Hamburger expert brings regional favorites to New York City restaurant

this morning on the dish we meet up with George Moz at hamburger America Moes has dedicated much of his adult life to studying the burger he shared his research in a documentary film and a series of books but six months ago Moz made the jump from Professor to professional when he opened hamburger America here in New York City our own Brook Silva bragga is here to give us the burger breakdown you are a very lucky man it was a tasty assignment hamburger America has quickly won rave reviews and lots of loyal fans for its Museum level obsession with historically accurate Hamburgers on this weekend when so many patties will be cooked George Moes wants us to know how it was first done okay so it starts as a ball ball beef with 3 oz of ground chuck and the smash a very firm press of a spatula you're really smashing down here yeah and heaps of onions wow actually in Oklahoma they use moreor Moes is reintroducing America to the Burger the way it was first made more than a century ago so what do we have here so you have the fried onion burger m i mean there's onion there but it's not like overwhelming onion mhm the idea of hamburger America was not just to make a burger that I thought would be great cuz I there will be plenty other Burgers I think that would be as good as this but I wanted to make sure people were eating what I like to call primary source hamburgers and at somech lettuce no tomato nope avocado avocado bacon no no truffle [Music] oils at hamburger America Moes revives both a recipe and an atmosphere taken from another place and time there's the front-facing griddle the classic but not quite kitchy decor and walls and walls of hamburger history Andrew Zim wants tell me that you know food is great but food with the story is even better and this is the literally the story of hamburger America is based on a real culinary hamburger history in America Moes is widely regarded as America's number one hamburger historian in the Great American Burger book he traces its ancestry to 13th century Mongolians gnawing on Raw mutton flattened beneath their saddle then to Russians chomping minced beef called tartar in the 19th century Germans brought a cooked version to America but it was at some serendipitous state fair just before the start of the 20th century where Moes believes the burger was truly born my theory is that at some point the hot dog which predates the hamburger by by about 10 years probably walked by a vendor and was the vendor was like hey why isn't the Hamburg steak portable a filmmaker and cameraman by trade Moes stumbled into the role of burger scholar while traveling for work I would be on a job and then say hey guys I got rented a car I'm going to go eat some burgers for me it was a personal exploration of some of these Regional styles that I I just personally couldn't believe myself you like the like the deep fried burger from Memphis I was like really if you are watching your health at all I would recommend going next door Moz captured the quirky variety of regional Burger culture in his 20 4 documentary also called hamburger America cheeseburg cheeseburg cheeseburg cheeseburg cheeseburg cheeseburg holding up as beacons of American Ingenuity green chili cheeseburgers that's what we're known for such Curiosities as hamburgers that had been steamed in many of people's opinion it's a healthier way to go slathered in peanut butter you know it's nothing like it or just lots of plain old butter good food would be made with a lot of love and a lot of butter and that's our slogan at s's grow when you walk in a restaurant you can feel like the love and the attention and the passion yeah um in in a burger place you can feel it right away it's it's palpable moates drove us over to one of his favorites white Mana in hackin sack New Jersey it's like a time capsule it is a time capsule yeah you want why isn't there one of these in every town Making burgers this way I wish there were at one point there was Moes says the name white Mana is no coincidence many old Burger shops put either white or Castle in their names to appear similar to White Castle which Moes credits with rescuing the Burger's baguer reputation after Upton Sinclair's expose the jungle gave meat a bad rap what you're looking at is the original White Castle ham small balls onions cooked together then a small griddle oh beautiful thank you Moots both his burger and his counter after white mana and you've signed up to be right there at the grill absolutely I absolutely love working on the grill I I consider it to be one of the greatest jobs I've ever had but each month Moes plans to share the Glen fever from with what he calls one of his hamburger Heroes what's a butter burger a butter burger is a burger with butter on it okay okay I got that part first up the butterburger from s's grill outside Milwaukee we take a little butter here a little Glenn feber is the proud Steward of the Hardy recipe pioneered by his stepfather in 1936 now here look at the look at the smile on his face it's so damn rich I love it when they go like this oh my God one of moz's first realizations in his travels was how rare great burger joints are how many of them fail how hard they are to run people would say to me you know for years they've said oh you should definitely open a restaurant I said no I definitely shouldn't I think only fools open restaurants unless you're a sist you really you really want to beat yourself up over it I don't know why it never open a restaurant but in the end George Moz just couldn't resist serving up the food and the story he's been consumed by most of his life there you go so good I mean so good yeah you couldn't wait I see right in but hold on no ketchup no tomato no lettuce allowed Jeff it required investors to convince him to allow french fries on the menu W he was like there shouldn't be french fries originally no fries they're like come on fries make a lot of money we have to fries no turkey burger no salmon burger no but he does do a burger special once a month yes so he already has he told me the next three years lined up every month a different burger from around the country is going to come in nice add to the but no these are as he says primary source hamburgers if you want to know what it tasted like at Oklahoma State Fair in 1910 here we are that's it good stuff Brooke thank you and thanks for bringing them in the dish is sponsored by oceanana cruises your world your way

Channel: CBS News

Views: 86,789

Keywords: CBS Evening News, news, video, george motz, burgers, hamburger america, chef

Id: QfdRAMT0_wI

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2024