As temperatures soar, many of us will be firing up the BBQ – but top chef Jackson Boxer, whose restaurants have included Brunswick House and Orasay, says many people are making a couple of key errors
With another weekend of blistering heat approaching, Brits across the nation are dusting off their barbecues.
Renowned chef Jackson Boxer, the mastermind behind trendy eateries Brunswick House and Orasay, reckons most folk will be committing a pair of fundamental blunders.
Slathering ketchup on a burger “completely destroys” the taste, he argues, whilst particularly condemning those handy pre-cut cheese slices many of us grab during our barbecue shopping.
Cheddar should never grace a burger, he tells The Times: “It mostly tastes of emulsified butter fats. Personally I think good beef should already taste of this: rich, buttery, almost cheesy.”
Instead, he recommends Gorgonzola, the celebrated Italian relative of Stilton, boasting a tender, crumbly consistency and a taste that can prove especially bold and potent in more matured versions.
“It’s much more rewarding to add a cheese that provides a counterpoint to the beef and allows its particular qualities to come to the fore,” Jackson says. “I think that young gorgonzola, with its high sweetness and subtle piquancy, does a much more exciting job of this.”
He maintains that whilst gherkins have their role, it’s absolutely not chopped up and positioned atop the burger itself.
You should only place a gherkin “on the side, where I can see it.”
He’s equally scathing about incorporating salad into the equation: “Generally speaking I just want the bun, the cheese-blanketed patty and nothing else,” he says. The sole exception Jackson would be prepared to make, he reveals, is a slice of top-quality tomato or perhaps onion.
Whilst supermarket aisles are nowadays packed with plant-based burger alternatives, Jackson remains unconvinced by any of them: “I have had exactly one good vegetarian burger in my life, which is the one Brooks makes at Superiority Burger in New York,” he reveals.
“I believe it’s chickpeas, quinoa, alliums and spices, but I’ve never engaged too seriously in trying to replicate it.”
He clarifies that, in his view, there’s no vegan burger available that matches the taste of falafel, which he describes as “unimprovable.”
Jackson is a straightforward cooking. When he launched Brunswick House, which has evolved into a sophisticated restaurant and cocktail lounge featuring vintage furnishings and serving a menu of strikingly creative dishes, it began as little more than a sandwich shop.
“It was about a year until we got our alcohol licence,” he revealed to men’s lifestyle publication SL Man. “Once that happened, I did a simple evening menu because I only had a small oven and a hob to work with – homemade sausages and lentils, terrine and toast, grilled sardines on toast and… something else on toast!
“I think that was the full extent of the menu in those days,” he remembers, “and we charged what we could.”