By this point, just about everyone has heard of, if not bit into, a vegan burger. It seems like the gold standard is to make a patty that tastes like, and has the mouthfeel of, real meat.
Not for local chef Jessica Taccone, also known as “Chef Jess,” founder of The Complete Burger, based out of Sag Harbor. Her idea was to create a burger that is sourced as much as possible from local ingredients, has a low carbon footprint, and tastes simply delicious.
Taccone is partnering with James Lane Post, providing food for guests at our Hamptons Tech Week. She took a few minutes to talk with us about The Complete Burger, South Fork Bakery, and being a female entrepreneur in the Hamptons.
What led you to the passion of creating this burger?
I was working with Dave Falkowski at Open Minded Organics and we had a bumper crop of shiitake mushrooms — we needed to make food out of them because we weren’t going be able to sell them in fast enough amount of time so that they would last. So I worked on this recipe and developed it over some time. You know, we did the quick version to use up the mushrooms, which was great. But you couldn’t grill it. And then I spent an entire winter working on the burger just to develop it further. And I was like, oh, this is going to be a big thing and we’ll do this on the farm.
I was with Dave about five years. When I left, I took the recipe, and my then-business partner for Hamptons Hawaiian was vegan for a really long time. And she was just like, you need to make this burger, let’s put it on the menu. And it ended up being one of our best sellers on the menu at the pop up.
You say very clearly on the package that this is not a meat substitute.
That’s right. I’m not trying to be fake meat. It’s plant-based burger that is vegan and also gluten and soy free. Every day we are committed to bringing the highest level of energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge to our product. Our goal is to bring plant-based food to a level that even the most carnivorous eaters will enjoy.
So tell me a little bit about your mushroom adventures. Did you try different kinds besides shiitake?
It was always shitake, for two reasons. I just feel like the texture’s perfect, and the umami. So it gives a flavor, but it’s not always clear. It doesn’t come through as mushroomy. It’s just like a flavor that if you don’t know mushrooms and you ate it, you wouldn’t be like right away, “Oh, that’s mushroom.” I didn’t want that. Some people don’t like mushrooms but they love The Complete Burger.
Do you have plans in the works for like other flavors?
I did a podcast a couple weeks ago with “Green Hero,” and the host asked me the same question. Our goal is not really to distribute nationally. I don’t want that carbon footprint. But we want to have facilities where we can create the burger locally in major cities across the country. I want to build community around my product. And he mentioned it would be interesting if the burger take on the flavor of that city. Like if we were in Dallas, we would have a Tex-Mex version, or whatever. And I was like, “I didn’t think of that, but you’re hired.” (Laughs.)
I love that. And then you’re also building jobs and community and reducing the carbon footprint. How did you get into all of this to start with like what led you down the path to cheffing and creating foods?
I was in construction management for many years out here, but I was also moonlighting catering on the weekends. So I was working on the weekends with Pete Ambrose, and I’d come back to work on Mondays and that would be all I would talk about. And my boss took me to lunch one day and he’s said, “You’re sitting in the wrong pew.”
And I’m like, “What the heck do you mean?” He said, “You’re good at construction, I don’t want to lose you. But this isn’t your passion. When I see you talk about food, you light up like a Christmas tree.” So he basically pushed me and told me that that’s what I needed to do. He gave me a nice severance and he was like, “Go follow your dream.” After some time, I went and worked on Dave’s farm and I supplemented it with catering and private cheffing and it worked.
Well, Dave introduced me to Shirley Ruch when she started South Fork Bakery seven years ago. It was just an idea in her head to do this bakery with kids with disabilities. She’d seen them grow and graduate high school and they just couldn’t find jobs. No one would hire them, but they all wanted to work, but there wasn’t anything for them. So she’s like, I’ll just make something. I’ll make a bakery.
And it was great. We started at the Hayground School. That gave us our start. I mean now we have our kitchen in Amagansett, which is fantastic. And we’ve grown so much since then as well. I’m actually no longer in the lead baking role. I hired somebody to take that position and now I’m managing the entire thing. Shirley is trying to do more job training and, and that’s really what the focus of the bakery is to train these guys. So then they could go out and find other jobs. The goal isn’t to keep them with us forever.
How many people are involved in the making of the complete burgers?
Just me.
Just you. What about the packaging? Are you tying the little twisty ties?
All of it. It’s like I eat and sleep burgers.
Time to make the burgers! And how many do you produce a week?
It varies. In the height of the summer, it could be upwards of 5,000 a week.
Oh my. Tell me about the farmers markets, Jess.
It’s the perfect venue, the perfect launching point for a product that’s new. You can speak to people one-on-one about it. I mean, I guess you could do in-store demos. Like that’s a thing, but this is nicer. It’s more organic. You’re out in nature. It’s fresh air and it is probably the most relaxing time of my week because I can just kind of sit there and chill in between talking to all the people. It’s really helped me build my brand.
So tell me about this group you started last year.
So I went to an event for international women’s day with an acquaintance of mine, hosted at Wölffer vineyards, but it was hosted by somebody who’s not a local. She does a couple events here every year and it was fantastic. It was mostly women. It was inspiring and I thought, we don’t have anything out here really like this. And I feel like I know more female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs out here and there’s such a huge pool of people that could, you know, help each other and collaborate or just be supportive.
I did a test run. It was small. It was like 10 people. We had it at Le Bilboquet. And it was great, everybody wanted to bring someone to the next get-together. So it’s grown and grown.
I’ve been trying to do it monthly, but I skipped last month because I was just so buried with trying to get things rolling for the summer for the burgers. I am doing one at the end of July.
Do you partner up for a lot of events in the Hamptons high season? Is that a good way to get the word out about The Complete Burger?
I usually do two or three big events a season depending on who approaches me and what’s going on. And it has been really useful just to meet a different market. And it’s fun. I like to do stuff like that.
The burgers keep you busy enough, right?
Yeah. And I’m hedging my bets on that. That’s my retirement plan. You know, we’re four years young. We have time, but we’ve doubled in size every year since we started. So if I keep going at that rate, I’m good.
To learn more, visit TheCompleteBurger.com.
