The asparagus fries did her in. Amanda Luhowiak of The Whole Ox in Marshall started out with the tastiest over-the-top cheeseburger on Guy’s Grocery Games, but did not pull off a win in the end.
On the Food Network show that aired Wednesday night, Luhowiak competed against Chad Duffield of Sickies Garage Burgers & Brews in Las Vegas, Mimi Phillips of Phat Daddy’s Burgers in Los Angeles, and Titus Mitchell of Stuy Burgers in Brooklyn, New York.
In the first round of Guy Fieri’s competition, the chefs had to make an over-the-top cheeseburger with 10 or fewer items, but the catch in the “bodacious burger battle” was that only the fastest shopping chef could have 10 items. Each chef after that had to put back an item. Luhowiak ended up with nine items (she put back lettuce).
She added cheese to her burger mix and then topped the burger with more cheese and a spicy pickle, paprika, and mayonnaise sauce.
The 30-minute time clock almost got the best of Luhowiak. She didn’t get her burgers frying until 8 minutes before the competition ended, with the judges urging her to hurry.
“Every second counts,” she said during the competition. “I can’t serve them a raw burger.”
Luhowiak opted to serve a single, rather than a double cheeseburger, at the last second.
The judges loved it, with one calling it the “most balanced burger” in the competition. Luhowiak scored the highest for gameplay, taste, and plating.
But the next round would be The Whole Ox owner’s undoing. The chefs would have to make a burger and fries. The twist would be that they would have to use the “manager’s special” — a meat combined with an ingredient that typically would not be paired with a burger.
As the winner of round one, Luhowiak would get her choice of ground lamb and asparagus, ground turkey and parsnips, or ground pork and plantains. She opted for the lamb and asparagus combination.
She added wild boar and elk to the lamb for her “primal” burger with sriracha sauce. Her fries would be the asparagus and russet potatoes double fried. Luhowiak would end up charring her buns a little too much, but the asparagus ultimately kept her from winning. The judges said it seemed like the asparagus was just thrown in the fryer.
When the judges combined the scores of the two rounds, Luhowiak lost by four points, 83-79, to Duffield, whose turkey burger had jalapeño jelly and onion tanglers with parsnip fries.
Luhowiak, who said that if she won the prize money would go toward a second location for her Marshall business. At the end of Guy’s Grocery Games, she said, “I feel like I brought home a win for the family and the community.”
Feature image courtesy Food Network/Facebook
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