‘This could get me in trouble’: Michelin chef comes up with controversial alternative to barbecuing burgers

David Chang suggests that grilling burgers on the barbie turns them into ‘carbonised crap’

Michelin-starred chef David Chang has poured cold water on the idea that grilling burgers on a barbecue is the optimum way to cook them.

The founder of Momofuku Ko, which has two Michelin stars, said that barbecuing patties only serves to turn them into “carbonised crap”, but people keep cooking them like this because of the socialising that is associated with cooking outdoors.

On his podcast The Dave Chang Show, the controversial chef suggested that using a griddle to cook burgers is a superior method.

Chang, 45, said: “Grills suck for burgers. We have assumed as a culture that in summer, we eat a burger and it’s grilled.

“I actually think the grill is a horrible thing for the burger… I think this viewpoint could get me in trouble,” he admitted, but pressed on with his argument against the grill.

“The success rate of the griddle is better than the grill, and also there’s no clean up, you have nothing to worry about.”

The Korean-American restaurateur continued: “A juicy burger is going to turn into a guaranteed grease fire [on a barbecue], why use it? This whole idea of imparting flavour from the grill, the only flavour that’s being imparted is the carbonised crap that’s on it.

“You would need to cook a burger over charcoal for 12 hours to get that smoky flavour.

“A backyard burger is an experience that you try to convince yourself is better than it actually is,” he claimed. “It’s the nostalgia, it’s the smells, it’s your friends. But if you actually take it out of the context, it’s not that good.”

Chang went on to allege that the close relationship between burgers and grills “is a marketing lie”.

“How many places where you think have a good burger, cook it on a grill?” he challenged.

Chef/Owner David Chang hosts the Ugly Delicious dinner party at his first west coast restaurant Majordomo on February 22, 2018 (Getty Images for Netflix)

However, he did have some praise for barbecued foods. Chang said that grilling corn was “clearly the only champion” and he “can’t think of anything else” that makes corn taste quite as good.

Chang has previously shared his opinions on burgers that landed him in trouble. In 2015, he provoked the ire of Australians when he wrote in his blog Lucky Peach: “You know who f***s up burgers more than anyone else in the world. Australians. Australia has no idea what a burger is.

Bud & Burger judges, rugby player Perry Baker, singer Thomas Rhett, and chef David Chang attend the 2016 Budweiser Made in America Festival - Day 2 at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 4, 2016 (Getty Images for Anheuser-Busch)

“They put a fried egg on their burger. They put canned beetroot on it, like a wedge of it. I am not joking you. This is how they eat their burger.”

He also laid waste to the use of wagyu – beef that comes from cattle that is bred in Japan and is highly prized for its marbled fat content – in burgers. In his “burger manifesto”, Chang wrote that it was “the dumbest burger in the world” to use wagyu.

“It’s like 70 per cent fat content – it’s disgusting. Would you eat a ground bacon burger? That’s what you’re doing with a wagyu burger,” he said. “Or the idiots that have ‘kobe beef wagyu sliders with a trio of ketchup’ on their menu – that drives me insane.”

David Chang presents a recipe during the gastronomic fair "Madrid Fusion" on January 21, 2009 (AFP via Getty Images)

The chef is also known for speaking candidly about his toxic behaviour while working in kitchens in the past. In his 2020 memoir Eat a Peach, Chang wrote: “When I’m angry, I seethe with such intensity that it can’t simply be emotional. It’s like I’m an animal registering danger.”

Hannah Selinger, an award-nominated journalist, wrote in her essay for Eater that “in all my years of restaurant work, I had never seen anything like the roiling, red-faced, screaming, pulsing, wrath-filled man that was David Chang”.

She worked as corporate beverage manager at the Momofuku restaurant group in 2008.

Chang responded to Selinger’s essay and said that while he didn’t recall specific incidents mentioned by her, “they are entirely consistent with my behaviour at the time, which I did not begin to correct until several years later”. He added that “the bottom line is that I’m sorry”.

Apart from his podcast, Chang also hosted Netflix’s travel and food series Ugly Delicious from 2018 to 2020. The show aired two series and featured celebrity guests including Jimmy Kimmel and Nick Kroll.