of chewy burger,

so what we need to do here is arrange the ground meat

in a very intentional way.

You’re going to bring the plastic wrap

over your coils of meat,

and you’re going to gently tighten it,

and roll it into a cylinder.

We almost want to not mix it at all.

I’ve made my own meat loaf ball.

I don’t know, it looks like a ball.

This is going to be your burger patties later.

You’re going to cut patties out of this,

and that way you have the meat fibers

in range facing upwards,

not all mixed together randomly.

That way when you bite into it,

there’s going to be this cross section

that kind of falls apart immediately,

but it’s still very flavorful

and has the right content of fat.

So your four to five inch cylinder needs to set

in the refrigerator for about an hour,

and then later on,

you’re gonna cut it right before you cook it.

I hope I did this right. It looks okay.

Gina was probably gonna make

a pretty classic American cheeseburger.

I think where I’m gonna go with this

is I’m gonna make some Juicy Lucies

with some slow-roasted tomatoes, and smoked onion relish.

It’s kind of an inverted cheeseburger.

The cheese is inside the patty,

the pride of Minnesota, other than Prince,

so I’m gonna start with the patties.

Store-bought ground beef, classic American cheese,

which is gonna be perfect because it never breaks.

I’m going to use the all-important tortilla press.

This is going to get my patty thin enough.

We’re going to do a double Juicy Lucy.

It’s gonna be a substantial thing to eat.

It’s gonna be pretty messy.

Ground beef you buy from the grocery store

is very finely ground.

The more you handle it,

the tighter the texture’s going to be,

minimally handling it is going to make a difference.

I’m going to press them in the tortilla press

to make them nice and thin,

we’re gonna put cheese in the middle,

and then the other patty on top.

I pinched up my edges just to seal it in.

I do have a slight mound here, this is a good thing.

It’s gonna mean we have a super oozy cheesy center.

I’m not going to salt our season it now.

Unlike the burger Gina is making

where we need a little bit of salt,

this one we want to keep as tender as possible,

so no salt, until we cook it.

I’m going to make a Stilton cheese sauce.

This is Stilton, hello Stilton.

Stilton smells like a blue cheese.

Stilton might be a blue cheese.

I’m gonna cut the rind off of Stilton here, crumble him up.

The mayonnaise is the base.

We’re gonna use the creme fraiche

for a little bit of acidity

and body because it has such a high fat content,

and then we’re going to season it with a white balsamico.

Terre Bormane Aulente,

I’m guessing this is all Italian.

Bianco means white. [tongue suck]

It does have acidity,

but it also brings most importantly some sweetness.

Funky blue cheeses can really use a little bit of sugar

to bring out their best qualities.

It’s so junky!

A little bit of pepper.

It tastes a lot better than it looks.

I’m so sorry, Stilton. You’re actually quite yummy.

Gina gave me some plump tomatoes.

I’m going to make slow-roasted tomatoes, but to do that,

first we have to do a tomato concasse.

Basically,

you’re removing the skin, and the seeds, and the pulp,

leaving just the flesh.

This is day two culinary school.

It is very old school, classic French technique.

I’ve made a little X in the bottom of each tomato.

We are going to blanch it for exactly 10 seconds.

The skin will separate, it’ll make it easier to peel.

Into our ice water to immediately stop the cooking.

I’m going to peel this.

Look at that, not overcooked, flesh is still nice and firm.

Now, we’re going to remove the seeds and pulp.

This is called a concasse.

The tomato pulp and seeds here,

I’m going to add it to a condiment I’m going to make later

to give it a little tangy and savory boost.

So season this up with a little bit of olive oil,

nice pinch of salt, mix that up,

lay them on this tray skin side out.

I’m going to put them in a low oven,

225 Fahrenheit on low fan,

and I’m gonna cook these for a couple hours.

Their texture has tightened up a little bit,

flavor should be concentrated a bit more.

My slow-roasted tomatoes

are just about ready for my Juicy Lucy.

I’m gonna be making a bacon marmalade!

Strangely enough,

the first step to that is pickling some mustard seeds.

It adds a really nice pop texturally, a nice visual look,

and adds acidity to the whole thing.

I’ve heard this process

is very time-consuming and repetitive.

So the plan is I’m going to, there we go,

put some water and a bunch of mustard seeds into the pot.

That’s a nice sound, [seeds sizzling]

it’s like rain.

Let it boil and then strain it,

and then do that eight times!

There you go.

If you don’t do it,

they’re going to be very bitter and unpleasant.

Blanching it in fresh water each time

will draw out some of the very bitter tannins

and flavor compounds in the mustard seeds.

There’s a lot of them,

so you have to get them out to make them palatable,

but it will be worth it.

Would being in a jacuzzi make me less bitter? Yes.

Ooh, you are hot.

Finally, mustard seeds have been blanched.

I’m going to work on the brine;

sugar and salt into the pot.

I’m going to use the Balsamic again.

Glug, glug, glug, glug, and some water.

Gonna stir it [stove clicking]

and heat it up until all of this dissolves.

