Why Bobby Flay Prefers A Flat Surface When Cooking Burgers

If there's one thing celebrity chef Bobby Flay has tips about, it's everything. We've slowly stirred his crème fraîche-enhanced scrambled eggs, added unexpected ingredients to his not-so-classic guacamole, and even skipped his least-liked fish in restaurants. That's already all on a declining scale of effort, and one burger-making method he shared in a Food Network video might be the easiest Bobby-fication yet: Cooking the patties on a flat surface.

"It's cool to have a grilled burger, for sure," Flay says in the tutorial. "But, you know, when the burger cooks on the grill, it gets nice and charred, but then the juices drop through the grates. The thing I like about this, and you'll see in a second," he says, referring to the flat top grill in his studio kitchen, "is when the burgers are cooking, it basically cooks in its own juices. So it releases the fat, it releases the juices, and it keeps it really nice and moist."

Indeed, on the flat top, those juices can run a little, but they cannot hide. Being that many home ovens are absent flat top cooking surfaces, Flay says that any heavy pan, like a cast iron, will also be effective. He also takes a few more everyday measures to lock in that flavorful liquid for overall success.

Bobby Flay prefers the ideal 80% lean to 20% fat ground beef ratio for full flavor without descending into greasiness. He is careful to avoid making the mistake of overmixing the hamburger meat and to gently form it into patties to stave off toughness. Flay also presses a nice little dimple into the top of each patty. In this case, this isn't to incorporate a little bit of butter for moisture insurance, but rather to eliminate the temptation to smoosh the burgers as they cook. Patties will always plump up a bit over the heat, and many home cooks will naturally want to press them back down. The dimple helps stop them from puffing up to begin with, preventing the desire to press out those tasty juices in the process.

The TV host also recommends covering the exterior with what might seem like too much salt and pepper; copious seasoning being one reason why burgers often taste better in restaurants. And finally, he leaves it all alone on the flat canola oil-greased metal. Rather than the stereotypical dad-at-the-grill incessantly flipping burgers, Flay leaves the patties long enough for them to sear on one side before tending to the other. Another hands-off path to burger patty perfection.