Food: Mumbai chefs declare where the cheese in a burger must go

It could well be a game of spotthedifference But last week when American author Thomas Baekdal drew the worlds attention to how Googles cheeseburger emoji places the cheese under the patty as opposed to Apples where the cheese goes on top Sundar Pichai Google India CEO promised to drop everything else to find a correct way to do this That escalated quickly we thought However it prompted us to go around town and see for ourselves how the master chefs make their burgers in that where does the cheese go and more importantly whyRohit Haryani trying the cheeseburgers both ways at Three Chicks And A Bear in Lower Parel PicBipin KokateIs there a burger Bible that tells you how to do it An obvious way to seek answers was to try the same burger both ways And so we did When Rohit Haryani who runs the popular food blog The Hungry Mumbaikar placed an order for two Italian tomato mozzarella burgers mdash one with cheese above the patty and the other below mdash at Lower Parels sought after burger place Three Chicks And A Bear the restaurant was initially hesitant to go against their recipeIt took a bit of persuasion They place their cheese on top usually While the chicken patty is in the grill the cheese is placed over it so that it slowly starts melting By the time the burger is served the patty is juicy and the burger slightly messy with the cheese having percolated through Thats what lends to the overall taste and flavour hetells usThe Double Cheese Tenderloin burger at Woodside Inn Lower Parel PicDatta KumbharSince the cheese is added in the grill when asked to reverse the order they simply flipped the patty They put the cheese on the patty and flipped it before putting it in the burger So this time the cheese was underneath and it was placed on the lettuce which is the last layer in the burger Because the cheese was in close contact with the bread the bun turned soggy quickly and the burger disintegrated The lettuce saves the day to an extent but the cheese crumbles under the weight of the patty he explains Overall he did not find the taste very different But the sloppy texture took away from the crispiness of the previous versionIs there a formulaIts more logic really explains Nikhil Abhyankar head chef at Woodside Inn whose gourmet burgers have many takers If you place the cheese on top no matter how many layers the burger has it will percolate through the burger and enhance its flavour The key ingredient of any burger is the patty and the cheese makes it better Also especially in the case of takeaways you cannot have the cheese underneath that will make the burger soggy by the time it reaches the customer10oz Cheeseburger at Between Breads Khar PicNimesh DaveSahil Rohira who runs Khars Between Breads admits to being completely new to idea of the cheese under the patty Placing the cheese in a burger is instinctive I feel We usually make a double cheeseburger so the slices are placed above and below the patty alternated with onion rings I want to try the new way just for curiosityChef Cyrus Irani of Hard Rock Cafeacute seems to differ If the cheese is placed below the patty with onion and pickle in the middle there is a layer of insulation so that helps retains the crunchiness of the patty The cheese therefore acts as a binding agent and the burger does not slipChef Nikhil Abhyankar Woodside Inn and Chef Cyrus Irani Hard Rock CafeHowever in the burgers that he makes the cheese is on top Irani explains why We dont season the patty inside out because the meat has a shelflife of two days and salt tends to break the protein content making the patty mushy The cheese therefore goes on top to give you the salt hit at the first bite If we had put it under the patty the burger would seem underseasonedBeef over cheeseWhile the US seems to take its cheese rather seriously chefs closer home are amused Whoever approved that wrong emoticon years ago should take his job more seriously now jokes Abhyankar its interesting how it went unnoticed until now Rohira adds Emoticons are such a massive part of communication now I think its great that Google is being a sport and addressing the subject Attention to detail has earned a whole new meaning