Zan Kaufman of Bleecker St Burger won the Final of the London Burger Bash on April 5th at Borough Market with a combination of blood and guts.

The blood refers not to the oozy redness of her aged beef patties, cooked south of medium rare, but to the dried blood in the Clonakilty beef black pudding she added to her #LBBfinal entry – the Bleecker Black.

The guts alludes not to any beef innards in that Irish black pudding, however essential they may be, but rather to the audacity of using an ingredient that could repulse a thick slice of the voting pool.

Zan did not try to hide the black pudding by concealing it beneath the bun or under a blanket of melted cheese. She presented it proudly, in full view, as a third patty inserted between twin beef patties – a black stroke of defiance across the exposed middle of every half burger served from the Bleecker black truck.

The Bleecker Black captured over a third of the 500 votes cast, placing it ahead of the burgers featured by the other co-finalists:

The Piggy Rascal from Joe Grossmann of Patty & Bun

The Grizzly G&T from Tom Reaney of Burger Bear

The Bacon Cheeseburger from Fred Smith of Fred’s.

 

Zan’s London Burger Bash victory proved either that the remarkable richness and deep warmth of the multi-layered Bleecker Black overcame the anti-blackpuddingists or, more likely, that they were ultimately rendered defenceless against all that deep, rich, juicy, creamy, beefy favour.

all photos by Ian Sargent