Guy Fieri's Pro Tip For Seriously Elevating Burger Buns

There's one thing about celeb chef Guy Fieri we can surely agree on: the man is never boring. From watching him cheer on contestants on "Guy's Grocery Games" (we previously explained what they do with the leftover food from Flavortown Market) to marveling at the follicular excellence of his frosted tips, the man oozes entertainment. His magnetic presence makes it easy to forget, sometimes, that he's actually a boss when it comes to yummy food. Fieri's cooking tips for home chefs are often both prudent and sophisticated, and that goes double when it comes to burger buns. Because there are two halves of a bun ... get it?

When it comes to concocting a perfect burger, Fieri is kind of a simple dude. Fatty 80/20 beef, American cheese, LTO (white onions, specifically), and brioche buns. The burgers are seasoned with just salt and pepper, then slapped on cast iron and smashed flat for those lacy, gorgeously crispy edges. But don't just place your hot, delectable patties on bread and call it a day! To do so, Fieri claims, would be a waste of your hard work. Speaking to the podcast The Moment, Fieri opined that "You slap it on a bun out of a plastic bag and you didn't toast it? You didn't butter it? You've got to give it treatment."

Not only does this simple toasting step add big flavor to your burger, but it also creates a barrier against moisture seeping into your bread, going a long way towards preventing soggy buns. Buttering and toasting doesn't just elevate your burger buns, but it creates a taste and textural sensation that will make your tastebuds sing.

Is a burger a sandwich? That's a contentious subject, but one topic with near-unanimous agreement on the world wide web is toasting burger buns. On Reddit, one commenter laid out the procedure: "I spread some butter on them, on they go on a non stick pan, flat side down, low heat. When the top is warm to the touch, it's ready. I'd do the bottom buns first for assembly purposes, but I do the top buns last."

Blogger Julie Blanner had a near-verbatim argument on her site that echoed exactly what Fieri had to say: "We spend so much time decking out our hamburgers in toppings [...] to make them taste fantastic. But all too often we just sandwich them between regular buns. It's time to say good-bye to boring buns and make your burgers unbelievable with toasted buns." And over on the Hungry Onion forums, one poster argued that it wasn't just burgers that benefitted from buttering and toasting: "[F]or most sandwiches, toasting the bread is a bare minimum, and grilling in butter is the extra luxury version."

Color us convinced! Making a delicious burger can be a highly personal endeavor because most serious home chefs have a process and ingredients that they swear by. Luckily, most of us can make a few Guy Fieri-approved changes — switching to a brioche bun, buttering it, and toasting — while still sticking to what makes our burgers unique. The bun, then, can take things over the top.