Bucks-based food truck reaches finals of national burger cooking competition

A Buckinghamshire-based food truck has reached the finals of a national burger-making competition.

Burgervore, which serves patties across Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire but is run by a team from Monks Risborough, will be competing at the 2024 National Burger Awards.

A field of 16 chefs will be competing in a live cook-off to find the UK’s best burger. Burgervore, owner Will Batting, will be making the Basic Instinct for a panel of judges at Big Penny Social in London on 20 February.

Burgervore says it has been its best-selling burger since day one. Typically, the business sells three Basic Instincts to every other burger it produces.

A company spokesperson said: “We developed a burger that in its foundations features on almost every food menu across the country. So we set about doing what we do best. A cheese and bacon burger is a staple but what we have done is maximise it to a level where our customers make a point to regularly tell us “it’s the best burger they’ve ever had”. People have travelled over 2 hours in the car to specifically come back for this burger.”

Burgervore has provided its Basic Instinct recipe below:

-Two x 150g belted Galloway x wagyu 50 day dry aged beef burger patties, ground twice, hand rolled and seasoned

-Two slices unsmoked butchers streaky bacon

-24-hour fermented brioche bun

-American cheese

-Emmental cheese

-Shredded Iceberg lettuce

-Thinly sliced Beef tomato

-gherkins sliced

-Finely diced Spanish onion

-Vore burger sauce

Other entrants for this year’s competition come from Bristol, London and Newquay. Next month’s contest will mark the 10th anniversary of the National Burger Awards. This year restaurants, street food vendors, and pubs are going head-to-head for award recognition.

“A decade into this respected event and we are beyond proud to reveal our most exciting line-up yet,” said Genna Ash-Brown, editor of Dine Out Magazine, which organises and runs the awards.

“What better way to mark 10 years in the game than with our biggest competition to date? Expect top-notch banter from our host DJ BBQ, cheerful camaraderie from champion chefs and, of course, a bounty of burgers so good you’ll be salivating more than Pavlov’s dogs! It’s always a joy to offer such a platform to some of the UK’s finest culinary talent – all that’s left now is to find out who comes out on top. See you there!”

Burgervore says the best way to find out where the van will be on any given day is by checking its website here. Up-to-date time tables are also posted on the company’s Instagram account @burgervore_uk.

Will, who runs the business with his wife Martha, said to the Bucks Herald after the competition in 2022: “I’ve always been a bit of a foodie. I’m an avid barbecuer.

“Me and my wife always try and do things as good as we can and try to get underneath the skin of recipes.

"We got to the point where I needed a change and redundancy was coming, so we thought we may as well give it a go. Since then things are going ok.”