Rusty Johnson is Canada’s three-time burger king.
How he got there is a whopper of a tale of triumph over a crisis of cooking confidence.
Here's what happened:
Heading into the final day of competition at the 2017 Canadian Food Championships, which were held July 21 to 23 in Edmonton, Johnson was mired in fourth place in his specialty, the burger division.
He was the defending champion two times running, his sponsors were in town to watch and taste his work, and the Port Moody barbecue enthusiast was falling apart from the pressure.
Johnson’s recipe for a burger with chimichurri sauce, an herb-based steak sauce from Argentina, wasn’t quite perfected. He was having trouble finding a good bun.
So he did what he always does: He got grilling.
He called a friend in town to fire up his barbecue, showed up with 12 packs of assorted buns and started fine-tuning his entry for the final.
Hours — and many, many burgers — later, Johnson was confident he’d concocted a winner.
“It’s trial and error,” Johnson said of his competitive process. “You’re constantly making burgers and eating them. It’s not a skinny man’s sport.”
Johnson is no stranger to cooking competitions. He enters about a dozen every year across North America. In addition to his two previous Canadian burger championships, he was the world champion in 2015.
Often, his opponents are professional chefs who make their living in restaurant kitchens. Johnson is a network technician for Shaw who just happens to own 18 barbecues.
But he said his edge in competitive grilling is his consistency and ability to produce under pressure — which is what he did in Edmonton.
“Everyone can make a good signature burger,” Johnson said. “But not a lot of cooks can take a curve ball.”
That curve ball usually comes from the list of ingredients competitors are provided in the days leading up to a competition. The trick, Johnson said, is to meld those ingredients into a perfect balance of saltiness, sweetness and acidity. Add a little something to give the burger’s flavour an extra depth, Johnson said, “It comes out with a real punch in the mouth.”
For his championship burger, Johnson created a patty from ground short rib and chorizo sausage. He balanced the herby flavour of the chimichurri with a smoked red pepper aioli, grilled grape tomatoes and goat cheese, and some cilantro, then topped the burger with crispy corn meal onion strings. Provalata cheese provided the depth.
His test buddy was speechless.
“When we got it, you could tell,” Johnson said. “They don’t say anything, they’re just eating it and you don’t want to stop eating it.”
But that moment came after 11 p.m., and Johnson had to recreate his recipe — he doesn't write them down — in the competitive kitchen the next day.
“What makes you a real competitive chef is cooking under pressure,” Johnson said.
When he was announced as the winner, Johnson said he “gave a pretty good yelp.”
Johnson is the burger competition’s first three-time champion. In November, he’ll travel to Orange Beach, Alabama to try to win another world title.
And he said he’ll stick with his recipe for success.
“Keep it simple,” he said. “As long as you keep the burger as the star of the show.”
