Early in my career, I was Chef at a Holiday Inn in Emporia, Kansas ... and in addition to the regular dining rooms we also had a club called Kathie's Club (named after the owner's daughter). The club was closed for lunch, so I decided to open it over the lunch hour & feature big gourmet hamburgers & kick-ass bloody mary's. This is the menu (front and back covers) for that venture ... designed and hand-drawn by my very talented friend, Fred Johnson. I've always loved this menu ... and in the days to come I will scan the inside of the menu and upload it here. The gourmet hibachi burgers were a huge success ~ the concept being big charcoal grilled burgers with different gourmet toppings ... that were served to the tableside on a real Hibachi grill with live hot charcoals in it ~ a big hit with the customers! BTW, the lil' caractiture of the chef in the lower left of the menu cover, is me!
Early in my career, I was Chef at a Holiday Inn in Emporia, Kansas ... and in addition to the regular dining rooms we also had a club called Kathie's Club (named after the owner's daughter). The club was closed for lunch, so I decided to open it over the lunch hour & feature big gourmet hamburgers & kick-ass bloody mary's. This is the menu (front and back covers) for that venture ... designed and hand-drawn by my very talented friend, Fred Johnson. I've always loved this menu ... and in the days to come I will scan the inside of the menu and upload it here. The gourmet hibachi burgers were a huge success ~ the concept being big charcoal grilled burgers with different gourmet toppings ... that were served to the tableside on a real Hibachi grill with live hot charcoals in it ~ a big hit with the customers! BTW, the lil' caractiture of the chef in the lower left of the menu cover, is me!
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4 comments:
Did you cook them at tableside on the hibachi or just serve them that way?
I just served them on the Hibachi ... I would cook the burgers on the charbroiler in the kitchen, then place a couple of hot charcoals in the Hibachi, put the burger on the grate & take it to the table that way. I put the bun, garnish and fries on the plate ... then at the table, the server would transfer the burger from the Hibachi to the bun on the plate, and bring the Hibachi back to the kitchen. I just fired up about a dozen charcoals (on a sheet pan, under the hood vents) every day just before the noon rush ... and added a few more as needed. I only bought 6 Hibachi grills, which was plenty ... as they are only out in the dining room for a couple minutes, then they return to the kitchen to be used again and again.
What a novel idea. I've never heard of that before. Did you come up with that idea on your own or was there an inspiration?
BTW, I have fond Hibachi memories. My dad used to cook burgers for the family on one when we would vacation on South Padre Island. He used a cake pan for a lid. Man, those were good!
Well, this was back in about 1982-83 ... and I'd read about *gourmet burgers* in a magazine, which was kinda of a novel food concept at that time ... but the Habachi thing was my idea. my dad never had a Hibachi, but occasionally he would grill burgers or something outside on a cheap grill with no lid ... and he would take one of mama's cookin' pots & invert it over the meat on the grill. needless to say, mama didn't cotton to that idea very much!! lol
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