Shaun Smith is a writer, journalist and former chef in Toronto. He is the author of the young adult novel Snakes & Ladders.

Father's Day is this Sunday, so it's time to break out the barbecue recipes.

This being my first father's day, I don't quite know what to expect. My daughter Maude is only 12 weeks old, after all, so I'll be happy with just a smile and a gurgle. But of course, like all good dads, I'll be manning the barbecue, so I checked in with three authors who have new burger cookbooks to get some great recipes.

Ted Reader, Canada's Grand Poobah of the barbecue, grills up a Caesar Salad Three Meat Burger from his book Napoleon's Everyday Gourmet Burgers.

Lukas Volger shows us how to prepare five different portobello burgers, from his book Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.

James McNair and Jeffrey Starr serve up the prize-winning Opa! Burger, made with lamb and feta, from their book Burger Parties.

If you want to make a great — not just a good — beef burger, nothing is more important than the cut of meat you use. Generic ground beef from the grocery store is constituted largely from scraps and off cuts, so you never know exactly what you're getting. Buying specific cuts of beef, such as meaty sirloin, fatty rib steaks or sinewy chuck, from a good butcher can yield amazing results, enhancing flavour, juiciness and texture.

Be warned though, if your butcher is anything like mine, he will look at you like you're crazy when you ask him to put boneless rib eye steaks through the meat grinder, as I did for my recipe below. But take no notice, as the end results will be well worth it.

Rib Eye Burgers with Balsamic Glaze and Tomato Basil Salsa

When I saw Ted Reader's Caesar Salad burger below, I was inspired to come up with my own salad-burger hybrid, so I turned to the Caprese salad, a classic Italian dish (Caprese means "in the style of Capri") that combines fresh tomatoes, basil, bocconcini mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil. Often it is also drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Rib eye steaks are a fatty cut of meat with tremendous flavour. I knew the rich meat would need an acidic counterbalance in the mouth, so I created a simple but intense balsamic-tomato glaze.

Don't think twice about getting rib eyes ground for these burgers. Your guests will be wowed by the decadence, and meanwhile — keep this part to yourself — you can feed twice as many people with the same number of steaks.

Ingredients (makes four burgers)

28 ounces of ground rib eye (800 grams)

4 medium tomatoes

1 cup balsamic vinegar (236 mL)

20 leaves fresh basil, roughly chopped, plus 1 whole leaf to garnish each burger

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (9.8 mL)

1 large bocconcini

mozzarella salt and pepper

4 sesame burger buns

Making the patties

I don't like to use fillers or flavouring agents when using a high quality cut of beef that has good fat content. The fat of the rib eye will bind your burgers, and the flavour of the meat should be left to speak for itself.

Take the meat out of the butcher paper and cut it into quarters. Without kneading the meat, gently flatten and shape each quarter into a burger patty at least four inches (10 centimetres) in diameter and half an inch (12 millimetres) thick. Season the burgers generously on both sides with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before grilling.

Making the glaze

Roughly chop two whole tomatoes. Place tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor with one cup of balsamic vinegar. Puree till liquefied. Pass the liquid through a fine strainer into a high-sided pot. Boil the balsamic-tomato liquid on high for seven to eight minutes, stirring often, to reduce total contents to three-quarters of a cup (177 ml). Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Making the salsa

Dice two whole tomatoes. Roughly chop 20 basil leaves. Toss diced tomato and chopped basil in a bowl with two teaspoons of cooled balsamic glaze, two teaspoons of olive oil, one pinch of salt and eight turns of the pepper mill; set aside.

Slice the bocconcini into four thick slices; set aside.

Grilling the burgers

(Shaun Smith) This recipe will give you a medium-rare burger. If you like your burgers cooked more, add one minute on each side for medium, and two minutes on each side for well done. Heat your grill to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees Celsius). Take the burgers out of the fridge and brush both sides with balsamic glaze. Season your grill by rubbing it with a thickly folded paper towel dipped in a little bit of vegetable oil. Place the burgers on the hot grill and brush the top of the patties with more glaze. Close the lid and cook for two minutes. Brush the burgers with more glaze and close the lid to cook for two minutes longer. Open the lid and brush the burgers again and then flip them.

Never press down on the burgers with a spatula as this will squeeze out the juices and create flare ups. Once the burgers are flipped, brush with glaze and close lid. Cook for two minutes. For the last two minutes, open the lid, brush the burgers with glaze and place one slice of bocconcini on each burger. Close the lid, but watch that the cheese does not become too runny. At this time you can also toast your buns on the grill.

