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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Paint it black
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Paint it black

From colour and shape to luxury ingredients and thoughtful innovations, the burger is the new battleground

The Peri Peri Black Beauty burger at Barcelos.Premium
The Peri Peri Black Beauty burger at Barcelos.

Barcelos restaurant in New Delhi introduced four black burgers on its menu earlier this month. A variation on the fast-food staple, the black burger was first introduced in Japan by Burger King three years ago. National newspapers noted the arrival of this burger (variously known as black, kuro or ninja) on Indian shores with The Economic Times, which is a competitor of Mint, quoting Rohit Malhotra, general manager, operations, at Barcelos India, as saying that “someone had to introduce it here and we did it". It also reported that the black in Barcelos’ burgers came from a mix of food colours: red, yellow and blue.

“They misconstrued what I said," says Malhotra in a phone interview. The source of the colour, he says, is organic. Though he wouldn’t share the recipe, he says the ingredients are carefully mixed in the restaurant chain’s headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa.

We found the black burger at Barcelos underwhelming (we tried the Peri Peri Black Magic, with black bun, black peri mayo, lettuce, tomato, eggplant and chicken; 195, plus taxes), but couldn’t ignore the larger questions it poses: Why does the classic burger need sexing up? And what does this search for the better burger mean in the Indian context?

Three international burger chains have set up shop in India in the last 16 months. This mirrors the stacked entry of McDonald’s, Domino’s Pizza and TGI Friday’s here between 1995 and 1996. If 20 years ago the global fast-food chains were chasing India’s post-liberalization possibilities, the recent influx of Johnny Rockets, Burger King and Wendy’s (in that order) signals another vote of confidence: People in urban centres have more disposable income and are willing to expand their fast-food horizons. It’s also one reason why the classic burger is getting a makeover here: to capture the imagination of this urban set.

To be fair, some of the considerations that forced McDonald’s to make necessity-is-the-mother-of-inventions type changes to its India menu—sample the Maharaja-Mac, made with grilled chicken—are still dictating terms to burger chefs. Wendy’s, which opened in Gurgaon, near Delhi, on 6 May, brought its classic square cheese burger here, sans the beef.

So reason No.2 for dressing up the all-American burger here—bans (state or religious) on certain kinds of meat, strong preference for chicken among a lot of non-vegetarians and a large vegetarian population—has led to still more McAloo Tikki-type inventions: Johnny Rockets has a Divine Delhi burger on its India menu with tandoori chicken and masala mayonnaise.

At some home-grown restaurant chains, celebrated chefs have figured out another way to approach the problem.

“Technically, even the anda shami (street food) is a burger," says Shamsul Wahid, brand chef of restaurant chain Smoke House Deli. “It’s got meat wrapped in an egg and served between two pieces of bread." Chandra cites the example of a vada pav, also technically a burger.

Turns out, once you break the burger down like this, there’s no end to what you can do with it. The basics remain the same: It’s still a sandwich with a patty and a spread in-between. But chefs are increasingly pushing the envelope on what they can do within these parameters.

Chef Saurabh Udinia of Farzi Café, Cyber Hub, Gurgaon, routinely works with flavours and meats most Indians are familiar with. But he adds his own twist to the mix. His playful experiments with Farzi burgers include the Galouti Burger with Roast Tawa Boti, with melt-in-mouth galouti kebabs in a burger bun served with khurchan (meat roasted on a flat skillet till it sticks to the bottom and has to be scraped off).

All’s fair in the pursuit of the better burger, according to Udinia. As for the black burger, he says it’s okay as long as there’s more in the chef’s arsenal. “There’s no harm in putting on a show," he adds, “but showbaazi (showmanship) without substance doesn’t work."

What’s also working in favour of burger innovation—like most genuine food trends it’s hard to put a date on when this started—is that some of the well-heeled and food-adventurous are set to taste something new, and pay more for it.

“You can go crazy with the burger," says Wahid. One of his more interesting innovations is the Benedictor burger, with eggs Benedict, hollandaise and a charcoal-grilled tenderloin patty.

Still, Wahid adds, chefs don’t quite have a jail-free card as far as burger experiments go. Price is a roadbump. No way someone will pay over 1,000 a pop for a burger, he says.

Farzi’s Udinia has a similar experience: a Wagyu beef burger he put on the menu around six months ago didn’t get a single order. Of course, it was beef and therefore targeted at a small percentage of diners. But at 1,500 a burger, it killed any remaining appetite for the imported meat.

Plus, says Wahid, the USP of the burger is that it is an easy choice off the menu.

“There may be a lot going on inside a burger, but it’s still not overly complicated (on the outside). It’s just a burger," says Wahid. “When you order a burger, you can picture what you’ll get—a patty between two buns with some sort of spread and some lettuce, tomatoes," Wahid says, before amending himself. “You can go crazy with the burger, but not too crazy."

In terms of price, Chandra says the needle is moving. His priciest burger, the Gastro Burger, with meat, Gruyère and Gouda cheeses, umami mushroom ketchup, caramelized onions, whiskey glaze, arugula and Bloody Mary tomatoes, served with sweet potato chips, is 450, plus taxes. That’s still some way from breaching the 1,000 ceiling, but it’s 818% more than the Crunchy Joe burger, starting at 49, that Dunkin’ Donuts is advertising to convert more Indians over to the burger. The tag line: “Do something you regret".

We’re tempted to.

Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd is the master franchisee for Domino’s and Dunkin’ Donuts in India. The promoters of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Hindustan Times and Mint, and Jubilant FoodWorks are closely related. There are no promoter crossholdings.

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Published: 22 May 2015, 03:24 PM IST
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