Rachael Ray in Praise of Burgers and Our Culinary Tastes

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But at the same time, you see a countervailing tendency. If you look at the Burger Bash here, no one is making Sriracha burgers or whatever ... People say that Morimoto has the best burger, but 9 of 10 are using a squishy bun, yellow square cheese and regular meat.
You know, I think there's a lot of creative burgers there — burgers that mix slow-cooked meat or shredded meat. I'm still going to do a burger joint, as soon as I can find the right space. I'm working really hard on it. I want the burger to be classier. I want it to be Rat Packy and elegant. I want to make the slider sexy — because anything, once you shrink down the size, becomes adorable. I want a classy burger joint. I'll have a slider for you. We'll call it the O burger. You can fill in what you want the O burger to stand for! [Laughs.]

Ew. You know, you see all these people here to eat burgers, and these food festivals like SOBE and Aspen and the New York Wine and Food Festival, and this whole food explosion taking over our culture ... I have to ask you: Why? Why has food become so important to us now?
Food matters. It ... It appeals to all of your senses, it gives you instant gratification. You take a pile of raw ingredients, and you turn it into something sensual and meaningful that expresses who you are and the flavor of your life. And if you share it with other people it fills you up before you ever take a bite of it. It can connect you to your past, it can take you away to a place you've never been and dreamed of, or take you back to places you've been and want to remember. It's a wonderful vehicle of the mind, the body and the soul. It's great. I love it.

Josh Ozersky is a James Beard Award–winning food writer and the author of The Hamburger: A History. You can listen to his weekly show at the Heritage Radio Network and read his column on home cooking at Rachael Ray's website. He is currently at work on a biography of Colonel Sanders.