I’ve always felt guilty when eating a Monto Crisco sandwich. It’s distinctive taste of boiled ham and cheese on a crispy battered bread. There’s something magical yet completely stupid about it. It’s what you eat when you want it all. Fried, sweet, savory, filling and something that forces you to take a long nap in the middle of the day.

It has the ability to make me romanticize about how it came into existence. I picture a young fellow (no older than 7 years old) deciding to make a French sandwich while Mommy was out after watching the Three Musketeers movie. He likes ham, he likes cheese and he likes French Toast. He thinks to himself “If I stuff the ham and cheese inside of the French toast is it not still French, oui?” He then sprinkles powdered sugar on top of it. Why? Duh, because he’s 7. He then pours maple syrup on top of it. Why? Because Maple syrup is the shit! 80 years later people are still eating a sandwich invented by a 7-year-old

A sandwich that I love to hate but sometimes I have an irresistible craving for.

 Some say Monte Crisco is a variation of the French croquet Monsieur sandwich I say that it’s a bastardized yummy version of it.

The gourmet burger phenomenon has always been interesting to me. advertisements showing that bigger equals better or grass-fed equals quality can sometimes confuse people and make them wonder what all the big fuss is about. Over the years I’ve cooked burgers using different kinds of meats from fatty to grain fed to grass fed to bison and everything in between. For this dish, I decided to step back a bit and focus on texture.

This forced me to focused on each on each ingredient involved. From the bread to the meat used as well as the toppings and condiments. I was going for feels. What works and how can I make a texture work for me. Off the bat, I I hate eating a big bun just for the sake of it. I feel that If the bun is big it should be extremely soft so that it can not only compliment the condiments and cheese but also compliment the melted fat from the meat.

I decided to approach making this burger the same way that I approach creating any serious dish. Melding flavors and textures together that make sense. And it’s going to always depend on the flavors that you like.

THE FINAL DISH

Ground Lamb and Grass-fed beef burger with Columbo curry mayo topped with Maitake (hen of the woods) mushroom and covered with Truffelino (black truffle cheese) on a chewy pretzel bun Tator tots with crispy basil and Parmesan cheese and a side of spicy chipotle smoked ketchup

Grass-fed meat is excellent but you have to know how to cook it. If you overcook grass fed beef it ruins the texture and becomes rubbery. More so than corn-fed ground beef. This defeats the purpose of buying grass-fed beef because you won’t get the full flavor. Grass-fed beef tends to be softer than grain fed beef and in my opinion, has a meatier flavor. It also is easier to digest than 100% corn-fed beef. Has more omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid (your heart will like this type of fat. Trust me), more vitamins and last but not least. Cows naturally eat grass so when you’re eating grass-fed beef you’re eating beef from a cattle on their natural diet. Please do not get fooled by the term pasture raised. Anything can grow in a pasture and that doesn’t necessarily mean that the cows in that pasture eat grass. Also, please don’t put six slices of cheese on a grass-fed burger and call it a heart-healthy grass-fed burger. That’s not a burger. That’s a grilled cheese with meat.