Famous Chefs Just Settled the Best Burger Cooking Tool Debate — Kind Of

The world can’t even agree on when the Hamburger was officially invented, or who invented it. However, names like Charlie Nagreen, Frank and Charles Menches, Oscar Weber Bilby, Fletcher Davis, or Louis Lassen often get the credit.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the best method and cookware for making a burger is also a source of continuous discussion among ambitious home chefs and avid burger fans alike.

On the grill? Pan-fried on cast-iron (windows open!)? Broiler in the oven?…Air Fryer? At this point, humanity’s given anything capable of transferring heat a shot and walked away with #thoughts.

Fortunately for all of us, the team at Bon Appétit has now shared some expert-backed advice that’s bound to add fire to at least one side of the never-ending debate on the best way to cook a burger at home.

Grill or Griddle? There’s Now an Elite Chef Consensus

Netflix

In a recently published (and delightful) YouTube video, the prestigious cooking publication gathered the stars of the Netflix series Chef’s Table: Legends —Jamie Oliver, Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and José Andrés to answer the top cooking-related questions submitted by Reddit users.

In a potential sign of the importance of this debate in the American cooking zeitgeist, the four icons tackled Reddit user Reap_it_Murphy’s all-important question posted to r/burgers first.

“Griddle or grill? Which do you prefer for cooking burgers?”

“Griddle,” Chef Thomas Keller, owner of The French Laundry, responds without hesitation.

“I go griddle. All the way.” Chef José Andrés adds almost as instinctively.

“I think griddles interesting, ’cause the fat stays around it, doesn’t it, and gives you that crisp.” Chef Jamie Oliver notes later rhetorically.

But despite the quick responses from the majority of the elite chef’s present, naturally, some debate on the matter still arose.

Texture or Flavor?

Photo by Jack Seemer for Gear Patrol

Chef Alice Waters, owner and chef at Chez Panisse, was equally confident in her response to Reap_it_Murphy’s excellent cooking question, but took the other side of the debate.

“I go grill,” was Waters’ immediate reaction.

As the discussion continued, it became clear she wasn’t fully alone in her take either. At least some of the group saw each cooking tool as offering different strengths in terms of texture and flavor.

“On the griddle is gonna get so much more content, and everything is gonna be much crunchier,” Chef José Andrés elaborates.

“Texture is important,” notes Chef Thomas Keller, owner of The French Laundry.

“Super important,” Chef José Andrés emphasizes.

Chris Wright

“So that’s why the griddle for me works, because you get the texture,” Keller concludes, but not without doubts.

“Now the flavor on a natural fired grill is better than the texture on a griddle,” Keller slips in at the final moment, like a seasoned media star aware of the dullness that inevitably follows personalities reaching a consensus.

“Exactly,” Waters notes, pointing at Keller.

A Reflection of Recent Industry Chess Moves

Gear Patrol

Whether you prioritize flavor or texture, the debate between griddles and grills among the cooking elite of Chef’s Table: Legends is interesting for reasons far beyond burger cooking.

In at least a small way, the Redditor’s question and the famous chef’s replies also function as unintentional yet telling color commentary on relatively recent shifts in the American cooking zeitgeist.

The fact is that before the turn of the century, and even arguably a decade into it, most home cooks couldn’t easily purchase true, self-contained griddles, and charcoal and gas-powered grills were far and away the kings of outdoor cooking, at least in America.

Over the last 10 years, however, that picture has rapidly changed.

On May 5th, 2025, the most iconic brand in American outdoor cooking, Weber Grills, completed its merger with a surging rival, Blackstone. Blackstone’s founder and current CEO, Roger Dahle, took the helm as the leader of the new outdoor cooking entity.

Chris Wright

For those unfamiliar with Blackstone, it’s primarily known for it 36″ Blackstone griddle, which first hit the market in 2008, and for years, we’ve considered it to be the best in its class.

Today, the company has a dominant market share position in outdoor griddles (pinned at 80% by Blackstone itself as part of an IPO filing made with the SEC).

While the merger between Blackstone and Weber was motivated by plenty of financially related factors, at the highest level, it’s also easy to see why Weber would be interested in joining forces with Blackstone from a product POV.

Solo Stove

Though the company has recently launched its own line of griddles in response to industry demand, it was still decidedly late to the category compared to Blackstone.

And in the spirit of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” it makes plenty of sense for Weber to combine with the leading brand making products in the category that’s most likely to disrupt and cannibalize the grill business.

Now that they’re together, the combined Weber and Blackstone Products entity is poised to become a powerful and capable titan of the outdoor living industry.

But the rest of the industry isn’t going down without a fight. Earlier this week, a surprising new rival entered the outdoor griddle market: Solo Stove.

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