I feel nervous wading into the great burger debate. Acolytes are so fervent about the right, wrong and ‘perfect’ way of buying, cooking and eating burgers, I fear any provocation could start a riot.
Our interest in eating burgers that surpass McDonald’s or Burger King started to swell in the early 2000s, producing huge numbers of great street food options, as well as new restaurants, from Honest, Bleecker and (the now slimmed down) Byron to Five Guys. Most pubs offer a decent burger, while chefs have taken to elevating its status further by engineering burger scarcity on their menu.
Jackson Boxer is so devoted to ensuring a high-end burger at his Notting Hill restaurant Dove that he only makes 10 a day, generating hype that quickly turned it into a cult item. Junior Bake Off judge Ravneet Gill wanted a ‘no frills’ burger on the menu of her Chingford restaurant, Gina, but perfecting this deceptively simple dish was more complicated than anyone had imagined. “And my goodness did it bring opinions,” she wrote in her newsletter. “There’s something about burgers that sends people a bit funny. Everyone has their ideal version, and they’ll defend it to the death.” In the end, she took it off the menu but has just announced it will return – on Tuesdays only.
