SuperBurger. Location: Montauk. Scene: Day Party. Ray-Bans. Sunny. Food: 12 Burgers. Beer. Cocktails. Pie.
This past weekend Montauk Yacht Club hosted its sixth annual Montauk SuperBurger competition which brings together several top New York City chefs with the challenge to create the best “beach burger.” The most exciting part about this event (besides enjoying the summer sun, refreshing Tito’s cocktails and huge yachts swimming by) is the fact that several participating chefs don’t even serve a burger at their restaurant. Therefore, this is a test to check their creativity and true crafty culinary skills. The event ran from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. and tickets equaled admission, all you can eat burgers, all you can drink beer and cocktails as well as Grasshopper Pie from the one-and-only Christina Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar. Restaurants and chefs ranged from: Fedora, Burger Joint, Michael White, Commerce and Empellon’s Alex Stupak, who made a Shortrib burger with chorizo, refried beans and chihuahua cheese (3rd pic above). Fatty Crab’s Zak Pelaccio’s Lamb Burger was the crowd favorite as everyone consistently raved about it. My two favorites were PJ Clarke’s (1st pic above) and Seamus Mullen’s of Tertulia (2nd pic above).
The overly intense P.J. Clarke’s burger included: P.J. Meyer Ranch signature blend, Mecox Bay Farmhouse Cheddar, Ketchup and Lewin Matchstick Fries on a Bacon Brioche Bun. You heard me, Bacon Brioche Bun. While trying to fit my mouth over this monster, I almost forgot about the meat itself because the soft, flaky bun overpowered my tastebuds. There was a little too much junk going on in there, so I separated all of the fixings and matched the bun with the burger, which by the way was cooked perfectly rare. This transformed into a burger dream come true. Mullen’s burger was simple, tasty and nothing fancy which won him first place in the competition.
The judges table aka interactive performance composed of the infamous: Pat LaFrieda, Top Chef’s Spike Mendelsohn from DC’s Good Stuff Eatery, Food & Wine’s Kate Krader, Lee Schrager and Chef Josh Capon of Burger & Barrel and Lure Fishbar. Final results were: 1- Seamus Mullen/Tertulia 2- Harold Moore/Commerce 3- Jesse Gerstein
Cheers to a great event and hope to see you out next year!
