Winner of London bun fight crowned

Rawson beat off competition from 14 other restaurant and pub chefs to take the title with a beef ‘pan con chicharron’ creation with aged beef patty, demi brioche bun, pork belly chicharron, aji Amarillo mayonnaise, mature Cheddar and avocado.

The competition was held at pubco ETM Group’s site the Gun, Docklands, London and was hosted by Giles Webster, licensee of the Coach & horses pub in Clerkenwell.

Runner-up was Owen Sullivan of Maze Grill Park Walk with his soft‐shell crab spider slider: fired soft-shell crab, snow crab and spicy mayonnaise dipped in crab bisque.

Third place went to Matt Tarantini from Source Battersea with a 35-day aged beef burger with a special spice blend, Stilton and Comte cheese and buttermilk bap with a black Pudding and bourbon sauce.

Pub finalist​

Among finalists were Sam Hawkes, chef at new ETM site the Botanist in Broadgate, London with a White Park beef burger, pulled Saddleback pork, Jugged Hare pale ale rarebit, horseradish kraut, triple cooked chips and anchovy mayonnaise.

Other finalists included last year’s champion, Tim Anderson at Nanban with a burger called ‘Wasted Away Again in Umecheesoville’ and comprising double sesame rice flour brioche, Mayu mayo, pickled lettuce, half-baked tomato, green shiso, chuck and chicken liver patty basted in nori-shiitake butter, three cheese potato korokke with Quaver crust and umeboshi ketchup.

Judging line-up Judges included Sunday Telegraph restaurant critic Zoe Williams, Metro restaurant critic Andy Lynes and former Mr Hyde editor and creator of Mr Hyde National Burger Day Jonny Pile.

Burger favourites​

A survey by Red Tractor, the UK’s leading quality assurance scheme, asked 7,000 consumers to vote for their favourite burger, with beef unsurprisingly coming out as the nation’s top choice when it comes to choosing a favourite filling.

But the report also shows that grilled chicken is seven times more popular than fried chicken; Pulled pork continues its persistent rise in popularity taking 16% of the vote and coming third in the list of favourite between-the-bun fillings.

Brits are still traditionalists when it comes to burgers, with lettuce (15%), tomato (12%) and red onion (11%) forming the key salad ingredients in the nation’s ultimate burger, representing 38% of the overall vote.

Cheddar took the top spot as the nation’s cheese of choice with 44% of the vote, followed by halloumi (27%), Stilton (16%) and Red Leicester (13%) Garlic mayonnaise is officially the condiment of choice taking over 11% of the votes, closely followed by mayonnaise (10%), barbecue sauce (9%) and burger relish (8%) Brioche is close to toppling seeded as the number one bun; 25% of the nation favour brioche, with seeded polling 26% of the vote.