Chef Jae Lee makes the best cheeseburger in New York City in his kitchen at Nowon in the East Village. We hate to break it to you, but you have about zero chance of replicating it at home—here’s why.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 [chill music]
00:01 My name is Jay Lee, chef and owner of No One,
00:03 and this is our legendary cheeseburger.
00:05 This is everything that I did in our restaurant kitchen
00:09 that you can't replicate at home.
00:11 We can't talk burgers unless we talk beef.
00:18 In the streets, beef is a bad thing.
00:24 In the restaurant, beef is a great thing.
00:26 We make a thousand burgers a week,
00:27 thousand burgers a week,
00:29 and this is how we get the meat.
00:30 The blend of chuck, round, and sirloin,
00:33 75 to 25, meat to fat.
00:36 You can't order beef like this for your home,
00:39 but for the restaurant, we can.
00:41 We have a good relationship with our meat distributor.
00:43 They made a blend specific to our needs.
00:46 Every patty weighs the same, it's pre-portioned,
00:49 and it's easy to separate when an order comes in.
00:52 We need consistency, efficiency, and delicious,
00:56 and delicious-y.
00:58 This blend, specific for us at this size,
01:01 packaged like this, you won't be able to find.
01:04 Our burger at the restaurant, No One,
01:06 is a double cheeseburger.
01:08 Realistically, when order comes in,
01:10 we're cooking like eight orders at a time,
01:13 and most home cooks don't have a flat top
01:16 or a griddle like this.
01:17 This is what makes Smashburgers work in restaurants
01:20 because you need consistent heat and the surface area
01:23 so you can cook a lot of patties at once.
01:25 Most home cooks won't have this at home.
01:27 If you're a home cook and you wanna create
01:29 a double cheeseburger, you can't probably cook more
01:31 than one double cheeseburger at a time,
01:33 maybe two at most.
01:35 So order comes in, boom, two burgers are right here.
01:38 This one's a little broken, that's fine.
01:40 Look, I wanna just smash it up a little bit.
01:42 We're gonna smash it anyway.
01:44 Press it using the burger press.
01:46 We use this on every patty that hits the griddle.
01:48 Smash and get that Maillard reaction,
01:51 creating that beefy flavor in the burger.
01:53 Now the second part of the beef is the seasoning.
01:55 We make a custom blend to amplify the umami flavor.
01:59 I can't tell you what's exactly in it.
02:01 It's a trade secret.
02:02 When you're cooking a burger at home
02:03 and you use your fingers, it'll clump up,
02:05 it won't season evenly.
02:07 We put it into the shakers.
02:08 It ensures that we season our burger patty all the same
02:12 and it goes out consistently to all our guests.
02:16 When you see the meat juices rise up to the top,
02:17 it's ready to be flipped.
02:19 Let's talk cheese.
02:23 [upbeat music]
02:26 My favorite cheese on a burger is American cheese.
02:30 In our case, cheese is important
02:32 because not only will it add flavor,
02:34 but it will bind the two patties of beef together.
02:37 It's the only glue that you should be proud of eating.
02:39 When you were a kid, did you eat Elmer's glue?
02:41 I bet you did.
02:42 That's nasty.
02:43 But this glue, natural glue,
02:46 to hold the two patties together, that's what we want.
02:48 Goes on.
02:50 We have a dome lid here.
02:51 We use this to steam and melt the cheese
02:54 on every order of burger that we cook in the restaurant.
02:56 Add some water in there, steam,
02:58 and it won't dry out the cheese either.
03:00 The steam just keeps everything moist.
03:03 Remember the patty that was kind of broken?
03:05 I used the natural glue cheese.
03:07 You can't even tell.
03:08 You rest steaks after you cook them.
03:10 You should also rest burgers when you cook them.
03:13 When you bite into a burger and the juices just all flow out,
03:16 it means it wasn't rested enough.
03:19 [upbeat music]
03:22 Let's get that, stack the bread up, right?
03:26 We use sesame seeded milk buns,
03:29 an Asian style bread that was shaped like a burger bun.
03:33 And we get this made at a local bakery here in New York City.
03:37 They just made this for us.
03:38 They researched, they developed this recipe,
03:41 and I told them that's the spec that I want.
03:43 I don't expect you to be able to find a bread
03:45 specifically like this, but that's okay.
03:47 I prefer a sesame seeded bun, not brioche.
03:50 No hate to brioche buns, right?
03:52 It's a preference thing.
03:54 And actually I hate brioche buns.
03:55 Put that in there.
03:56 I hate it.
03:57 The richness of the brioche bun
03:58 throws the burger balance off to me.
04:00 If I want a burger, I want the bread to taste
04:03 pretty neutral, fresh, and not overpower
04:05 what the burger's supposed to taste like.
04:07 Very soft, fresh, tastes like an Asian bread.
04:13 Sesame seeds are very nutty and savory.
04:16 Visually, it's a natural connection
04:18 of my favorite burger that I ate growing up,
04:20 a Big Mac burger.
