The simple hamburger is a grand opportunity for any chef to don their mad scientist lab coat and get as creative as possible. Read a description of a burger in many restaurants, and you are likely to find exotic toppings, multiple proteins or consumer-friendly buzzwords. Or a tarantula. Yes, a North Carolina restaurant offered a hamburger earlier this year that was topped with an oven-roasted spider. An arachno-burger may be pushing the boundaries a bit, but there are many ways that restaurants and processors can make their burger stand out.
David “Rev” Ciancio, director of industry insights at Yext, says that consumer expectations have evolved and grown around the quality and the sourcing of the product. Ciancio is a marketing strategist with an expertise in burgers, and he is the founder of New York Burger Week. He cautions that there is a disconnect between the consumer’s awareness of buzzwords and their importance.