Assembling the burgers

Place the bottom of each toasted bun on a separate plate and add a heaping teaspoon of salsa on the bun. Place a cooked burger on top of that salsa. Add another spoonful of salsa on top of each burger and crown with a whole basil leaf. Serve with the bun lids to the side so everyone can admire your work.

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Ted Reader's Caesar Salad Three-Meat Burger

Ted Reader is the author of Napoleon's Everyday Gourmet Burgers. (Mike McColl)Ted Reader takes grilling burgers very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that earlier this spring at Toronto's Dundas Square he launched his new cookbook, Napoleon's Everyday Gourmet Burgers, by barbecuing what may well be the largest cheeseburger ever cooked.

"The previous record was 185.8 pounds," says Reader, reached by phone at his Toronto home.

"The hamburger I cooked in May was 590 pounds. The raw weight on the burger patty was 307 pounds, the bun was over 104 pounds. We had 50 pounds of cheese and 25 pounds each of sliced lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and onions." (The rest of the weight was made up in barbecue sauce.)

Napoleon Barbecues, of Barrie, Ont., built Reader a custom grill with a hydraulically operated flipping mechanism to cook the giant patty. "It grilled for six hours over 400 pounds of hardwood charcoal," says Reader, adding that the cooked burger was auctioned for $7,500 to raise money for Camp Bucko, a summer camp for children recovering from burn injuries.

Folks from the Guinness Book of World Records were on hand that day and Reader is now waiting to hear back from them to learn if he officially broke the record.

Ted Reader's massive burger weighed in at 590 pounds. Reader says he loves pushing the envelope when it comes to burgers, a fact made evident by some of the recipes in his new book. While the recipes do include relatively normal creations, such as a Swiss mushroom melt burger or a grilled salmon burger, there's also a healthy dose of tantalizingly exotic stuff, such as a roasted garlic bison burger and a prosciutto-wrapped duck burger, and then there are recipes that can only be categorized as utterly outlandish, such as the "Meatzzza," a pizza that uses ground beef as the crust, and the "Ludicrous Burger," a beef burger sandwiched between two grilled cheese-and-bacon sandwiches.

"If you are going to make burgers," says Reader, "then really get into it. You are only limited by your imagination. My imagination sometimes goes a little way out there, but burgers are a fun food. Being able to cook in your backyard with friends and family, and making them an ultimate burger where everyone goes 'Wow!' — that's what it should be like."

Caesar Salad Three-Meat Burger

(Excerpted from Napoleon's Everyday Gourmet Burgers Copyright 2010 by Ted Reader. Reprinted by permission of Key Porter Books.)

Ingredients (makes six burgers)

(Mike McColl/Key Porter Books)

Roasted Garlic Caesar Aioli

• two large head garlic, peeled, about 24 cloves
• one and a half cups olive oil (375 mL)
• six egg yolks
• six anchovies, minced
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard (60 mL)
• one lemon, juiced (about1/4 cup/60 mL)
• two tablespoons of red wine vinegar (30 mL)
• one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (15 mL)
• 1/4 tsp hot sauce (1 mL)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (125 mL)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

The Burger

• One pound of ice-cold regular ground beef (454 g)
• One pound of ice-cold ground veal (454 g)
• One pound of ice-cold ground pork (454 g)
• six cloves garlic, minced
• one small onion, finely diced
• two green onions, finely chopped
• one small egg
• one Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (15 mL)
• two tsp Worcestershire sauce (10 mL)
• Salt and pepper
• Nonstick cooking spray
• six squares focaccia bread
• Olive oil
• two cloves garlic
• two heads of hearts of romaine, cleaned and left whole
• 12 slices bacon, cooked crisp

Roasted Garlic Caesar Aioli

Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C).

Place garlic cloves in an ovenproof dish. Cover with olive oil and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the garlic is golden brown and tender. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Remove the cloves from the oil, reserving the oil, and in a medium-sized bowl, mash roasted garlic until smooth.

Add egg yolks. Stir in the anchovies and mustard. While stirring continuously, add the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce.

Continue stirring and add the reserved roasted garlic oil in a slow steady stream so that the aioli emulsifies and the mixture is thick.

Stir in the Parmesan cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate until needed.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups (625 mL)

The Burger

(Mike McColl/Key Porter Books) In a large bowl, mix the beef, veal, pork, garlic, onion, green onion, egg, parsley and Worcestershire sauce. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Form into six 8-ounce (250 gram) patties approximately one inch (2.5 cm) thick. Place burgers on a tray or plate, cover and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour, allowing the burgers to rest.

