CHEF’S BEEF WITH AUSSIE BURGERS
AUSSIE burger kings are sizzling with anger after US chef David Chang claimed we ruined hamburgers more than anyone else in the world.
Australian celebrity chef Neil Perry said New Yorker Chang, who owns Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney, was just a “crazy cat who likes to be controversial”.
In a profanity- littered “Burger Manifesto” rant on his website, Chang said Australians had dared to commit crimes against the multi- layered hamburger.
“You know who f*** s up burgers more than anyone else in the world? Australians. Australia has no idea what a burger is. They put a fried egg on their burger. They put canned beetroot on it, like a wedge of it. I am not joking you. This is how they eat their burger,” the web post said.
Perry, who offers a Cape Grim burger with Aussie house- made pickled beetroot at his Burger Project in Sydney’s CBD, didn’t mince his response.
“I’m not much of an egg man myself and he’s entitled to his opinion, but these are the sorts of burgers of Australia’s past,” Perry said.
“If you look at burgers in America, fast food burgers are ordinary and have a whole lot of things on them as well. ”
Grill’d chain marketing director Amy Smith said Australian burgers had progressed beyond what Chang described.
“We in Australia are ahead of the curve in innovation,” she said.
“There is a huge variety of great ingredients in Australia.”