Backyard barbecue season is almost here, which means it’s time to clean off your grill and start planning your backyard cookouts. Want to level up your burger game, too?
As a food and travel writer based in Colorado, one of my favorite events every summer is the Denver Burger Battle (sadly it’s on pause for 2025). The event draws chefs from around the Mile High City, giving them carte blanche to come up with creative toppings or win people over with the classics. Attendees get a token to vote on their favorite burger.
A stack of burgers at the Denver Burger Battle, an annual competition that’s on hold this year.
Over the years, some of my favorites have been a Juicy Lucy, a Minneapolis-style of burger with a molten cheese in the middle, and others that are topped with green chile, a nod to the Pueblo, Colorado-born “slopper.”
To find out what it takes to make the best hamburger, though, I chatted with , a contestant on Season 21 of Bravo’s “Top Chef” who was among those on last year’s judging panel. He’s the culinary director of which is set to open Denver and Tulsa in 2025, and , which opened in Raleigh.
I also chatted with the team at , a popular Denver-based burger bar and Burger Battle repeat winner that took home the People’s Choice award in 2024 for its French onion soup-inspired burger. In 2023, the team’s award-winning Cricket Royale burger that featured braised short rib and bone marrow among other accouterments.
Here’s the secret sauce to an award-winning burger, according to the experts:
1. Focus on the Burger Itself
Most burgers in America are seasoned with a little salt and pepper and tend to taste the same, says Barella, who grew up in Mexico. His trick? Cook down vegetables like onions and garlic then fold them into the meat with your seasonings. “That way, the meat is also seasoned inside and not just on the outside,” Barella says. If you’re cooking on a , try adding extra pepper on the outside—open fire burns the peppercorn too quickly.
If the burger tastes great on its own, the cheese, toppings, and bun are there to play a supporting cast role. Barella’s motto: “In order to be extraordinary do ordinary things extraordinarily well.” (Though, he admits, he’s a sucker for a truffle mayo).
2. Follow This Formula For Toppings
After you pull a burger from the grill, it’s a habit to start piling on the toppings. But there’s an art to how everything is layered. Barella recommends this order: Bun, onions, lettuce, tomato, burger patty with cheese, bun. The weight of the patty weighs down the toppings and the tomato provides a nice barrier to keep the lettuce fresh.
3. Don’t Overcomplicate Things
You can go in on creative toppings, but sometimes it’s best to just keep things simple.
“The more things you put on a plate, the more things you’re going to get judged on.” That’s some advice that celebrity chef Tom Colicchio once gave Barella.
4. Toast Your Buns
If you’re hosting a barbecue, go the extra mile and toast your buns instead of serving them straight out of the package. “When you heat up a brioche bun all that butter in the bread warms up and creates a nice layer of crispiness,” Barella says.
5. Strike a Balance
The Cherry Cricket’s award-winning French onion-inspired burger
Returning and repeat champ Cherry Cricket knows a thing or two about creating award-winning burgers. The team dreamed up “The Cry-Baby” for this year’s burger battle. It’s a creative twist on the classic comfort food: French onion soup. The meaty masterpiece is topped with a toasty crostini, cave-aged Gruyère, bone marrow caramelized onions, frico (a crispy-crunchy fried cheese), and onion strings. It’s cradled between a rosemary potato bun with a schmear of French onion dip and a sidecar of soup for dipping.
“This way, we can cater to both adventurous foodies looking for something new and those who appreciate the comforting taste of a classic burger,” says Alex Bunn, CMO and VP of Growth for Breckenridge-Wynkoop, LLC.
Cherry Cricket prepares for battle months in advance. All three Cherry Cricket locations come up with what they believe is an award-winning burger, Bunn says, experimenting with ingredients, testing flavors, refining the concepts, and taking into account consumer trends. Then, employees participate in a blind taste test to pick the burger that has the strongest shot at winning.
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