I think that looks pretty good.

And then mustard seeds, blop, blop, blop.

Ooh, go inside.

And I’m going to use them for the bacon marmalade.

I think the texture

of a slice of bacon kind of detracts from the hamburger,

so we’re going to get around that by making a marmalade.

You get all the salinity, and the smoke,

and the fat from the bacon,

but it’s not competing texturally.

I’m going to remove the skin,

pop it in the freezer for about 30 minutes,

that’ll make it easier to chop up.

30 minutes later, bacon is frozen, ooh.

Then you’re going to finey dice it.

You’re going to render it in a pan,

you’re going to cook it down with shallots,

caramelize those lightly, [food sizzling]

and then you’re going to add your alcohols.

10-years-old tawny ports.

It smells like wine, [laughing] it smells like alcohol.

I don’t drink.

Stilton and port is a classic combination

for a cheeseboard.

Scrape all those beautiful brown bits off the pan,

and reduce everything down,

and then the bacon fat

should emulsify really well with everything.

Here are my mustard seeds.

It’s, hi, nice to see you again.

Gonna strain it, and then scoop them out,

and put them inside the bacon, and then mustard.

Ooh, it does have the color of jam.

And finally, I’m gonna season this with some pepper,

like you do with all marmalade, right?

Bacon marmalade is done.

Let’s see what mustard seeds blanch

eight times tastes like. [laughing]

Mmm, it’s sweet and savory, kinda smoky, yummy.

I’m going to make a smoked onion relish

from the things that were given to me.

I’m going to take this red onion

and I’m going to slice it into rounds.

We don’t want them too thin.

Little bit of oil, little bit of salt, toss, toss, toss.

I’m going to char them in my cast iron pan.

I really wanna give them a pretty aggressive burn here,

and then I’m going to smoke these.

So next, we are gonna use our smoking gun.

So we’ve developed that sort of grilled,

summer backyard barbecue taste.

Adding smoke is really gonna seal it in.

Hickory is very smoky.

For this, the smokier the better,

brrst, brrst, brrst, brrst.

We’re gonna seal this up,

double wrap it for about 30 minutes,

and should have a pretty strong smoked flavor after that.

While my onions are smoking, I was not gifted ketchup.

This is all the seeds

and the pulp I removed from the slow-roasted tomatoes.

This is all good stuff,

this is actually where most of the glutamates

are in a tomato,

so I’m gonna cook this down into a bit of a jam

to add a little bit of a tangy savory boost.

It’s not gonna take too long.

And then bread and butter pickles.

I’m gonna dice this into cubes

as opposed to chopping it finely,

that way it’s gonna retain that beautiful,

crunchy texture in a lot of ways.

Next the onions.

It’s been about 30 minutes.

These we’re going to chop up.

I’m going to use mayonnaise as the base.

Bit of yellow mustard, a little salt, cracked black pepper,

and a little bit of pickle juice,

adds a nice acidity and a little bit of sweetness.

There we go, a smoked onion relish, true to its name.

Who needs this special sauce?

It’s time for demi-glace.

What’s a demi-glace? I don’t know.

So Gina is gonna be making a demi-glace,

a culinary school classic reduced beef stock,

until it’s really nice, and syrupy, and intensely savory.

This is going to go on the top of the burger.

Chef Eric gifted me some beef stock,

and I’m going to cook it down.

There’s a lot of waiting in this recipe.

This looks like about half.

I’m going to bring this down to a simmer

and reduce some wine.

Reducing alcohol gives you a foundation of acidity

and sweetness that is going to balance everything,

so you reduce your red wine until it’s pretty syrupy.

I’m gonna pour this into the stock.

Now I’m going to add a whole bunch

of other ingredients to make it shine.

Glucose syrup, so thick.

You’re going to add your glucose syrup,

that’s gonna add a lot of shine

and body without adding too much sweetness.

And I’m going to add bouillion

because this is clearly not enough beef flavor,

and then pinch of MSG.

We really wanna take the savory notes

in this demi-glace to the next level

because you’re just going to use a very little bit.

[tasting] That is so salty!

It’s yummy though.

It’s just going to make your burger

ridiculously nonsensically beefy.

I made a demi-glace, it’s so brown.

I’m going to prep my bun, I’m gonna cut my toppings,

I’m gonna get ready to make this Juicy Lucy.

My Juicy Lucy is going to be a little bit special.

I’m gonna make it a two-tiered Juicy Lucy.

Some might call it an abomination.

And I’m going to use mayonnaise to toast these

so that this browns incredibly evenly.

I have pretzel buns.

I gave you a whole pretzel bun, not pre-sliced.

You’re going to get a really uniformed golden brown service

that’s gonna have some texture to it.

Ta-da, I don’t have to do this eight times.

Another topping Gina gave me, iceberg lettuce,

grossly underappreciated vegetable;

Really beautiful,

crunchy texture without veering into bitter,

so we’re going to finely shrettucee.

Finally, our slow-roasted tomatoes.

