The six competitors and I are working together at cross purposes in our designs for the November 3-4 @BurgerMonday #LondonBurgerBash at Camden Town Brewery.

One look at the menu below and it’s pretty clear each chef wants you to love his burger so much that voting him the winner will prove to be a no-brainer.

As the event organiser I want you to love all six of their burgers so much that choosing the one most deserving of the Golden Patty Award will prove a struggle, as it’s been throughout the group stage of #LondonBurgerBash. The largest margin of victory in the prior three rounds was 12 votes.

The champion of this, the fourth and final round, will compete next year in the LBB finals against past Golden Patty winners Fred Smith, who won the first round with his Braised Ox Cheek Chilli Cheeseburger (see video); Joe Grossmann of Patty&Bun, victor of second round with his Piggie Smalls Burger (see video); and Zan Kaufman of Bleecker St. Burger, whose Bacon Cheeseburger took the third round (see photos).

Meet the burgers:

Chimichurri Burger

Diego Jacquet, Zoilo

Grilled beef patty infused with chimichurri & served with caramelised onions, grilled tomatoes, provolone cheese, roasted garlic aioli & house spicy cucumber pickles on brioche bun from Seven Seeded

Diego Jacquet reveals himself as the Messi of mince when he sets his mind on a burger. The chef at Zoilo and Casa Malevo infuses his patty with a world-class signature version of chimichurri, the classic Argentine sauce for grilled meats, and then piles on more punch with roasted aioli and homemade spicy cucumber pickles. So just how juicy is Diego’s Chimichurri Burger? So juicy that, given the inevitable overflows and spills, you may wish to wear wellies to the bash.

 

Hamburg Hamburger

Oliver Trific, Trific

Aged beef patty, smoked shallot mayo, beetroot pickles,  fried quail egg & herring salsa on brioche bun

Oliver Trific ingeniously imagines what a hamburger  (little h) would be like today had it been invented in Germany by a Hamburger (big H). For inspiration he turns to labskaus, a famous Hamburg stew that Liverpudlians know as lobscouse or just scouse. Trific presents the sautéed shallots you’d find in a labskaus as a smoky shallot mayo and the pickled herring as a herring salsa – a fabulous, umami-rich condiment that even herring-phobic burger lovers will adore.
 

Black Forest Bear

Tom Reaney, Burger Bear

Aged beef patty, black cherry bacon jam, double oak smoked bacon & American cheese on black toasted bamboo charcoal bun.

The beef should always be the best thing about a burger, an assertion backed by the hand-formed ball of dry-aged beef street food warrior Tom Reaney smashes into a thick patty on his flat-top griddle. Even so, most people leave Burger Bear singing the praises not of the beef but of an accessory to it, Tom’s bacon jam. All Tom would have to do is give them a jar of it and a spoon and they’d be as happy as Londoners can be, except maybe if he replaced the regular bacon jam with the special black cherry bacon jam he’s created exclusively for #LondonBurgerBash and his Black Forest Bear.

 

Piccante Heartbreaker

Cristiano Meneghin, Tongue ‘n Cheek

Heartbreaker patty proudly made with ox heart & dry aged beef , spicy Nduja, smoked provola cheese, kewpie mayo, pickled onions & gem lettuce.

Ace butcher Nathan Mills praises the mix that goes into Tongue ‘n Cheek’s Heartbreaker patty as “off the charts”. Cristiano Meneghin, winner of Best Sandwich at the British Street Food Awards, blends ox heart with dry aged beef to create a patty with flavour so deep you’ll need a 400-foot escalator to carry you back up to earth.  The Piccante gets its heat from ‘Nduja, the spicy spreadable sausage of Calabria, and its umami punch from smoked provola cheese and kewpie mayo.

 

SmokeShack

Shake Shack

Cheeseburger, British free range Wiltshire Cure smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper & ShackSauce on a potato roll.

Shake Shack debuted its SmokeShack in 2012 at the New York City Food & Wine Festival’s annual Blue Moon Burger Bash. The British version it is presenting at #LondonBurgerBash replaces Niman Ranch all-natural Applewood Smoked Bacon with free-range Wiltshire smoked streaky bacon. There is nothing watered down about this baby. Due to the comparatively modest size of its smashed patty (about 125 grams) the SmokeShack will be served whole & not halved.

 

Iberica Burger Grande

Cesar Garcia, Iberica

Secreto Iberico pork loin, rosemary Manchego cheese & salsa Iberica on a demi-brioche bun.

The pork Cesar Garcia is using for his patty isn’t just any pork. It’s from the prized acorn-fed Iberico black pig native to the Iberian peninsula. The Iberico pork he’s using isn’t just any cut of Iberico pork. It’s the prized Secreto cut of Iberico, bred with enough rich flavour to stand up to Cesar’s garlicky salsa Iberica. The Manchego cheese he’s using isn’t just any Manchego….you get the picture!