If you hit upon a dish that resonates with the dining public�be it by accident or design�you can pretty much sit back and count your money. Five masters tell how they did it.
Chargrilled Roquefort Burger
$21, The Spotted Pig
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Illustration by The Ellaphant in the Room
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The Chef: April Bloomfield
Created: 2004
Inspiration: �I wanted to offer my take on a classic American dish for my first menu in America,� says Bloomfield. �There were lots of tastings of different beef blends and lots of tweaking to get the flavor right.�
Est. Number Sold Per Year: 75,000
That’s: $1,575,000 in burger sales
Uni Panini
$15, El Quinto Pino
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Illustration by The Ellaphant in the Room
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The Chef: Alex Raij created: 2007
Inspiration: �Super-simple� dishes, like Alain Passard’s �L’Arpège Egg,� says Raij. Plus: �I’d just met a man who’d written a book about Asturian food, and one whole chapter was about sea urchin.�
Est. Number Sold Per Year: 7,000
Pork Bun
$10 for two, Momofuku Ssäm Bar and Noodle Bar
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Illustration by The Ellaphant in the Room
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The Chef: David Chang
Created: 2004
Origin Story: �It was an accident,� says Chang. �It wasn’t part of the menu until the day before we opened Noodle Bar for friends and family and we needed a way to serve the [excess] pork belly that we used for the ramen. I wasn’t even sure that people wanted to eat pork belly.� est. number sold: �I really don’t know,� says Chang, who limits sales (off-the-menu only) to 75 orders per night. �We just sell too much pork belly, and that has to stop.�
Beef Tartare With Sunchoke
$16, Estela
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Illustration by The Ellaphant in the Room
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The Chef: Ignacio Mattos
Created: 2013
Origin Story: �I started working with those flavors at Il Buco. Then I went to Isa and I was still working with the same kind of flavor profile. We opened Estela with the dish, but it took two months of subtle adjustments to figure out how it should be. Even to this day, we’re still polishing, trying to take it to a higher level.�
Est. Number Sold Per Year: 10,800
DB Burger
$35, DB Bistro Moderne
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Illustration by The Ellaphant in the Room
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The Chef: Daniel Boulud
Created: 2000 at Daniel
Origin story: In response to a tongue-in-cheek challenge from a Times reporter after activist-farmer José Bové’s �dismantling� of a French McDonald’s, Boulud staged a surprise trial run of his short-rib-and-foie-gras-stuffed-burger prototype on some Daniel regulars. �They were ecstatic,� says Boulud. �I knew that it was an instant classic.�
Priciest Burger Pairing Ever: �Once someone spent $1,600 for two DB burgers and a bottle of wine (a Côte-Rôtie La Mouline).�
Est. Number Sold Per Year: 25,000