I’m going to cut these in the strips

that should allow us to take one even bite

and get a little bit of everything, toppings done.

I’m going to put the onion rings into some cold water

to take the bite out of the onions.

Onions are ready and buns are ready for toasting.

It’s time to cook some burgers!

It’s bun-toasting time is what it is.

I have my mayoed buns.

These are gonna toast so beautifully evenly

because of the spread.

The middle piece is obviously

gonna be toasted on both sides.

Bottom, middle, top, griddle.

My hamburger meat has been taken outta the fridge,

it’s solidified.

You’re going to slice 1/5 inch rounds.

You want nice thick burger here.

I’m gonna cut it into patties.

[gasping] This is a honker chunk of patty.

It looks substantial.

A little salt and pepper, pretzel roll,

and I’m just gonna butter it,

and then put it on the pan so they’ll get nice and brown.

Now, I’m gonna cook some Juicy Lucies.

[burger sizzling]

So we’re cooking this burger quite differently

than the one I gave Gina.

[burger sizzling]

I’m gonna season these up with salt now, black pepper.

And we’re not going to flip this frequently,

given the delicate nature

of what the Juicy Lucy contains within.

I see a little bit of cheese leaking out.

Don’t judge me,

it’s okay to take chances and make mistakes, right? Yes.

They look beautiful and golden!

Now I get to give all my attention to the meat

because they have to be flipped every 30 seconds!

Gina,

you’re almost treating this pen as if it were a rotisserie.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi.

You’re moving it constantly

so that each side is not exposed too long

to the heat where it will overcook.

So this way,

you’re gonna get a really even gradient of doneness.

120 something. [meat sizzling]

This one’s done!

[meat sizzling]

Join your friend.

Whew, that was so much counting.

If your Juicy Lucy looks like it’s puffing up,

it’s looking like it’s brown to explode,

you poke it with a little skewer

and vent some of the steam so it doesn’t explode.

Patties are done, time to assemble the burgers.

I feel tired.

My mind, body, and soul is hungry!

Let’s make a burger.

First, I’m gonna take the bottom bun, put it on the plate,

Slather some of this bacon marmalade,

marmalade, bacon marmalade,

and then put the patty on top.

Whoa, it’s like a dinosaur burger.

And then cheese sauce,

Smoked onion relish on the bottom, in the middle,

the shrettuce, patty, tomato strips,

Onion rings, and then drizzle it with the demi-glace.

Next bun, shrettuce.

Next patty, oh my God, this is a monstrosity, [laughing]

more slow-roasted tomato.

And then it needs a hat. Whop.

It’s so tall!

Here we go, heavy lies the crown.

And this is my double-decker Juicy Lucy,

with smoked onion relish, shrettuce,

and slow-roasted tomatoes.

And this is my take on Chef Eric’s

Stilton’s steakhouse burger with bacon marmalade

and demi-glace.

I’m gonna get judged so hard for it.

[gentle music]

[Gina laughing] Hello.

Hi, Chef Eric.

How’s it going? Good, how are you?

I’m good, thank you. How was your day?

Very busy, very busy. All right, sorry.

Had to give you a lot of things to do,

[whispers] right? Yeah, yeah.

Okay. [Eric and Gina laughing]

Whoa! [laughing] Nice, substantial.

It’s so tall like you. I wasn’t ready

for that. [laughing]

[Gina] A skyscraper.

How about yours?

How did you feel about the recipe?

What’s that Greek god with all the tasks

and all the, [giggles] was it Hercules?

Hercules and his 12 labors?

Yeah,

the 12 labors is right with lots of stuff in between too.

So chef, what am I looking at here?

Do you know what a Juicy Lucy is?

No.

The cheese is on the inside.

Okay! [laughing] Whoa!

[gasping] It’s so gooey!

Cheers. Cheers.

[burger crunching]

Ah. [Eric laughing]

Mmm. These are great.

It is so cheesy.

You got a very successful uniformed bite,

that was the goal here.

I probably should have taken lactate

before I ate this bite, so-

[Eric] It feels more like a Messy Bessie.

[Gina] I wanna say Messy Bessie,

yeah. Messy Bessy.

You gotta try my burger.

I’m very excited to. [Gina laughing]

The idea here was a steakhouse burger,

right, Uh-huh.

and the dry-aged funk

Funk is right yes. that you cut from beef.

And I just really like blue cheese in general.

Ah, okay. I’m very anti-ranch

with my Buffalo wings.

[gasping] What? Oh,

that’s a nice cross section.

Cheers. Cheers.

[burger crunching]

Mmm. Mmm.

Right?

That is yummy.

That blue cheese works really well.

I taste mostly the bacon marmalade, which is so good.

Yeah, the texture of the burger is delightful.

It’s very loose and tender.

How’d you feel about the constant flipping technique?

It was very hard to do.

It worked out!

I, it’s worth the effort.

Beautiful work, you did a fantastic job.

Thank you! These were both so messy,

so we gotta do

a messy demi-glace- Yay.

sticky high-five. [Gina laughing]

There we go. Yay.