Video: Great Fries from South Beach Burger Bash
Check out what some of the industry's biggest names are cooking up for the 2009 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival's Burger Bash competition.
By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, March 12, 2009
Food trends funky and exotic come and go, but burgers’ simple splendor is always in style. That’s why the Burger Bash competition is the hottest ticket among 79 different star-studded events at the 2009 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, an annual four-day foodie gathering that draws a veritable who’s who of the world’s top chefs and restaurateurs.
“This is the first time in the history of festival we had an event sell out before 9 a.m. the day tickets went on sale,” saysEvent Manager Randy Fisher. “It absolutely has become the darling of the festival. Everybody can relate to a burger—it’s the type of food everyone really finds comforting and feels they can judge the best.”
| Update: Spike Mendelsohn Crowned '09 Winner |
| Former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn, chef-owner at Good Stuff Eatery in Washington, D.C., nabbed the coveted People's Choice award at the Feb. 19 contest with his Colletti's Smokehouse Burger. The sandwiches were laden with applewood bacon, sharp Vermont Cheddar, fried Vidalia onion rings and chipotle-barbecue sauce. |
In just a few years of existence, Burger Bash has become a sought-after invitation for chefs, who are chosen based on reputation and recommendations. Fisher receives hundreds of emails and reads scores of reviews, blogs and Web sites to compile the list. This year, 23 chefs will compete for the coveted People’s Choice Award, voted on by the 1,600 guests who will attend. Each receives a wooden chip to cast a vote, slipping it into the ballot box at the table of the chef whose burger them deem the best of the fest.
For the chefs themselves, the bragging rights at stake are just part of the draw.
“Not just with this event, but with all the subsequent events and the mentality of rallying around food and beverage and all the exciting things we’re doing, it’s an awesome thing to be a part of,” says David Walzog, executive chef of SW Steakhouse at the Wynn Las Vegas. “And it’s a great opportunity to sell your property and your brand, too.”
Carol Wallack, chef-owner of upscale neighborhood spot Sola in Chicago, views the competition as a chance to put her restaurant on the map. “I want to bring the prize back to a little independent restaurant in Chicago that a lot of people don’t know about,” she says.
Last year’s winner, Michael Schlow of Radius Restaurant in Boston, is feeling the pressure of coming back as a returning champion. “Quite frankly, last year I didn’t know it was a competition,” he admits. “I thought it was just a party on the beach where everybody was eating burgers and drinking beer and having a good time. It gets very competitive.”
R&I talked to eight of this year’s participating chefs to find out what signature recipes they’re cooking up this year and why they think they should win. Click on the links below for all the mouth-watering details.
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