See This Insane Burger? Meet The Chefs Who Connected On Facebook, Then Created It.
At Hilton Head, South Carolina's Charbar, chef Charles Pejeau crafts condiments and toppings for gourmet burgers using local ingredients. Since opening, Pejeau, along with owner Nick Bergelt and their culinary team, have won virtually every regional "Best Burger" award under the sun — and were featured in Southern Living's "Best of the South" list. Pejeau honed his culinary skills at prestigious restaurants in South Florida, Robert Irvine's E.A.T. in Hilton Head Island and the renowned Inn at Palmetto Bluff, which was ranked No. 1 in the United States during his tenure. So naturally, Pejeau's grilling up one of the best burgers you've had in your life.
Bergelt, at the forefront of the restaurant tech wave, was the first on the East Coast (and one of only two in the country along with Umami Burger) to pilot and adopt the advanced digital ordering system, Presto. Together, these guys have created a burger juggernaut we can only hope will find its way into more cities.
Neck-deep into Grilling Month, I sat down with Pejeau and Bergelt to talk about why their burgers are so famous, and about the friendship that started it all. Facebook food porn was involved. Isn't technology great?
How did you two meet?
Pejeau: We went to elementary school together in South Carolina. I lived in Florida for some years, went to culinary school and worked there, then moved back here and worked at Palmetto Bluff.
Bergelt: A picture of a burger came across my Facebook one day and reconnected us after about 12 years. The rest is history.
What?
Bergelt: One day I was cruising Facebook and saw this awesome picture of a burger stacked with crispy fried onion straws and barbecue sauce on a toasted bun — I'll never forget it — on my news feed. I turned to my fiancée and said look at this, I haven't talked to Charles in forever. His birthday was coming up so I reached out to him, and that photo was completely what prompted it. Nobody else would put together a burger so perfect. I was like, this has got to be it. I said hey, we should talk about this, we've both got a passion for burgers.
Let's do some burger passion word association: grilled pineapple
Pejeau: Tasty.
Bergelt: Awesome.
Pizza burger
Pejeau: Done that. I'd put it in the top 5 burgers we've ever had on the menu.
Turkey burger
Pejeau: Haven't done that.
Bergelt: Healthy alternative?
Pejeau: We've been meaning to, I always want to do one with an awesome cranberry chutney and zucchini buns around Thanksgiving and we get so busy it gets to be December 1 and we've missed the window. This year, though.
Peanut butter
Pejeau: Delicious on a burger, but we haven't done it.
What's in your grill kit?
Pejeau: Sturdy spatula, charcoal chimney and natural hardwood charcoal — it burns hotter and cleaner. That's all you need. Oh, and a burger patty.
What is your go-to burger blend, if you're able to divulge?
Pejeau: I can't say percentages, but chuck sirloin all the way.
Any expert tips for buying burger meat?
Pejeau: If you have the capabilities, grind it yourself. A lot of people have KitchenAid mixers; the grinder attachment is about $40. We have a hand-cranked one at Charbar.
Bergelt: It's a workout.
Pejeau: The hand ones are actually pretty good, but the biggest thing is ratio, fat to beef — it's gotta be at least 80/20.
What are your thoughts on grass-fed beef for burgers?
Bergelt: Too lean.
Pejeau: Sometimes it has a funky flavor too, a gaminess that doesn't really work.
What are your tips for making burgers at home?
Pejeau: High heat is key, whether you're grilling or cooking inside. And good ventilation is important or you'll smoke up your house. Don't be afraid to crank that stove really high. You want some smoke coming off the pan because when that burger hits, it'll cool the pan down and you want to make sure you maintain it to get a good crust.
If you were to eat the last burger of your life, what would be on it?
Bergelt: We actually talk about this this all the time. We've got a top 10 list.
Pejeau: American cheese or pimento, either.
Bergelt: Mine would be pork belly, pimento cheese and a little jalapeño jelly.
Pejeau: Yeah, you've gotta have something spicy on there.
Did burgers influence your culinary development or the other way around?
Pejeau: Definitely. It's a fun thing for a chef to do — I came up in fine dining, so you're cooking all this really nice food all the time and every place you work of course has a burger on the menu (whether it's great or not). At the end of the night, I'd want a burger, so I'd try to make the craziest one with all kinds of gourmet ingredients we had lying around: homemade onion dip, maitake mushrooms, sriracha. I'd make a really insane burger with 15 things on it, cut 'em in quarters and try them out. Sometimes they'd even work!
You guys mess with veggie burgers?
Pejeau: Totally. We went rice and bean-based. We found that medium-grain white rice had a good sticky quality so as soon as we steam it we purée it in a food processor and it becomes a paste. Then we purée the black beans and mix them with roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and carrots.
What about the vegetable as the burger component?
Pejeau: Portobello's gotta be the closest to a burger patty. It's got such a meaty characteristic. We do roasted zucchini on top of a burger, but that's a topping.
How do you feel about stuffed burgers?
Pejeau: I love them, but they're hard to execute and keep the cheese inside the burger. I think the key would be to use less. The cooking surface gets so hot the cheese becomes liquid and wants to find a way to escape. We don't have one on the menu because you almost have to do the burger medium-well to pull it off.
What's your advice for the home cook developing their own signature secret sauce?
Bergelt: Ketchup for sure has gotta be in there cause it works so well with burgers, and ours also has mayo, garlic confit mashed up in there, pickles and mustard.
Pejeau: You can make a secret sauce with anything you have in your fridge. But stay away from acid like lemon juice unless it's like, a shrimp burger.
If you were to pick one city for famous burger culture, what would it be?
Pejeau: I usually don't eat burgers when I travel because I'm immersed in them every day. But the last burger I remember really enjoying was at In-N-Out in Vegas. I went to Hubert Keller's Burger Bar in Vegas, too. I don't remember what I had, but it was good.
Any advice on pairing burgers with beers?
Pejeau: It can be a beer or wine thing, I almost tend towards wine because beef and wine go so well together. We do a burger with a bacon-shallot marmalade that had pinot in the marmalade. I like IPAs a lot, they're good with grilled and smoked food. I'm a huge Dogfish fan, the 90-Minute IPA, we had that on the menu. I like Stone a lot, they have good IPAs. I had the Lagunitas Sucks which was really good with a burger.
Bergelt: It does not suck.
Pejeau: It's such a strong-flavored beer that it doesn't get lost in a complex burger.
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