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In Conversation with Chef behind the World's Most Expensive Burger
Other | Friday 28th November 2014 | lenjibong
Imagine the most lavish, beefed-out burger you can. You’re probably picturing some melting blue cheese, streaky bacon, maybe a gherkin or two, a brioche bun and some sweet relish. Good effort! Unfortunately, that doesn’t come close to the dream conjured up by top-chef Chris Large and the reality that was – the Glamburger.
After being approached by coupon kings Groupon, an opportunity arose that was simply far too ravishing to turn down. After a few weeks of hunting for some of the finest ingredients the world has to offer, Chris Large created a mouth-watering masterpiece that kicks the rump of any burger you’ve ever wrapped your lips around from Burger King to that fancy pub and back. In between planning his next wild creation, we managed to catch up with Chris for a chat.
Hey Chris, thanks for taking the time out for us. First things first, could you describe your current state of mind in 5 words or less?
Excited, Chris, Happy!
Nice. Could you tell us what you had for breakfast this morning?
I know exactly what I had for breakfast this morning – I had a tasting, it was steak and ale pie
How was that?
Absolutely lovely, beautiful!
If you were to go to a desert island what item would you take with you?
Err, water.
Fair enough. Worst job you’ve ever had?
Cleaning toilets in a mining camp. Used to work out in the mines in Australia in the desert and I took a cleaning job there and cleaned a lot of toilets.. It wasn’t pretty!
Gotta start somewhere! Bet you’re glad you’ve moved on from that. Let's talk about the Glamburger. What inspired this and have you always been a big burger fan?
Look I love burgers, I’ve worked in burger restaurants for years – I worked in the one in Sticky Fingers for four years. Always been a burger fan! Chefs eat ya know - generally simple foods, and so burgers are almost like a comfort food. One of those things I’ve always been putting in my mouth!
As for the inspiration – I was approached from Groupon asking me to make the world’s most expensive burger, and I said well, yeah of course I can! I’ll create the world’s most expensive burger, I’ll spend your money! So they gave me a massive budget, and away I went and spent three weeks going through what would work and what wouldn’t.
Awesome. So what exactly went into the burger?
Japanese matcha- powdered green tea- a special tea that’s only produced in small portions. Homemade mayonnaise, wagyu beef from Japan, New Zealand venison, black truffle brie inside the burger itself – British bacon with Canadian maple syrup, Heritage tomatoes, Canadian lobster, Brazilian mango.. haha.. beluga caviar, smoked duck eggs, gold leaf err…
Wow. That’s quite a list!
Yep, the ultimate burger.
Was it hard getting those ingredients together?
I’ve been fortunate enough to work in the industry for 15 years so I’ve got to know a load of suppliers, people I can get special ingredients from. Everything’s accessible; it just takes time to get some of the things.
Why the Wagyu beef?
What makes a good burger is between 15-20% fat and this beef has got flavor. Wagyu is quite fatty, so that’s why I used the New Zealand venison because its very lean and can cut back on the fat. Wagyu beef is the best in the world and also extremely expensive.
Scrupmtuous. What advice would you give to any inspiring burger chefs?
Love what you do! You need the passion for it, you gotta love it. What makes a good chef? Any kind of food, just a passion for it!
Who actually got to eat the burger?
I did! Actually made a couple of them! Had to make sure it was okay obviously, couldn’t put something out there that didn’t taste good!
For sure!
The first person to have it was a reporter from the Times. She came in and her attitude towards it was very negative, partially because of the price and also she didn’t think it would taste good. Beluga caviar, lobster in a burger? Then she had her first mouthful – and her mind was changed!
Typical! So of course there have been critics asking those questions… What about the starvation in the world, aren’t there better causes?… What would you say to the critics?
I’ve responded to that many times. The key thing is they said “Are you putting it on the menu?” and we said no, we’re not. The reason being that I’d understand if we had wastage… All the ingredients already exist. I just pulled them together to form what we did... If were wasting ingredients, like if we had it on the menu and we weren’t selling it then we’d be wasting ingredients, but we’re not doing that. If someone wants to come to eat it, then they’d give me a week’s worth of meat time so I can get the specific ingredients of that burger and so on. There’s no wastage. I like to challenge myself. I don’t think the argument is relevant.
Cool, can we expect any more extravagance in the future?
Haha- I was talking with some people about this. We were discussing the possibility of making the world’s most dangerous pizza.
Go on...
That’s something we were thinking about.
How would that turn out?
Well I can’t let the beef down. But it has got scorpions!
Look forward to seeing that! So where can we go and eat some of your grub?
Well there’s one restaurant in Chelsea and one in Clapham and they’ve been going down a storm. Check it out! The response has been overwhelmingly positive from this stunt, so expect more surprises soon!
Benji Long