04:22 But not only does Big Mac have sesame seeds,
04:24 Korean cuisine is saturated with sesame seeds.
04:28 So visually, there's that connection.
04:29 There's that bridge to my heritage.
04:31 So we use this butter wheel for our burger buns.
04:35 This is my hand motion.
04:37 And you're evenly buttering the buns to order,
04:39 and it's very efficient, consistent, and fast.
04:41 You might be asking, "Okay, why are you toasting
04:43 "the milk bun?"
04:44 I thought you didn't want butteriness in the burger.
04:48 The butter will enhance the flavor of the milk bun
04:50 without changing what the milk bun is.
04:53 And number two, it'll toast and kind of give
04:55 structural support on the top and the bottom bun.
04:57 Now I'm gonna press it down gently.
04:59 It's the same thing as getting the proper sear
05:01 on the patty.
05:02 You also want proper toast on the bread,
05:04 and we do that by just pressing it down gently.
05:07 It's ready.
05:08 My fingers are burning.
05:12 All right, I'm gonna be a DJ right now.
05:13 You ready?
05:14 [upbeat music]
05:17 Very crispy.
05:18 We make thousands of these every week.
05:19 And every time I eat a burger, I think,
05:21 "Okay, what can we do a little better?
05:23 "A little better."
05:24 The bottom part of our bun was getting a little wet.
05:26 So I'm like, "All right, let's toast the buns.
05:28 "Give it some support."
05:29 We'll toast off the buns first,
05:31 set the buns on the cutting board.
05:33 And while that's resting, we have one cook
05:36 that's putting the toppings on.
05:37 [upbeat music]
05:40 Toppings add character to a burger.
05:42 It adds flavor.
05:43 It adds balance.
05:44 As a Korean chef, pickles is one of the toppings
05:47 that I truly appreciate.
05:49 Without the pickles, the first bite might be delicious,
05:52 but the second and third might be overly rich.
05:54 So the pickle is there as a topping to help combat that.
05:58 And it starts with these English cucumbers.
06:00 We wanted to keep things very simple.
06:02 A pickle that's more vinegary, a little punchy,
06:05 to combat the richness of the beef.
06:06 I won't be able to find pickles
06:08 that taste exactly like this,
06:09 because every pickle's ratio is slightly different.
06:11 We cut them pretty thick,
06:12 and we make sure that they're even.
06:14 And we use a Japanese mandolin to do so.
06:16 Consistency is what separates restaurant food
06:20 with home food.
06:20 We make 30 pounds of this a week.
06:23 And when we make things in-house,
06:24 we also control the cost of our food.
06:27 Pickles, three main things, vinegar, sugar, salt,
06:32 and then add spices.
06:33 We have crushed red chili flakes,
06:35 and then we have garlic.
06:37 That's your customized recipe.
06:39 This is a very small batch we're making.
06:40 Normally it's two large pots to make the liquid.
06:43 We make a big batch at the restaurant, twice a week.
06:46 These pickles are made days in advance.
06:48 You want the flavor of the picking liquid
06:50 to penetrate the cucumbers,
06:52 and that doesn't happen in one hour or two hours.
06:55 That happens in a matter of 24 to 48 hours.
06:58 I love a good backyard burger.
06:59 Mustard, ketchup, American cheese, love that.
07:02 What's gonna separate my burger from the rest?
07:04 I gotta flex my Korean heritage.
07:06 In Korean cuisine, you'll always find kimchi
07:09 eaten with meat.
07:10 And to me, when I look at a burger, it's a meat dish.
07:13 So I'm like, all right, (beep) it.
07:15 All right, can I curse on this?
07:16 I said, (beep) it.
07:17 Let's put a kimchi, special sauce, roasted kimchi.
07:20 It's like a Korean barbecue inspired slash Big Mac.
07:24 Can I say Big Mac?
07:25 I don't know if that trademark.
07:26 Put it together, and here it is, legendary.
07:29 We're gonna put on the stove is kimchi paste.
07:31 This is something that my mother taught me years ago.
07:34 Beef is rich, it's fatty,
07:37 and you want something to help cut through the richness.
07:39 To me, as a Korean chef,
07:41 we need kimchi when we eat grilled meats,
07:43 and that's the reason.
07:45 Damn, I'm giving away my family secrets here.
07:48 I'm gonna start putting stuff in here.
07:49 Garlic, I don't feel that.
07:51 I got a guy that feels that.
07:53 Korean chili flakes, fish sauce, white onion.
07:57 Just cut this down a little bit.
07:59 And this is ginger here.
08:00 But I'm just gonna cut it down so it blends easier.
08:05 Sugar, we're gonna blend it.
08:07 Wow, that smells amazing.
08:14 If you're Korean, you know what I'm talking about.
08:16 You smell this, you think of your childhood.
08:19 My God, this is the best one I made in a long time.
08:22 To that, we're gonna add scallion.
08:24 Even when we cut the ingredients,
08:29 there's technique involved.
