Gordon Ramsay is best known for things like overseeing a culinary empire of more than 80 restaurants across the globe, his eight Michelin stars, and a fiery on-screen temper on shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “MasterChef.” But what no one really talks about is his butter obsession. It seems to be one of the go-to ingredients he reaches for to boost flavor and add moisture to a long list of dishes. For instance, when making chicken Parmesan, Ramsay tosses butter into his frying oil to give the dish rich nuttiness and to help create the perfect crust.
The most obvious place to see Ramsay’s love of butter is when he makes burgers. He’s no slouch in this area. He owns two different burger chains — Gordon Ramsay Burger and Street Burger — with more than a dozen locations worldwide. But when cooking the perfect burger at home, Ramsay uses an entire stick of butter for a single beef patty in the frying pan. You heard that right. After searing one side of the patty, he flips it over, adds the whopping amount of butter and then uses it to baste the burger as it cooks. The Scottish-born celebrity chef has a method to this seeming madness.
Gordon Ramsay’s better burgers through butter
Wirestock/Getty Images
The reason Gordon Ramsay uses so much butter when cooking his ideal burger involves adding flavor and unctuousness. As the meat cooks, the butter seeps into the meat for a richer finished product. There’s another reason for basting the meat with so much butter. “The fat caramelizes on top of the burger, so the flavor layer is beautiful,” Ramsay told Sean Evans on the “Hot Ones” talk show. Basting your burgers in a ton of butter is probably one of Ramsay’s cooking tips you’ll actually use.
That’s not the only way Ramsay uses butter when making his burgers. Not by a long shot. If you prefer grilling your burger, Ramsay offers two ways to infuse butter into the meat. He suggests grating frozen butter into the raw meat mixture, which does the same thing as basting, but from the inside out. Or you can brush butter on the raw patties before tossing them on the grill with regular butter or a homemade red wine butter or chipotle butter for even more flavor. Still, when Ramsay cooks at home, his ideal burger mainly requires a whole lot of butter to make it perfect.
