THE BEST burgers in Britain are rumoured to come from a food van based near to the Spa.
When Carl Sampson, who owns a burger bar on a lay-by on the A38 between Droitwich and Worcester, was first approached by Channel 4 to appear on their show Burger Bar to Gourmet Star he thought it was a joke.
Little did he know his life was about to change forever.
The 26-year-old is now on the foodie map with people travelling from across the UK to taste the ultimate burgers with toppings including Stilton and onions caramelised by a blowtorch.
The TV show selects some of Britain’s best chefs to train up some of the country’s worst before the newbies are challenged to pose as seasoned professionals in world class kitchens.
Carl’s journey started in Cambridge were he was given three weeks of intensive kitchen training in the two-Michelin-starred Midsummer House, owned by top chef Daniel Clifford.
He was then whisked off to Modena, in Italy, to work in one of the top ten restaurants in the world – the three-star Osteria Francescana.
Carl said one of his favourite parts shown in the documentary was a conversation he had about his knife skills.
“When I said I had no experience he was like ‘my God’ – that was the moment I think they all started dreading about what they had got themselves into.” he added.
“I just thought I had one shot at doing this so knuckled down – I tried to be a walking sponge.
“It was incredible and better than I ever imagined.”
Carl said he had lots of exciting plans up his sleeve so told people ‘to watch this space’.
He has also just finalised the designs for a new, bigger burger bar – he will use his old one to travel to the numerous events and food festivals he has been invited to since appearing on the show.
Carl added he had changed everything from his cleaning techniques to knife skills and mentality.
And, he also now made his burgers from scratch – one of his recipes took him 30 attempts to perfect.
Carl said he had been labelled as having the best burgers in the UK by the national press and so far from all the food critics which had visited him no one had disputed the claims.
