Star-powered burgers

Celebrity Chinese chef Kenny Fu opens a eatery in Beijing's Sanlitun area, offering fast food that includes gourmet-style burgers, salads and desserts accompanied by a wide selection of fruit juices.[Photo by Liu Zhihua/China Daily]

The menu is simple, consisting of a few types of burgers, salads and desserts accompanied by a wide selection of fruit juices, imported bottled water and wines at varied price levels.

All-meat patties are made fresh in the kitchen each day with 100-percent Tasmanian beef: The Australian cows feed on grass pastures, and the quality meat is free of hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified organisms.

I had the signature A.V burger, with arugula, tomatoes, pickles, cheddar cheese, ketchup, mustard and a veal patty.

The burger is big, and the first bite teases the appetite for more of the soft, chewy bread and the savory flavors inside. The pungent arugula was a beautiful match with the juicy and tender veal.

The ketchup and potato wedges on the side were also delicious. Best of all, the burger was not too greasy or dripping, so my hands stayed clean while holding it.

Fu says his burgers have top-quality ingredients that are layered together for balanced nutrition, and the high-tech kitchen devices also help retain the nutrients during cooking.

"Meat is good for your health. So are vegetables. So why should a burger that contains healthy meat and vegetables be unhealthy, as long as you have a reasonable intake of calories?" Fu asks rhetorically.

He also strongly recommends that customers have a healthy salad with their burgers.

I chose the nicely presented "65-degree boiled egg and mushroom salad", with a large family of ingredients, including romaine lettuce, nuts, avocados, mushrooms, turnips, tomatoes, wolfberries, black olives and "spa-boiled eggs", dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and Italian vinegar.