The Four-Star Medium Hamburger

Michael Gray has been the Hanover Inn's executive chef for the past eight years. A compulsive cook, Gray recently went Camping on Lake George. Dinner: sauteed striped bass with roasted peppers and garlic. "We turned a few heads in that campground," he admits.

When the red-bearded Gray arrived at the Inn in 1986, the menu was the first thing to go. He

brought Rockport mussels and blackened quail to an otherwise traditional filet mignon and sirloin selection. Result: For the past two years, the Daniel Webster dining room has received the only four-diamond restaurant rating in the state of New Hampshire.

The most difficult dish Gray has prepared? Not the 178 half-lobsters with black truffle vinaigrette for a building-dedication banquet, nor the sauteed lobster with roasted corn sauce served three summers ago for the Thayer School Board of Overseers.

"It's a hamburger," says Gray. "A medium hamburger." He explains: "There are so many variables: the cut of the meat, thawing time, heat of the grill...."