Hats Off: Top Chef’s Spike Scores Surprise Burger Bash Sweep
The Burger Bash cook-off at the annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival is all about big names, starting with Food Network, which runs the event, and Rachael Ray, the Burger Bash host. A-list chefs from the Food Network stable (including Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Psilakis of “Ultimate Recipe Showdown”) along with last year’s winner Michael Schlow (Radius in Boston), Katie Lee Joel and others cook their signature burgers and fight for attention.
But this year’s unexpected burger champ, crowned Thursday night, was Evangelos “Spike” Mendelsohn, chef-owner of Good Stuff Eatery in Washington, D.C. And he took not just one but three prizes: the People’s Choice, Judges Award and Best Dressed Burger.
Viewers of Season 4 of Bravo’s “Top Chef” may recall Mendelsohn as the goofy guy with the hat. His clowning got on judges’ nerves and his cooking landed him in the bottom group seven times, but Mendelsohn--a 2005 graduate of the The Culinary Institute of America--made it to the final five. He opened Good Stuff Eatery last April.
“I beat out Bobby Flay. That is pretty [deleted] cool,” Mendelsohn told the Miami Herald. “This is going to put us big on the map.”
His Best Dressed Burger winner was a version of the Coletti’s Smokehouse burger on the Good Stuff Eatery menu. The restaurant version tops a patty with applewood bacon, sharp Vermont Cheddar, fried Vidalia onion rings and chipotle BBQ sauce. Menu price is $6.69.
Click the jump below to watch Spike talk about the origin of his burger restaurant.
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Points to Spike for a good burger, no hat and a touch of humility. Who would have guessed?