A Word about Cheese

It’s difficult to imagine a time when the cheeseburger did not exist. But the first condiment to grace a hamburger patty in the beginning was probably raw or cooked onion.

It took a good thirty years after the introduction of the hamburger for someone to slip a slice of cheese on a patty as it neared completion. And today, cheese is one of the most recognized accessories in the construction of the perfect burger.

There are varying claims, but it is widely accepted that the cheeseburger first made its appearance in Los Angeles in the late 1920s. It is said that short-order cook Lionel Sternberger at the Rite Spot in Pasadena, California, was the first to melt American cheese on a burger, in 1926. Within just two years, the cheeseburger was on menus all over town. An early printed menu from the now-shuttered South Los Angeles restaurant Odell’s lists a cheeseburger smothered with chili in 1928, making the first-cheeseburger claim by Kaelin’s of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1934 completely false.