Ethiopian chef serves up a spicy buffalo burger

Crafting great burgers has been one of the most satisfying experiences his culinary career. This from a man who earned three stars from The New York Times and oversaw President Barack Obama's first state dinner.

"As a chef coming up, I always had this love affair with the burger," says Marcus Samuelsson, who got his start at a three-star Michelin restaurant in France. "We work with this French food all day. But at night we want a burger."

And so Samuelsson — who was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden and learned to cook across Europe — embraced the burger, which he calls "the most iconic meal in America."

But like the rest of his cooking — a fusion of European sensibilities and American and African ingredients — Samuelsson's burgers blend cultures. And he says he has a rich palette from which to draw.

"When you do the history of the burger, you realize that every country and culture in the world has something like a beef patty with bread and a pickle," he says. "It really shows how unified we are as a people. We want something comforting. We want some heat on it. And we want something pickled on it. And that's essentially what a burger is."

For his contribution to the AP's 20 Burgers of Summer series, Samuelsson went with bison meat because of its iconic stature in the U.S. He tops that all-American meat with a fried egg, heirloom tomatoes and a spicy ketchup spiked with horseradish, smoked paprika and chili powder.

"It's something you can really put your personality into," Samuelsson says of burgers. "You can't do that with beef bourguignon."

BUFFALO BURGER WITH SPICY KETCHUP

Start to finish: 1 hour

Servings: 4

For the ketchup:

2 red bell peppers

2 poblano peppers

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons horseradish

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper