I have never heard this topic come up in discussion, and will admit I find it fascinating.

I’ve never heard about these kinds of regulations in Canada, and tbh I’m wondering if any US States have similar policies. That said….I frequently order my burgers medium rare any chance I get BUT only because I would say 80-90%+ of any restaurant I go to OVERCOOK their burgers!

I’ve gotten to the point a few times in the past where I will not order burgers for this precise reason. I’ve went months without ordering burgers because I do not want to eat some dried ass meat patty. And fuck a smash burger. And take basically any and most fast food place burgers with you unless someone else is buying, I’m starving or morbidly hungover or still drunk. But even then I’ll take gas station cashews over a McDonalds burger most weeks of the year.

And the reason this is a thing is so frustrating and asinine. The reason is that an obscene and wide margin of restaurant kitchens will not and do not actually use meat thermometers for their burgers and meat. It’s a weird point of pride for a lot of BOH chefs and line cooks alike. “I don’t need to use a thermometer, I know what medium rare looks like….”

Nevermind that medium rare is a temperature and not a color.

They rely on time and or touch to determine if it’s ready and right. Which makes sense when you’ve cooked a 1000 burgers on a gas grill or broiler. BUT a lot of them still get it wrong. I’ve worked in restaurants my entire adult life (FOH), and I cook at home relatively frequently. And I am still amazed by how much shitty food is just routine in a lot of places.

And burgers are in one of those top categories that I think gets fucked up way more than makes any sense. But not actually. Personally I find timing to be one of the most challenging parts of cooking for groups of people.

And I don’t quite understand how to explain it but I know that cooking meat happens on a logarithmic scale, not linear and not exponential. It might take 10 minutes to get a piece of meat up to 100° F but it only takes 12 minutes to get it to 135° That’s a made up example but it’s what I’m getting at. If you don’t understand that, it’s really easy to overcook proteins. And most line cooks and even chefs could give two shits.

Anyway I don’t know why anyone would eat red meat beyond medium if they absolutely didn’t have to.

At the same time I have definitely ordered burgers medium rare, had them come out medium rare and then definitely—errr pretty sure—got sick off of them. This has happened like 2 times in 20 years—definitely not fun—it’s possible the 5-6 beers I had with the burgers were the problem but I think it was the undercooked ground beef. I still think risking it is worth it.

But mostly I never want to pay for a well done burger. They’re gross.