If you’re one of those people who believes summer weekends are made for sun, beer and burgers, then you might want to gas up the car. On Sunday, August 10, Hale Muskoka in Gravenhurst is hosting its first-ever Smash & Sear: Best in Burger Competition, and it’s shaping up to be the tastiest thing to happen north of the 401 all summer.
Billed as an all-ages afternoon of fire, flavour and culinary bragging rights, the burger bash brings together five top chefs — most of them with serious Toronto roots — to battle it out for ultimate smash supremacy.
The competitors include a a stacked lineup of star chefs including Paul Boehmer, who famously opened Böhmer on Ossington and once beat Susur Lee in an Iron Chef-style showdown; Joe Friday, the CIA-trained chef behind Friday Burger Company and founder of The Chef Collective; Bradley Yip, a private chef to the one per cent in Muskoka, Aspen and Miami, Melanie Robinson, a Chopped Canada champ and community-driven chef running events like the “Common Ground” dinner series; and Roger Moore, a Jamaican-born chef known for soulful, flavour-bomb cooking and that legendary jerk chicken.
And to judge all that meaty goodness is a panel of culinary heavyweights including Jordan Wagman, Charmaine Broughton and Rob Rowe (of Rowe Farms fame), plus chefs Coco Gaona and Melanie Dunkelman.
The event promises sliders from all the chefs, craft beverages, desserts, live music from Canadian country star Alexis Taylor and the Patti & Mick Trio, plus artisan markets, games and a charity BBQ auction supporting Gravenhurst Against Poverty and West Muskoka Food Bank.
Tickets are $44.29 and include food and drink which is basically a steal, considering you’ll burn it off in Muskoka traffic anyway. You can grab yours on Eventbrite right here.
