WE ARE CONSTANTLY IMPROVING THE RECIPE
An industrial area in Berlin-Tempelhof. Where the company Pfennig once made its meat salad, Burgermeister® is nowadays working on creating the best recipes.
And every day, thousands of buns and fresh meat are delivered to the restaurants.
One man knows every aspect of this business. He is the founder. The Burgermeister®. A converstaion.
“EVERYTHING I DO, I HAVE TO DO WELL.”
– THE BURGERMEISTER®
YOU PRODUCE YOUR OWN BURGER BUNS AND MEAT. WHY AND WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO DO THAT?
To us it is all about the quality. It does consume a great deal of time and money. Economically it would make more sense to buy our meat from a butchery and our burger buns from a bakery. We have been there before.
Our current success is the result of hard work and learning from mistakes that we have made in the past. But ultimately, when you want the best quality, you have to do things yourself.
DOES THAT REQUIRE COURAGE?
You have to be risk-taker. At some point it was clear: a bigger thriving production will definitely pay off in the long run. Especially if you want to keep improving your quality. We are experimenting a lot. It’s a great way to work. We are constantly improving the recipe.
WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOUR OWN BUNS?
The unique characteristic is the great deal of effort we are willing to put in. We only work with really expensive, high quality ingredients. And passion. We have our own master baker who works here with great enthusiasm.
Master baker Marco joins and adds: “We don’t cut and only use high-quality ingredients. We just want to have the perfect bun.”
Whenever it was said, “we have it – we can work with it”, I said: “No, we do not have it yet”. Although we have had a good bun, we did not have THE bun. What makes the difference? The pore density must be right, the outside must be right, the skin has to be right, the taste anyw
BURGERMEISTER® HAS BEEN OPEN SINCE 2006 – HOW HAS THE PRODUCTION CHANGED SINCE?
We have made many steps in development. In 2006 we were still purchasing minced meat. Always the fresh one though. We only shaped the patties ourselves. We have also worked with industrial buns until 2009. Then we were the first to look for our own buns.
WHY?
I have been in New York. With regards to burgers, the sun has risen for me. Especially concerning the buns… So we looked for business partners who could bake for us.
WHY ALL THE EFFORT? WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO SUCH GOOD BURGERS AT ALL?
Everything I do, I have to do well. We have to work to live anyway, so why not do it well in the first place. It is also fun to keep improving. It makes oneself happy when people are satisfied.
WHAT ELSE IS DONE IN YOUR PRODUCTION FACILITY LOCATED HERE IN BERLIN, GERMANY?
The biggest challenge is to achieve the same quality day in and day out.
For a long time we also did a lot of research on the cheese sauce. We cannot reveal the secret. We developed it ourselves. That’s our recipe. We were determined to stand out from the market – wanted our own cheese sauce.
And of course the meat production. Nobody uses such great meat for their burgers. No one else does. The people on the meat market think I’m crazy, saying, “Why are you paying so much for that great meat? You can have much cheaper meat for your burgers”. We have a kind of meat, people normally make steaks from it.