£95 burger takes the biscuit

25 07 2011

I was trawling the internet during a particularly dull moment in my work day and happened to come across an article highlighting the 4 most expensive burgers in the world (whatever did we do for fun before the internet?)

The holder of this auspicious title is the £95 “Charity Burger” from Burger King.

The meat used in the burger was Australian farmed Wagyu beef mixed with 20% Aberdeen Angus fat due to it’s own very low fat percentage – usually around a mere 2%.

This most exclusive of  patties was complimented with  oven-dried Pata Negra ham, organic mayonnaise, pink Himalayan rock salt,  truffles and 25-year-aged Modena balsamic vinegar. To make up for the fact that therewasn’t a chip in sight the whole thing was stuffed with banana shallots fried in a tempura batter made using Cristal champagne.

The buns used to contain this pinnacle of burger creation were made using white truffle flour and dusted with lashings of rare Iranian saffron.
 Served on proper china and accompanied by a glass of Claret this is a burger that is a far cry from the usual paper wrapped Whopper.

Mark Dowding, the director of product development and innovation for Burger King (“Just call me the Burger King chef”) is very proud of his creation, which he says took six months to “develop”.  All proceeds from the sale of the 100 finished burgers went to an undisclosed charity.

Well even if there had been more than 100 of these available I really don’t think I would ever be able to justify spending the best part of a ton in order to chow down on a burger; especially as I am really not sure it would have been that great.

Wagyu beef is a really specialist product that has a taste and texture all of it’s own, a big part of which is the very leanness that BK have worked so hard to combat….I’m just not convinced that it would work at all as a burger.

Moving on from the burger itself; truffle flour buns with saffron, deep fried, banana shallots, truffles, mayonnaise, parma negra, himalayan rock salt and aged balsamic vinegar. That is a sh*t-load of strong flavours and whilst they may work well together there is a real risk that it would just be completely overwhelming.

My final gripe is based on the “charitable” element of the burger; at £95 each sales of all 100 burgers would generate a mere £9,500. Now far be it from me to criticise ANY charitable donation but for a company the size of Burger King lauding the donation of less than £10k just seems like a bit of a PR stunt.


Duvel double pack

17 07 2011






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