Preheat grill to medium-high, 400-500°F (200-250°C).

Spray burgers lightly on both sides with non-stick cooking spray. Grill burgers for eight to 10 minutes per side, until cooked to medium-well doneness. Burgers should still be moist and juicy. While the burgers are grilling, lightly toast focaccia squares. Remove from heat and brush with olive oil. Take a clove of garlic and rub each toasted focaccia square to extract the garlic flavor. In a large bowl, toss romaine lightly with Roasted Garlic Caesar Aioli.

Assemble your burgers!

Spread roasted garlic caesar aioli on six toasted focaccia squares. Top with burgers, then top each burger with a few leaves of dressed romaine and two slices of crispy bacon. Drizzle with more Roasted Garlic Caesar Aioli and garnish with shavings of Parmesan.

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Lukas Volger's Best Portobello Burgers

(Christina Heaston) Lukas Volger, who lives in Brooklyn and has worked in New York-area restaurants and bakeries for many years, says he began "winging it" with ingredients while in college to make veggie burgers from things commonly found in the pantry because he was dissatisfied with veggie burgers sold in grocery stores.

"Veggie burgers totally have a bad rap," says Lukas Volger, "and for good reason. The frozen ones you get at the grocery store don't taste like anything. I don't like them at all, so that's why I make my own."

Volger's excellent new book, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, should not be thought of as just for vegetarians. While he gives ample information and instruction about vegetarian preparations, it is the variety and creativity of the recipes that makes this new cookbook stand out. Recipes such as his Tuscan White Bean Burger flavoured with garlic and sage, or his Thai Carrot Burgers with coriander, cinnamon and peanut butter, or the Chipotle Black Bean Burgers with corn and lime, or his Cashew Leek Burger with thyme and crimini mushrooms, are sure to get just about any carnivore's mouth watering.

Putting together this book, Volger has come to feel that veggie burgers are a sort of cuisine of their own, open to tremendous creativity and imagination. "In some ways we shouldn't even really call them burgers," he says. "The only thing they have in common with meat burgers is the shape and that you're expected to put them on a hamburger bun, but they are not a stand-in for a hamburger."

Best Portobello Burgers

(Excerpted from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way Copyright © 2010 by Lukas Volger. Reprinted by permission of The Experiment.)

No matter how many variations on a hamburger a typical burger-joint menu offers, the prevailing way of preparing portobello mushroom burgers in restaurants is to drench them in cheap, cloyingly sweet balsamic vinegar. The first thing I realized when I began developing my portobello burger was that the mushroom needed a savory marinade.

Enter miso paste, the fermented soybean paste that is the basis of miso soup and soy sauce. For years I've been adding miso to salad dressings and marinades — why not use it to season a portobello burger? The results blew me away. Miso offers a warm, nuanced saltiness that perfectly complements the natural earthiness of the mushroom.

Ingredients (makes four burgers)

• four medium portobello mushrooms
• three tablespoons olive oil
• one tablespoon rice vinegar
• two teaspoons miso paste
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Veggie Burgers Every Which Way is published by The Experiment.

Trim off the stems of the mushrooms and scrape out the gills with a spoon. Place the caps in a large baking dish or mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, miso, and pepper. Pour over the mushrooms and, using your hands, toss to ensure that all the mushrooms are evenly coated. Marinate for at least 15 minutes or up to two hours.

Prepare a medium fire over a charcoal or gas grill. Grill the mushrooms over an open flame for a total of 10 to 12 minutes, beginning with the rounded top down and flipping halfway through.

Variations:

Stuffed Portobello Burgers with Cheese: Mash together one cup cooked brown rice, ½ cup red or black beans, and a generous pinch of salt. Grill mushrooms as above, but starting with rounded top up. After flipping, spread this mixture into the cups of the mushrooms and then lay a piece of mozzarella, Monterey Jack, queso fresco, white cheddar, or your favorite soy cheese over the mixture. Finish grilling. Serve open-faced on a grilled slab of ciabatta or other airy bread.

Sesame Seaweed Portobello Burgers: Add ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil and ¼ teaspoon wasabi powder to the marinade. Top the cooked burger with a spoonful of prepared seaweed salad and a sprinkling of sesame seeds and serve on a soft, toasted sesame bun.

