How much does a quality burger cost on average in Dhaka? Tk100-300 or so will be the most common answer for sure. Even when high-end eateries in the capital city try charging within Tk500 for a burger, it would sound quite a tall tale that a Dutch chef came up with a different idea: making the world's most expensive burger.
He prepared “The Golden Boy” and sold it for 5,000 euros, or a little over Tk5 lakh, to Netherlands-based business conglomerate Remia International, media reports suggest.
Robbert Jan de Veen of De Daltons diner in Voorthuizen, Netherlands took this interesting take and also shared an image of the dish on his Instagram page.
Interestingly enough, the chef did it all for a great cause-- he donated the whole sum of money to an NGO to buy food packages for the needy.
Ingredients used in the burger are Japanese A5 Wagyu brisket and chuck short ribs, king crab, Dom Perignon champagne onion rings, Paleta Ibérico Bellota ham, white truffle, beluga caviar, smoked saffron and chive mayonnaise made with duck eggs, barbecue sauce made with Kopi Luwak coffee and Macallan Single Malt Whisky Rare Cask, English Wyke Fams truffle cheddar, matcha pickled tiger tomatoes and cucumber, Dom Perignon champagne and saffron gold leaf bread and whisky infused smoke.
The burger ended up being grabbed by the Royal Dutch Food and Beverage Association Chairman Rober Willemse.
Eating 'The Golden Boy' is a unique experience, stated Chef Veen, adding: "The ingredients complement each other very well and the flavours are intense. Even though this burger is extremely costly, you should still use your hands because that's the only way to eat a burger. Since the bun is covered in gold leaf, your fingers will be golden by the time you finish."
As per an official statement by the Veen’s restaurant, the first edition of the Golden Boy was sold on June 28. Veen, who runs the restaurant that was started by his parents 30 years ago, is now on the lookout for a second buyer of The Golden Boy.
It took him more than five months to finalise the ingredients and experiment with various recipes. On the final day, it took him close to nine hours to prepare the burger.
“Restaurants were closed and there were no food competitions due to the pandemic. Though our food takeaway service was on, I was depressed. I was feeling bad seeing the sufferings of the masses and the dismal situation of the restaurant industry,” the 33-year-old chef.
Veen researched the archives of the Guinness World Records and found that the current record for the most expensive hamburger was set in 2011 by a restaurant in Oregon, in the US.
“That burger had a price tag of 4,200 euros and weighed 352.4kg … that’s definitely not for one person … so I thought I can do better than that … it was really a challenge to create such an expensive dish for a single person,” he said.
Veen’s world-record attempt is currently under review by the Barcelona-based Official World Record Association that registers world records.