- Hey guys, salut! My name is Alex. I'm a food geek and a cook
and I've got a YouTube channel where I make food and,
sometimes, I even make machines that make the food. So, behind me is Shake Shack. In fact, it is the original
Shake Shack location and it's also the home of the beautiful and iconic Shake Burger and that's good, 'cause my mission today is to recreate that beauty. So, it's now 8:00 a.m.,
in eight hours from now, exactly, Mark Rosati is gonna come and judge my own recreation. Wish me luck. I'm excited, but I'm also a bit nervous. Oh, here he comes, I think. I think that's him. Mark? - Ah!
- Hey, man! - Alex, how ya doing? - [Alex] I'm ready. - Welcome, man.
- Yeah. - Are you ready to go to boot camp today, burger boot camp, as we call it? (laughs) - Okay, can I?
- Yes please! I insist! (laughing) - Wow! Beef flavor! - Yes! - First of all I've got the beef flavor! I've got the caramelization,
the crispiness, I've got the juices, and
because the bun is so soft, I get the crisp from the beef. - Yes! - It's beautiful, man. - It's nice and simple,
but, again, very thoughtful. Well, we try to be, at least. - I've got a question
about the meat, okay? I'm thinking sirloin,
short rib, and the last one would be brisket. What do you think? - I like you, man, but if
I confirm or deny that, I don't think I'm gonna be working here much longer, buddy! What I love to do is
I toast the bun first, because, again, the beef
is the most important part. It's just there to do service to the beef. Smash it right on in. So, you wanna get nice, even thickness. So, I'm looking at the bottom there. We're gonna start to see a crust develop. And now you wanna take your
spatula and you wanna hold it almost 45 at a degree angle. Once you release it, you wanna come in, give it a flip. There you go, you got
some nice caramelization. American cheese, it
adds a creaminess to it. So what we have right now,
they're all the ingredients for making our Shack Sauce. The thing is, when we
give people this recipe, we wanna make it nice and easy. So, this is a shortcut and it tastes very, very, very similar to the original. - [Alex] Fair enough. - [Mark] There you go! Shack Burger! - Merci so much for all these tips. - That was fun! - There were so many tips. I need now to focus. It's now 9:30, wish me luck. - I can't wait to try it man. Best of luck. - See you then, man.
- All right. - Bye. Right, I am arriving at the test kitchen. I'm trying to compile all the information that I got this morning. I've got six hours to get this going. Six hours, let's do this. Okay, time to make some burgers, guys. In front of me, I've got three different cuts of beef. I've got brisket, I've got
sirloin, and I've got chuck. So what I'm gonna do,
first, is taste one patty from each meat, but separately before I decide on a ratio. So in order to grind the meat properly I've been keeping the
parts inside the freezer 'cause you basically want everything to be as cold as possible otherwise the fat is gonna melt. - Just for you information,
I'm not gonna smash them at the moment. I'm focusing on the taste first. So I'm gonna go with brisket first. So brisket definitely has a beefy flavor. It's lacking fat, it's lacking meltiness. I'm just gonna go for sirloin then. The beefy flavor is cleaner, on this one. Which is super enjoyable. It's making me salivate at the moment. And now chuck. I would say that chuck,
probably, has the more moisture. There is a very nice beefy flavor. It's stronger than
sirloin but it's probably less intense than brisket. I think all of these three cuts will bring something
different to the game. Now, I just need to figure
out the proportions. I'm thinking of three different ratios. The first one would be 40% chuck, 40% sirloin, and 20% brisket. Brisket being an accent within this patty. Then I'm thinking of a
cleaner version as well. 50% for sirloin, 30% for chuck, and still 20% for brisket, and for the third option,
the beefiest one of the lot, I would go 50% chuck, 30% brisket, and only 20% sirloin. That's my guess. Let's do this. So right off the bat, I know
that the fat ratio on these is not perfect yet, but I'm just looking for the right flavor at the moment. I've got three different patties
in the pan at the moment. Each one corresponding
to one different blend. I think the balanced
one is gonna be the one that I'm looking for, but the beefy one, I don't know. The beefy one could surprise me as well. I am looking for the
closest one to the patty I had at Shake Shack. I'm going for the balanced one first. So first of all, this is very good. I got the beef vibe from the chuck, I've got the moisture and
the juices from the sirloin, and I've got that you know,
brisket underlying flavor. That funky, jazzy,
brisket flavor underneath. I can't decide with just one. I need to taste all of these. So, clean one. Right, so mixed feeling about this one. Instantly I got more
juices, straight away. I would say it's slightly
disappointing on the end. Third one, the beefiness. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be very tough, 'cause this one is extremely good. It still is very juicy. All these patties taste good basically. I'm going for balance all the way. I'm gonna make a big batch of this, and then I'll figure out what to do with the smashing. I've got about one hour
and a half remaining and I still need to figure out the amount of pressure I need to put on those patties to get the right crust. I thought about a little contraption. Why not? That should help me
figure out the numbers. This is what I'm gonna do. I've got an industrial
scale right underneath. The way I'm gonna do it,
