1st HRRAC grilled burger throw down

CEBU, Philippines - The Hotel, Resort & Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRACI) organized the "Taste of Cebu" food fest at the Terraces of the Ayala Center Cebu which highlights the menu specialties of the fourteen participating members. Budget-friendly snacks, desserts, drinks and dishes were sold in the 14 food booths and this was an opportunity for many locals and tourist to experience the best of Cebu, all available in one location.

The event also featured cookie decorating, bartending, pizza making competition for children, fruit carving and the most exciting mouth watering event, the Grilled Burger Throw Down. Appetites are stimulated by the sight and smell of all that delicious smoke that permeated the grounds of the Terraces!

Your favourite food columnist was invited by the HRRAC represented by Charlene Go, PR Manager of Cebu City Marriott Hotel, together with Jigs Arquiza and Orly Cajegas to be the judges of the grilled burger competition.

The term "burger" refers to a type of sandwich that is similar to hamburger which uses ground beef or other sandwiches which use different varieties of meat such as chicken, turkey, buffalo and others. The term hamburger is originally derived from Hamburg, Germany's second largest city, from which many people emigrated to the United States".

The beef used in the early version of the burger was probably low grade, hence the need to mechanically shred it and flavour it with spices leading to the so-called "Hamburg steak". Later in 1826, a restaurant named Delmorico in New York had a menu which listed hamburger.

Then in 1891, it is said that the first hamburger served on a bun was made by Oscar Bilby in Oklahoma.

Whatever the origins, hamburger is now a popular item in fast food restaurants and today, we have many versions like the "double decker" (2 patties) and "triple" (3 patties). It may be combined with cheese or bacon leading to double cheeseburger or triple bacon cheeseburger.

During the grilled burger competition, a team will have two chefs and cooking time is 15 minutes for all burgers from preparation to serving. Meat will be supplied (meat to fat, 80 to 20 ratios) and the competing teams will provide their ingredients, including the bun. All the burgers will be cooked on a grill to be shared with all the teams.

Ten teams from the participating HRRACI members joined and, that means, all the judges had to taste 10 burgers and appraise the burgers based on the criteria (taste-30 %, presentation-30%, etc.) set earlier by the HRRACI committee. And only to taste it, not really consume the entire burger. Once the stomach is filled and the energy level is satisfied, the next burger, no matter how good it is, will be rated inferior. Neither can you start with an empty stomach, because the first burger to be eaten will always taste good.

The team of Vanessa Maliao and June Fernandez from Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa won the first place, followed by Katrina Avila and Godfrey Ngujo, 2nd place, Marco Polo Plaza Cebu and the third place went to Chuck Lim and Jason Fuentes of Cebu City Marriott Hotel.

I wonder how the world's most expensive burger, FleurBurger 5000 (Burger Bar in Mandalay Las Vegas) would taste. It is priced at only, excuse me, $5,000 a piece. It is made of Kobe beef, topped with black truffles, foie gras and truffle sauce and served with a bottle of Chateau Petrus 1990.

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