Redwood Shores, CA – The opening reception for the James Beard Foundation’s 2016 Food Conference featured the five winners of this year’s Blended Burger Project™ cooking their Blend burgers for attendees at the historic James Beard House in New York City.
The more than 150 reception attendees – including leaders in the healthy and sustainable food movement, elected officials, fellow chefs, and media — feasted on slider versions of each of the chef’s winning recipes. The chefs’ restaurants were the top five recipients of the more than 2 million consumer votes submitted in this year’s competition that featured 350 restaurants menuing their takes on The Blend.
Excitement for a new take on the iconic burger has generated more than 2 million online votes this summer. The James Beard Foundation unveiled the five restaurants voted by consumers as winners of the second annual Blended Burger Project™, an initiative challenging chefs to blend finely chopped mushrooms with meat to create a more delicious, nutritious and sustainable burger.
Held from Memorial Day (May 30) through July 31, the Blended Burger Project featured 349 restaurants from 38 states developing and serving their version of a blended burger (made by blending at least 25 percent chopped mushrooms with meat).
In small town diners and metropolitan eateries, burger fans nationwide sampled and voted for their favorite blended burgers by visiting jamesbeard.org/blendedburgerproject. The five restaurants with the most votes won the opportunity to cook at the historic James Beard House in New York City as part of the official welcome reception on October 16 for the Foundation’s annual Food Conference (October 17-18).
Second Annual Blended Burger Project-Winning Chefs:
1. Chef Misha Levin, Bareburger, New York City (LaGuardia Place location) – topping its wild boar and sweet tamari mushroom blended burger with picked red onion, crispy mustard greens and a Sriracha vinaigrette.
2. Chefs Michael and Laurence Gottlieb, The Wood’s Kitchen, Bloomingdale, Ga. – serving up a Worcestershire-glazed double mushroom burger with charred Vidalia onion on a mushroom-salted brioche bun.
3. Logan Guleff, Logan’s Underground Supper Club, Memphis, Tenn. – presenting “The Mushroom Monster”: equal parts
4. Chef Toni Elkouri, Cedar’s Café, Melbourne, Fla. – featuring ground beef blended with portobella, shiitake and cremini mushrooms, topped with pomegranate ketchup, banana pepper curry mustard, tahini remoulade, balsamic onion, goat cheese, bacon, spinach and avocado.
5. Chef Adrian Cruz, The Orchard Lounge, McAllen, Texas – creating a shiitake, chorizo and beef blend patty, topped with homemade strawberry fig jam, chipotle Aioli, pickled cucumber, butter lettuce, a fried egg, bacon, tomato and string mushrooms.
“In the past few years, the blended burger has been adopted by the nation’s top culinary influencers, leading food management companies such as Sodexo, and now – some the nation’s most creative and adventurous chefs,” said Kristopher Moon, vice president, James Beard Foundation. “We are delighted to see the widespread enthusiasm and acceptance this summer for this plant-forward take on the burger and congratulate all those who took part.”
About The Mushroom Council:
The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve.
Source: The Mushroom Council