I'm gonna place my stove right on top of it, like so. This way, it's super stable. It's not going anywhere and it's maybe not the perfect set-up, but a good set up to
see how much pressure, in terms of weight, I'm
applying to the pan. Now with this in mind, I'm gonna make at least, two, three different patties at different strengths,
different pressure, and see which one has
the crust that I need. First one, I'm gonna go
light on the pressure. So my guess at the moment is that it's clearly not thin enough. So that problem I see right now is because the patty is a bit too thick. It hasn't been pressed enough. It's gonna take, maybe, too
much time to be cooked the way I want it to be cooked. So the crust might be
burned on the bottom. (grunting) I can see that the crust
is really, really dark. Almost burned at the moment. But the patty still needs a bit of cooking so I'm confused. Okay, whatever. Ooh. Next, let's apply some
serious pressure to it. Wow! That's a beautiful crust. It's not that far. Probably just a tad less pressure. All right, for the second one I think I went a little overboard. For the first one, well I
probably went under-board. If that makes sense. For this one, I need to be onboard. What do you think? Onboard, onboard for this one. When you press it, as soon as it just overflows the spatula,
I think you're good. I mean, it also depends on the size of your spatula, basically. But, you get my point. It's exciting, 'cause I'm
recreating a Shake Shack. It's an icon in the food world. Next time I'm making a patty at my place, this is the thing I'm cooking. For sure. Yeah I know the guy. I know Mark. Mark told me about the recipe. You know it's just, he's a good guy. I really want to unstick
those caramelized bits from the bottom. Oh la la. This is looking amazing, this one. Let me have a quick check. It's just right. So 18 pounds, this is the way to go. Lucky for us, this is the sweet spot, 'cause I only have 30 minutes left, and I've still got to toast
the bun, cut tomatoes, and of course, make the sauce. I'm starting to lose it. Mark is supposed to arrive. I'm almost ready but, I don't know. There's always a bit of
pressure 'til the end. I really hope it's gonna turn okay. Let's talk about sauces for a second. I think he showed me a simpler version of the real Shake Shack sauce. I've been ordering a few
extra cups of the real Shake Shack sauce. I'm gonna taste it and
see if I can sense things that I did not sense, this morning. I think it's more tangy. It has more flavor. Maybe a touch of garlic. There is a touch, a
touch of heat in there. This is very good. I could eat this all day. I'd say a cup of mayonnaise, about a cup, ketchup, Dijon, pickle juice, cayenne Just a touch of cayenne. Paprika, a pinch of garlic powder, another pinch of onion powder. Flavor-wise, I am definitely there. The sauce is too liquidy at the moment, but I've got no time, so
I'm gonna run with this. One minute before Mark comes in. I've got everything ready. I've got the pan, I've
got my instructions, and then I've got the
tomatoes already prepped. I've got the lettuce, which
is cut perfectly, cheese, sauce, and then visual
indications just for the build up. (exhaling) (knocking) I think they are here. I think Mark is here. Okay, whoa! - Hey, how's it going buddy? - Let's do this. A bit French on the butter. - Yes, yes yes. Glad I walked over here today. - [Alex] That seems about right. - Oh that looks good. Looks a little thin, but you know, as long as the flavor is there. Now that's something I didn't tell you that you picked up. See there's two sides. We always train our team
to put the dull side down so when you shut the burger, the guest sees that nice deep green, shiny side. I don't even have to tell you everything. You're gonna pick it up. Okay, I like what I'm seeing here. When you flip it, that's
what'll be the real sign. - The juices start to come out. - Yes, yes, yes. - So it's time to flip.
- Okay, let's do it. You. All right, ah! - [Alex] This is for you, man. - That looks awesome. I'm gonna give it a taste right now. It smells good, smells good. - [Alex] I stopped breathing
like two minutes ago. (laughing) - The bun is perfect. If you just said to me,
"I just cooked a burger and I want you to try it,"
I'd fall in love with this. It's a really good burger. You can see the grind
on this and everything. It's really good. The only thing I'm missing,
is a little bit of juiciness. - [Alex] You think it come from the blend? - I think maybe your fat content might be a little low on this, too. - I should have gone higher on the fat. - The textures here
are very much on point. Tomatoes are good, lettuce is good. You got those down. The bun.
- What about the bun? - Nailed the bun. - The bun is amazing.
- Nailed the bun. You know what? Something else that comes
to mind is the cheese. The cheese has a different
flavor profile too, than ours, so. Even the sauce, there's a
little higher amount of acidity in there than our sauce. The one thing I think, that was amazing, that hit me right away here, is the power of freshly-ground meat. If you did not use freshly ground meat I would have noticed. - Oh wow, why? - Well the difference is,
it loses all its flavor. Again. all the flavors
actually in the steak itself. The stuff on the outside
just doesn't have that same amount of flavor. So biting into that,
the one thing I did get, it wasn't our blend I was tasting, but I was tasting beautiful, robust meat. And, that right there again is what makes this a great burger. So if I shut my eye, it's
not Shake Shack I'm eating, but it is rich and powerful
and it's a good burger. - I'll take that. (Mark laughs) Okay thank you man, so much. - Come on, come on.
- It's good, it's good. (clapping) That's it guys. (gentle music)
