© South Beach Wine & Food Festival.
Marc Murphy and his winning Big Marc burgers
Judging the
South Beach Wine & Food Festival Burger Bash isn’t easy. You have to taste a million burgers (or in this case, about 25), you have to choose among a lot of great options and you have to be prepared to have a serious stomachache afterwards. What almost never happens is that the winning burger is the last one you taste (you’re already way past burger overload). But at this year's Bash that’s exactly what happened to me and my fellow judges—including
Art Smith and
Alex Guarnaschelli—with
Marc Murphy’s “Big Marc.” His juicy, gorgeously charred burger was made with beef from Allen Brothers, topped with
bread & butter pickles and spiked ketchup and served on a grilled house-made cheddar-and-black-pepper bun. Alongside, he served killer jalapeño-cheddar tater tots. “Never made the burger before,” says Murphy. “I was concerned with feeding 3,000 people and thought that by adding the cheese to the bun, I'd eliminate a step and feed everyone more quickly.”
Here’s good news for everyone who wants to taste the Big Marc. Murphy got so many requests for the burger after his win
that he’s added it and the tater tots to the menu at his
Landmarc and
Ditch Plains restaurants. Yes, that includes the Ditch Plains that's opening on Manhattan’s Upper West Side tonight. It's a great opportunity to judge the Big Marc for yourself.
2 FREE PREVIEW Issues
Tablet Edition | Give a Gift
f&w everywhere