Published: April 19, 2018

Two burgers side by side

When it comes to cooking burgers, why innovate?

For Chef Christopher Klocke and the grill staff at Center for Community, it鈥檚 not just for the pursuit of flavor, providing variety, or even keeping costs down for students, staff and faculty at CU 羞羞视频.

In this kitchen, a key driver behind inventing new recipes is environmental sustainability.听

Consider the blended mushroom-beef burger. It hit C4C menus in 2017, combining ground Never Ever beef with a 20 percent blend of mushrooms. Reducing the amount of beef in the burger reduces the kitchen鈥檚 carbon footprint. Reinvented for a national James Beard Foundation competition called the , it was quite popular among the student body.

Likewise, the cauliflower rice burger (a developing recipe) looks to expand the vegetarian offerings on the grill menu. Cook Guillermina 鈥淕igi鈥 Rubio invented this burger at home for her children.


鈥淎nyone on the staff can come up with an idea,鈥 says Klocke, who challenges his staff to invent new recipes. 鈥淲e have everything from traditional Nepali dishes to things like Beef Guisado and even a banana salsa.鈥

Barbecue and grilling is a tradition in Klocke鈥檚 family. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, he fondly recalls the family recipes that emerged from his grandfather鈥檚 barbecue grill.

Mushroom burger recipe

Cauliflower burger recipe