National Post (National Edition)
Ministry of the superior
Award-winning pastry chef Brooks Headley turns to the savoury side and goes beyond his popular vegetarian burger
When the tiny, sixseat Superiority Burger restaurant opened in New York City’s East Village three years ago, its namesake vegetarian sandwich already had a devoted following. “Brooks Headley makes the best veggie burger I’ve ever had,” restaurateur and early enthusiast David Chang said. In 2015, GQ named it “the year’s best burger”… period.
What started as a staff snack at the opulent Italian restaurant Del Posto evolved into a pop-up cult favourite and finally the unique takeout spot. Rather than attempting to mimic ground beef, James Beard Awardwinning pastry chef (and drummer) Headley strove to emulate the experience of eating a fast-food burger.
“The plan was to make something that’s delicious and satisfying when put on a bun with toppings like a burger but (that) wasn’t ever trying to directly be texturally or flavour-wise a burger,” the long-time vegetarian says.
Topped with melted Muenster, shredded iceberg lettuce, slices of pickle, roasted tomatoes and honey mustard sauce, the lauded quinoachickpea-walnut patty is the first recipe in Headley’s second book, Superiority Burger Cookbook (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018).
Although the famous sandwich might be the draw, the 90 inventive, unconventional recipes that follow will hook plant-based eaters and omnivores alike. Adding to its bold appeal is the fact that at Superiority Burger, everything is made using a steel griddle, four induction burners, a compact convection oven, ice cream maker and high-powered blender. “Anything we can make here you can also do at home,” writes Headley. This is a restaurant cookbook designed for exciting home cooking.
A documentation of the vegetarian hotspot’s everchanging menu, his combinations are flavourful and fun: an umami bomb of a hammered mushroom sandwich; a sweet potato loaded with tarragon sauce, labneh (strained yogurt) and dill pickles; and a neutral base that can be spun into endless gelato flavours.
“In terms of the moral qualities of the restaurant, the inexpensiveness of it is more important to me than even the vegetarian qualities,” Headley says, adding that nothing on the menu costs more than $9.
“I grew pretty weary with fine dining: the exclusivity of it, the elitism that comes with it. The fact that it excludes so many people because of the price. Even people that work in fine dining restaurants can’t really afford to eat there. That just seems weird and wrong. I wanted to open up a place where we could sell food of a really high quality and sell it for as cheaply as possible in a really, really non-formal environment.”