Julia Child was a friend of mine, and we had many things in common. We both loved France, French food and beets.
We both loved cooking and meals with friends. We loved tuna fish sandwiches and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, Julia’s favorite aperitif snack. We didn’t, however, share a love of the famous California In-N-Out Burger. We might have, had I ever had one. It’s on my list of culinary musts, if for no other reason than that Julia would tell me she’d have one as soon as she landed in Golden State territory.
I mention this not because my Tri-Pepper Burger is like the In-N-Out. It’s not. (Although inspiration did come from 3,000 miles away, but in the opposite direction.) It’s just that the first time I made a burger like this one, I called it the Inside-Out Burger and thought of Julia. My burger has lots of what you might put on top of a good burger, packed right inside it.
I started thinking about the inside-outer after I had a remarkable burger at my friend Helene Samuel’s now-gone restaurant, the Cafe Salle Pleyel, in Paris. Yep, I had to go to Paris in order to get a fresh perspective. Helene was opening a sophisticated modern restaurant in a historic concert hall in Paris, and she thought it would be a kick to have a burger on the menu.