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LONDON BURGER BASH
I have a mild obsession with burgers. I think that —when executed right—they are a perfect food. Juicy, chargrilled beef; soft, yielding buns; and savoury toppings come together in a glorious explosion of flavours and textures.
When I found out that I would be in London just in time to check out a round of Young and Foodish’s London Burger Bash, I jumped at the chance to go. There are 4 rounds wherein 6 burgers are pitted against each other in a fight to win a Golden Patty Award. The four winners then go on to the finals to compete for the ultimate award: Best London Burger.
The competitors ranged from dedicated burger makers (Bleecker Street Burger) to established pubs (The Drapers Arms). I’m not sure if the crowd had favourites going in to the judging, but for me, I had no expectations—I’ve never had burgers in London. Then all of a sudden I had six half burgers.
The burger rundown:
Chris Golding’s UnBEETable Burger: Golding is the head chef at Apero, a Mediterranean brasserie. I’m pretty sure he’s a little obsessed with beets considering the bright red beetroot bun and beetroot mayonnaise. I like beets, but this burger was overly sweet and had no textural contrasts. I thought the pink bun was beautiful, but I overheard some people who were slightly turned off by the colour.
Q Burger by The Quality Chop House’s head chef, Shaun Searley: This was definitely a step up from the UnBEETable burger, but I didn’t get that super juicy, flavourful beefiness I was looking for. Instead the truffled Tunworth cheese overwhelmed the whole burger.
Bleecker Street Burger’s Double Cheeseburger: This was a classic American-style burger: two aged beef patties, American cheese and special sauce on a toasted bun. It was quite good – Zan Kaufman is a NYC native and she knows how to make a burger. It was my favourite of the night so far, but I still had three other burgers to try.
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