Benchmark burgers: Tasty innovation

One great way to benchmark any restaurant around the globe, is to order something that is available universally. The double advantages are that the food is familiar, and yet there is room enough to appreciate innovation. Or, on the downside, to note shortcomings.

Blame it on my spending my formative years in the US, but my benchmark of choice is the hamburger. I toyed with hotdogs and club sandwiches; a few summers ago I also tried out crabcakes as alternatives. But then I went back to the patty-bun combo.

My tastes have changed since my starved Indian palate feasted on McDonald’s burgers way back in the 1970s. Even in that genre my vote now goes unreservedly to the Whopper from Burger King — I grab at least one for old times sake in every airport when travelling!

Forty years on, my interest now centres on the upmarket burger, which is what I guage particularly 5 star hotel restaurants by! My extensive ‘research’ here and abroad coalesce on one incontrovertible fact: the better the burger, the less ‘perfect’ it looks.

Cookie cutter-perfect patties , unblemished buns and over- coordinated add-ons make me think of McDonald’s all over again. The truism was borne out recently by the pricey burger at Delhi’s newest five-star hotel. It was so carefully husbanded to perfection that it had none of the charred charm, the oozing oomph or the drippy deliciousness that distinguishes a truly handmade burger from a frozen fastfood one.

As India benchmarks herself against the best of the rest of the world, it is time hotels and restaurants realise soon