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This week takes place in Madrid, the Salón Gourmets, the most important annual showcase of high-end food and beverages. This year more than 2,000 national and international exhibitors and 1,200 activities, among which highlights the Burger Combat, the championship of Spain Gourmets Burgers, which this year celebrated its third edition. On this occasion, the winner was chef Mariana Hernández, from El Baifo Street Food, in Santa Cruz de la Palma. She won the prize thanks to her ‘Benahoarita’ hamburger, a combination of Lantmännen Unibake Pretzel bun, 15-day matured Palmeran beef, vacuum-packed goat meat stew, La Palma cheese sauce and Palmeran goat leg ham.
The Pólvora restaurant in Madrid, second in the ranking
In second place was chef Sergio Sanz, from Pólvora restaurant (Madrid). His innovative proposal was the ‘Soft Shell Crab Burger’, a tempura soft shell crab burger, with pretzel bread enriched in clarified butter, along with a touch of sweet soy, kimchi mayonnaise and sisho leaf. On the other hand, the podium was completed by chef Javier Almado of the restaurant El 2 de Gastéiz (Vitoria-Gastéiz), with ‘La Vacuna 2.0’, a hamburger formed by rustic bread, piquillo bell pepper sauce, spinach, steak meat, raclette cheese and piquillo mayonnaise. And a tasty finish with a shot of grilled pineapple.
In the Social Media section, the most popular was the chef Sergi Mateo Lladí, from Hamburguesería Paradise in Blanes (Girona), thanks to his proposal called ‘La Amante’. The final was contested by six aspirants who reached the final battle and had to prepare a recipe with ingredients of their choice (meat, sauce, etc.), but with the condition of using one of the buns from the range offered by the Lantmännen Unibake group, the organizer.
The jury’s criteria were based on several factors: from the creativity of the dish, to the chefs’ ingenuity in combining the ingredients, the harmony of flavors or the innovation of the recipes. Among the members of the jury were professionals related to the gastronomic world such as Daniel Salas, founder of Cocinillas and gastronomic critic of El Español; Felipe Ruano, president of ASEMAC; Íñigo Urrechu, chef and owner of the Urrechu and Zalacaín restaurants; Mikel Galán, winner of the 2nd Burger Combat; or María Lo, winner of MasterChef 10, among other personalities.
