The world’s most expensive hamburger (single portion) is wrapped in gold and garnished with caviar – and costs €5,000 ($5,400).
Named “The Golden Boy” it was put on the menu at The Daltons restaurant in Voorthuizen, Gelderland, Netherlands by chef Robbert Jan De Veen in 2021.
The hefty price tag is all down to the top-quality ingredients Robbert used to create it.
He came up with the idea during the Covid-19 pandemic when his restaurant was forced to close to diners.
Although people couldn’t sit down to eat, they were still serving up takeaways, and it was one night when he was there to help train a new manager he stumbled across a Facebook post about the most expensive hamburger.
That one was expensive due to how oversized it was, and Robbert decided to challenge himself to make a standard-sized burger that could set a record.
Creating the recipe from scratch, Robbert was keen to develop a burger that was not just expensive, but also rich in taste.
Ingredients used for the burger wrapped in gold
The bun is made using Dom Pérignon champagne and is slightly toasted but still soft on the inside, and it’s covered in gold leaf.
The burger itself is made from juicy wagyu beef and is garnished with king crab and caviar. It includes onion rings that are battered in champagne and smoked duck egg mayo.
Its taste is described as sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami, which means it has a pleasant savory flavor.
He said of creating the burger: “There were a few challenges, not going to lie about that. But the first big one was: how are we going to make sure that this burger is going to taste awesome?
“I mean, it’s easy to just take a few really expensive ingredients and put them on a burger. But for me, it was very important that the burger also tastes awesome.
“I wanted to see how far can we go with it, how much can we put in to it – and still make sure that the five tastes are in perfect harmony.”
He added: “The second big challenge was to source the ingredients. For example, a few ingredients that are in the burger are normally not available in the Netherlands, but I had great help from my suppliers.”
Robbert said his friends, family and staff all rallied around him for the attempt, and the public’s reaction to the launch of the burger was great.
He used the burger to not only fulfil his childhood dream of being a Guinness World Records title holder, but also to raise awareness of poverty in the Netherlands.
The chef donated the full €5,000 from the first Golden Boy burger he sold to a local foodbank.
The money was used to make 1,000 food packages for families who needed help.
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