Culinary Fight Club Benefits Great Cause

Everyone has a burger recipe that they swear by. Some add breadcrumbs, or ranch dressing mix, or Worcestershire sauce… but, either way, the pool of contenders for the juiciest, tastiest  burger in Philadelphia is a large one. Think you might want to throw your hat in the ring? Well, get ready, because the Culinary Fight Club is at it again, and this time they will determine who’s got the best blended burger in the city.

The Culinary Fight Club is a nationally-touring chef’s competition that focuses on the fun and competitiveness of cooking. In each city they stop in, the Fight Club has a theme. When they hit Philly next Monday, May 7th, the theme will be “blended burgers.” This is to describe a burger that is not made exclusively with ground beef. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Mushroom Council is a sponsor, so each burger, to be blended with Bo Jackson’s Angus Burger Patties, must contain at least 25 percent mushrooms.”

Here’s how it works: any chef, whether amateur or professional, can enter the Culinary Fight Club. They’ll need to bring their A-game, because they’ll have only 60 minutes to whip up an award-winning blended burger from a pantry of approximately fifteen ingredients. There will be a panel of judges, as well as the attendees of the event, who pay $25 apiece for food and one beer apiece. The  judges and the attendees will each vote on the best burger. The winner of the judges’ choice gets 300 bucks, while the attendees’ winner gets a cool $100. Both winners get an even more exciting prize – rights to move on to the national competition in Chicago on Aug. 19-20.

The Philly Culinary Fight Club bout benefits the food-insecurity charity Fight2Feed. It will run from 6 until 9 p.m. at Uptown Beer Garden at BNY Mellon Center.

In the meantime, I’ll be here dreaming Homer Simpson-style about burgers.