Emeril Lagasse’s Burger Recipe Has the Easiest Secret Ingredient

With 10 different restaurants, Chef Emeril Lagasse is no stranger to designing menus that play to his unique strengths. Between his French-inspired Emeril’s Brasserie, his Las Vegas Delmonico Steakhouse, and seafood-heavy Emeril’s Coastal, Lagasse’s restaurants all appease different tastes.

However, there’s one common thread amongst most of his restaurant concepts: burgers.

That’s right, you don’t have to be Gordon Ramsay or Bobby Flay to serve up burgers that customers love. And, even though he doesn't have a burger on every menu, Lagasse showcases the classic handheld enough to prove he makes a great one.

Plus, having watched Lagasse in The Roku Channel show “Emeril Tailgates,” I know the chef has a thing for footballing favorites, like smash burgers. What I wasn’t expecting, though, is the simple ingredient Lagasse uses to take his burgers over the top.

Emeril Lagasse’s Secret to the Best Burgers

Lagasse serves all kinds of burgers at his restaurants, from classics topped with onion and special sauce to elevated options with brie and fire-roasted shallots. No matter what the toppings are, though, the key to his burgers is in the meat itself.

First, Lagasse starts with “really good ground meat,” he says in a TikTok. “I like 90/10.”

Then, he simply seasons it with fresh pepper, salt, and his own Essence Creole Seasoning and mixes until it's incorporated. Even though he uses his proprietary blend of spices—including paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, and thyme—that’s not Lagasse’s secret.

The secret ingredient comes later after the burger patties are already cooking.

Right before flipping the quarter-pound burgers, Lagasse seasons them again with celery salt.

“Yeah, celery salt, shhh, don’t tell anybody,” he says in the video.

Then, after he's left the "burger alone” to cook on the second side, Lagasse adds even more celery salt to the patties.

Celery salt adds a slight zippy, salty, earthy flavor to foods, and is found in a lot of savory dishes. Lagasse has long described celery salt as “one of [his] secret weapons” when it comes to flavor.

“It’s the Emeril magic,” he has said on social media.

He adds the spice to garlic bread, fried chicken, ribs, and, of course, burgers.

To finish out his smash burger recipe, Lagasse smashes the patties (BAM), then adds seasoned sliced onions to the skillet with the cooking meat, and flips the patties a final time before adding a knob of butter to the pan. Then, he tops each burger with homemade Worcestershire sauce and two slices of Cheddar cheese.

He serves the smash burgers on a brioche bun topped with the caramelized onions and extra Worcestershire sauce.

After taking a bite, all Lagasse could say was, “Yeah,” and all I could think was "Wow, I need to make that recipe tonight."

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