By CARLA SPARTOS
Last updated: 6:12 am
October 8, 2008
Posted: 3:19 am
October 8, 2008
WHEN the first New York City Wine & Food Festival rolls into town this weekend, no event will be more closely watched than Rachael Ray's sold-out Burger Bash on Friday night.
With 16 contestants flipping everything from simple chuck to fancy Wagyu in a fierce bid to capture the title of city's best, the Burger Bash will decide once and for all whether the humble patty or the gourmet slider has captured the hearts and stomachs of New Yorkers.
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"I think [the winner] will be distinctly New York, like maybe the knish burger will come back or Shake Shack will take it again," says Ray, who also hosts the annual Burger Bash at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival where Shake Shack nabbed top honors in 2007.
"I hope we get a turnout at least as large as Miami because this is my home, this is where I live and I eat, so I'm hoping a lot of people come out to put it between the bun," says Ray. "I want New York to represent."
Ray knows a thing or two about burgers. In addition to offering countless recipes for home cooks (she calls her Seven-Layer Slider her "piéce de résistance"), the self-described "burger freak" plans to open a hamburger joint in Midtown next year.
"I'm going for a '60s back-in-the-day Rat Pack-y kind of hangout, and I want the bar to be really central [and] the burgers to become a very social thing," says Ray. "I want people to come to the bar to see beautiful proper martinis being made and to enjoy some sliders while they're doing business or sit in the dining room and have fine dining in ground form."
There won't be any shortage of that at the Burger Bash. But competitors seem split on whether the simple or the fancy will win out with savvy yet style-conscious New Yorkers.
"A burger is a burger. In my opinion, if you want to have foie gras with beef, then have filet mignon," says Burger Joint's Emile Castillo, who notes that a fancy burger won this year's Miami competition.
Likewise, New York's ongoing fixation with burgers has spawned cult butchers, celebrity chef sliders and outlandishly priced vanity patties. But now that the city is in a less frivolous mood, will it shun Kobe Club's Wagyu slider with maple-cured bacon and truffle-flecked fondue?
That would certainly make The Post's Steve Cuozzo happy. In a recent "Free Range" column, Cuozzo noted that ground chuck is "the gold standard for moisture and mouth feel to go with flavor."
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