“I’m still pinching myself.”
Sometimes Mark Rosati can’t believe his luck. The chef has been with Shake Shack for almost 10 years, starting as a manager at the original Madison Square Park location. Today as culinary director, he helps oversee an operation that, since starting as a hot dog cart in 2004, has grown to more than 130 locations worldwide and still draws lines out the door.
In the new book, “Shake Shack: Recipes & Stories” (out May 16, $26), Rosati and Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti delve into Danny Meyer’s burger juggernaut, from breaking down its signature burgers and milkshakes to spotlights on its collaborators.
amNewYork spoke with Rosati about the book.
Why do you think Shake Shack has become such a phenomenon?
First and foremost, as culinary director I have to say the food. It’s all I think about, all I fantasize about day in and day out. Everyone in this company, we just love food. We also love making people happy. It comes down to that hospitality. We’re not looking for people who can make the best milkshake or burger — we’re going to train you — but to find a person that’s naturally warm and caring, that has that instinct inside of them.
Is that something you wanted the book to convey?
What’s fun about this book is it really captures so much more than just the recipes — there’s so many people that have been at Shake Shack, all that behind the scenes, how we’ve grown from one Shake Shack to 130-plus worldwide. I’ve been there for it and I’m still amazed by it. I’m reading the book myself to figure out how this all happened. Most definitely, we’re going to tell you some burger tricks, some milkshake concepts, but at the end of the day it’s really about the stories, and how we’ve grown into different cities.
Was there a demand for a cookbook?
Actually yes, we’ve gotten a lot of requests. It’s something that initially we weren’t into the idea. I feel like we still think we’re still a small company at times. We did not really think people would want to read a Shake Shack cookbook. But our menu has taken some twists and turns over the years, we have burgers you can only get in a certain city, like L.A. — we wanted to tell you about that burger and tell you how to make it, too.
Why was now a good time for one?
I just think we’ve had some pretty monumental years recently — becoming a publicly traded company, opening our 100th Shack worldwide, going out to the West Coast. I just think these are very exciting times for Shake Shack and our fans. People know some of the story, but we wanted to give them all of the story. There aren’t too many restaurants that have started in New York City that have grown like we have.
What’s one creation of yours in the book that you’re most proud of?
One of my favorite burgers is the Smoke Shack burger — double-smoked bacon, Shack Sauce, chopped pickled peppers. That was a very personal burger for me — it was the very first burger added to the menu since its inception. We wanted to add bacon — all of our guests were asking us for bacon. We wanted to do something where bacon was the star of the show. We started off with a cheeseburger, added Shack Sauce — that’s the culinary DNA of our company — and bacon. I took a bite of that and it was way too rich. I thought back to my childhood — I grew up Italian-American, and my parents would make pork chops that they would sheer in the pan and at the end throw in cherry peppers to add a brightness and acidity to balance the richness of the pork chop. I thought about them, put them on the burger and I loved it. It took a heavy burger and brought this lightness to it.
What else did you want to make sure got in the book?
Something that I’m even more proud of — we brought in a couple of our chef friends along for the ride, too. We have recipes in the book that we co-created with them — David Chang, Daniel Humm, Massimo Bottura. I’m very proud of working with those chefs and what we created.
What are your tips for buying the best meat?
I would say you want to find the best butcher in your town — sometimes that can be in the supermarket, or butcher shops. You want to get a couple pieces of meat fresh from the case and have them grind them fresh to order. The freshness of the grind, and using the whole steak, that’s where a lot of the magic is going to come in.
IF YOU GO
Randy Garutti and Mark Rosati celebrate the release of “Shake Shack: Recipes & Stories” with a book signing on May 16 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. | Shake Shack, Madison Square Park, Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street | First 50 people in line will receive a free copy of the book and a free scoop of custard.