08:30 You're not gonna cut this much daikon at home,
08:32 and neither are you gonna cut it this fast,
08:33 but it comes with years of experience.
08:35 Kimchi can be made with a lot of ingredients.
08:37 We're gonna make ours with Napa cabbage.
08:39 We do 80 pounds of this a week, salted overnight.
08:42 Kimchi is a very interesting thing.
08:44 You don't see it in burgers.
08:46 You just see it as a side dish in Korean cuisine.
08:48 Kimchi is perfect for a burger.
08:50 Will help balance out the rich patties,
08:52 the rich beef flavor.
08:53 That is sexy, that is beautiful.
08:57 Look at that.
08:58 My God, I gotta get a taste.
09:05 Whoa, oh my God.
09:07 That's a little spicy.
09:09 All right, we made the kimchi.
09:12 Now here's the sauce.
09:13 For me personally, I love sauce.
09:15 Everyone could be using similar types of beef.
09:18 Everyone could be using similar types of pickles,
09:20 similar type of bun, but sauce, that's the sauce.
09:25 Literally, sauce is the sauce.
09:27 It's a flavor bomb when I tell you.
09:29 It's a trade secret, so I can't tell you
09:31 all the ingredients that are in it,
09:32 but there's fresh kimchi, sesame oil, Kewpie mayo.
09:35 You might be able to make something like that,
09:37 but it won't taste anything like this.
09:39 Martial artists say you have to do something
09:41 thousands of times to become an expert,
09:44 and this sauce was developed by making
09:46 thousand burgers a week for the last four years,
09:50 and we're constantly tweaking very little by little.
09:53 The kimchi we made earlier, here's the batch,
09:56 aged one week, and we chopped them up, all right?
09:59 Now we're gonna saute this.
10:00 In a hot pan, we're adding homemade roasted scallion oil.
10:04 You don't have that at home.
10:07 We're gonna start off with some garlic.
10:08 So roasting the kimchi is a very Korean thing.
10:15 Roasting kimchi and the rendered pork fat
10:17 right on that skillet in the center of the table,
10:20 that's a vibe, right?
10:21 So in this pan here, we have roasted scallion oil
10:24 that's very savory.
10:26 Then we have garlic, roasted, aromatic flavor.
10:29 Then we add the kimchi.
10:30 You're cooking out the cabbage that's been salted,
10:32 and there's a little sugar in there for a little sweetness,
10:34 so it'll start to caramelize,
10:35 and you can tell by the color that that's already changing.
10:38 We're gonna add a touch of sesame oil to finish,
10:42 and if you could smell this right now.
10:44 Oh my God.
10:46 I'm gonna have the camera crew smell this.
10:50 It's a free gift.
10:51 This aroma's free.
10:52 Whoa.
10:59 I love my job, but I don't have to add a lot to the burger
11:02 'cause I don't want it to overpower the burger.
11:04 All you need is a little bit to balance out the burger,
11:07 balance out the rich beef, balance out the cheese.
11:10 It's in the bin.
11:11 It's ready for service.
11:13 Let's go.
11:15 First thing is sauce.
11:20 I love saucing both sides.
11:23 As you bite into the burger,
11:25 you want flavor to hit you from the top of your palate
11:27 to the bottom of your palate.
11:28 Pickles, we're gonna add to the top bun
11:30 because when you're biting onto the burger,
11:32 the first thing you're gonna bite into and taste
11:35 is probably gonna be the pickle.
11:36 So it's like a jab to the face.
11:37 Then you get all the deep beef flavor,
11:39 followed by the kimchi,
11:40 and it works in this kind of like wave of flavors.
11:44 It's a flavor journey.
11:45 On the bottom bun, we're gonna go fresh onion.
11:47 Not only is it a nostalgic factor,
11:49 it actually cuts through the richness
11:50 of the beef and the cheese.
11:51 Remember the kimchi we roasted earlier?
11:53 Now this is gonna go on the bottom part of the burger.
11:55 Most people don't know that the kimchi is there.
11:57 It's hiding underneath the patties.
11:59 When you bite into the burger and you go, wait a minute,
12:02 there's something in there
12:04 that's bringing even more flavor to the burger,
12:07 and you're not quite sure what it is.
12:09 And that's the hidden secret of the burger.
12:11 It hits you last,
12:12 and it keeps the burger interesting as you eat it.
12:15 It's a sight.
12:15 That's a sight right there.
12:17 And when you look at this,
12:19 you cannot deny that this is a very well-balanced burger.
12:24 The perfect architectural design.
12:27 It's a heavy burger, guys.
12:29 This is a burger you cannot replicate at home.
12:31 However, it's something
12:32 that you can always look at and admire.
12:35 All right, I'm going in.
12:36 Whoa.
12:44 This burger is the beginning and the end.
12:49 This is the last bite that I want before I leave Earth.
12:53 I am so proud of this burger.
12:57 This is the legendary burger from no one,
13:00 and you can't make this at home.
13:01 (upbeat music)
13:04 (upbeat music)