Spinach and Cheese Portobello Burgers: Martha Rose Shulman of the New York Times recommends melting a piece of Gruyère cheese over the top of a cooked mushroom and fitting a small mound of blanched, chopped spinach between the hamburger bun and the cavity of the mushroom. This is delicious on whole-wheat burger buns.

California Portobello Burgers: On a basic burger bun, place a cooked mushroom over a layer of avocado slices and a few splashes of hot sauce or sriracha, and top with quick-pickled red onions and a few pieces of lettuce.

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James McNair and Jeffrey Starr present Elizabeth Bennett's Opa! Burger

James McNair has written more than 40 cookbooks. (Dan Mills/Ten Speed Press)James McNair has been the head judge of the Sutter Home Winery Build a Better Burger contest since its inception in 1990.

"I spend most of each summer immersed in burger recipes," says McNair, speaking by phone from his home in Napa Valley.

Working with a team of screeners and chefs from Sutter Home Winery, McNair vets thousands of submitted recipes to choose the 10 burgers that will be finalists in a cook-off held each September at the winery in St. Helena, CA.

"We've had as many as 10,000 recipes submitted," says McNair, author himself of more than 40 cookbooks, "and as few as 3,000."

There are two prizes in the contest.

"The beef burger prize is the grand prize," says McNair. "That gets $100,000, and the alternative burger gets $15,000."

To celebrate the contest's twentieth anniversary, McNair and Sutter executive chef Jeffrey Starr have put together a new party book born of the best burgers from the contest. Burger Parties not only showcases many of the great burger recipes that have competed in the contest, but it also includes additional recipes from McNair and Starr gathered around thematic parties.

Jeffrey Starr is the executive chef for Sutter Home Winery. (Dan Mills/Ten Speed Press)"We took burgers that we really liked from the finalists over the years and built themes around those burgers," McNair says. "We have decorations and music suggestions — things to make a party fun. Then we developed wine cocktails, appetizers, side dishes and desserts to complement that burger and its party theme."

Each of the book's 16 chapters is titled after a specific party theme, such as "Jamaica Me Hungry," a Caribbean cookout party which features pineapple upside-down jerk burgers, or "By the Sea," a beach picnic with swordfish burgers and fingerling potato salad, or "Southwest Fiesta," a Mexican themed party with spicy chicken burgers, grilled corn and sangria.

The recipe below, called the Opa! Burger is from the party chapter called "Big Fat Greek Night," and marries together lamb, feta and kalamata olives.

"That was the 2006 alternative prize winner," says McNair. "It came from Elizabeth Bennett of Mill Creek, Wash. She's an amateur cook who enters a lot of cooking contests. Her lamb burger is luscious."

Opa! Burger

(Reprinted with permission from Burger Parties by James McNair & Jeffrey Starr Copyright 2010 Sutter Home Family Vineyards. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.)

(Dan Mills/Ten Speed Press)

Ingredients (serves six)

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted red bell pepper
• two cups (about eight ounces) crumbled goat feta cheese
• 1/2 cup pitted and chopped kalamata olives

Patties

• one cup Sutter Home Merlot
• 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• two pounds ground lamb
• one tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
• two teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• six Italian-style bolo rolls or other rustic rolls, split horizontally
• 12 thin slices sopressata
• one cup loosely packed baby spinach leaves
• six large tomato slices

(Dan Mills/Ten Speed Press) Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill with a cover, or preheat a gas grill to medium-high.

Combine the mayonnaise and bell pepper in a small bowl and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until assembling the burgers.

In a separate small bowl, mash the feta with a fork. Stir in the olives; set aside.

To make the patties, pour the wine into a heavy fireproof saucepan and heat on the grill until the wine begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add the dried mushrooms, stirring with a fork to moisten all the mushrooms. Set them aside to reconstitute for at least 30 minutes. Then drain and squeeze them gently to remove excess liquid. Chop the mushrooms and transfer to a large bowl. Add the lamb, garlic, oregano, chili flakes, salt, and pepper.

Handling the meat as little as possible to avoid compacting it, mix well. Form the mixture into six equal patties to fit the rolls.

Brush the grill rack with vegetable oil. Place the patties on the rack, cover, and cook, turning once, until done to preference, about four minutes on each side for medium-rare. During the last few minutes of cooking, place the rolls, cut side down, on the outer edges of the rack to toast lightly.

To assemble the burgers, spread the mayonnaise mixture over the cut sides of the roll bottoms and the feta mixture over the cut sides of the roll tops. On each roll bottom, place a patty, two slices of the sopressata, some spinach leaves, and a tomato slice. Add the roll tops and serve.