Sixteen restaurants in the Lake Geneva, Wis., area competed in a specialty burger competition, serving 12,000 burger samples to guests and judges.
Chef Chris Bogan, from Lake Geneva School of Cooking, was master of ceremonies for the Burger Throwdown held Saturday, April 18 at Geneva Ridge Resort in Lake Geneva, Wis. Chef Bogan told Jade Bolack of LakeGenevaNews.net close to 12,000 burger samples were tasted by 1,000 guests.
At the Burger Throwdown, 16 Lake Geneva-area restaurants served up sample sizes of a speciality burger while competing for the judge’s award and the people’s choice award. The competition brought restaurants and head chefs to Geneva Ridge Resort.
This year, Chuck’s Lakeshore Inn in Fontana-on-the-Lake, Wis., earned first place in the judge’s competition with their western steakhouse burger. Joni’s Diner in Lake Geneva won the people’s choice award with a gouda bacon burger. Last year, the winner of both awards was Abbey Springs.
There are four judges at the event. Judge Matt McMillin, Executive Chef of Cooper’s Hawk Winery, told Jade Bolack of the LakeGenevaNews.net he stays impartial—and not too full—by tasting everything but not eating everything. He left his burger samples half eaten.
There were a few common themes at the competition. Judge Dave Zino, Executive Chef at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said he had seen bacon and onion strings on a lot of burgers.
“Some of the burgers had so many tastes it was overwhelming,” Zino said.
“The first thing is the taste,” he continued. “Is it seasoned right? Does it taste great? Do the flavors blend? Sometimes, less is more in a burger.”
Josh Golberg and Courtney Bieber, morning show hosts on Lake 96.1, said they were impressed by the burgers but would never make something similar at home.
“I’ll never prepare anything like this in my life,” Golberg said. “Creativity is really the thing here.”
Golberg said he often rates a restaurant when dining out by its burger.
“When I go out to eat, I get a burger, especially if it’s a place I think I’m going to return to,” he said to Jade Bolack of LakeGenevaNews.net. “If they get a burger right, because it’s such a staple, then I can trust their other dishes.”
Bieber said she liked the way the chefs at the competition used unique ingredients to better flavor their burgers.
“We’ve had cinnamon in one (The Baker House), and there was Guiness in another (Foley’s Bar & Grill),” she said.
The judges were also brutally honest in their opinions of the burgers. Golberg said he didn’t like a very simple burger that came in toward the end of the competition.
“It just didn’t have that burger taste I’m looking for,” he said.
The sold-out Burger Throwndown competition was a fundraiser for the Badger High School culinary program.
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