It has begun. The end of the world is nigh, at least for those who like a say in how their food is cooked. Westminster Council are preparing a crackdown on rare burgers, alleging that the dangers of an E. Coli outbreak far outweigh a customer’s preference for a pink burger.
The story begins with Davy’s Wine Bar in Central London, who were recently served notice by the council for the undercooking of their burger. They are planning to take this to the High Court, but if Westminster Council win, it will set a massive precedent with runny eggs and rare meat potentially coming under scrutiny – at least that’s what the critics say. The issue has been particularly highlighted with the current popularity of gourmet burger joints popping up in cities across the UK and restaurateurs are concerned such a ruling will kill off business, rather than customers. It is, as they say, the thin end of the wedge. And let’s bear in mind there have been no cases of E. Coli from burgers in this country, although the council and their experts claim it’s an established fact in the USA and Europe.
Westminster Council claim they are not outright banning rare burgers – although their definition of ‘rare’ is at some variance with the rest of us – but they are trying to get a grip on places who aren’t handling potentially dangerous raw mince properly, which is no bad thing. Current FSA guidelines state that a burger should be cooked to an internal temperature of 70C for two minutes for ultimate pasteurisation; many claim that that would no longer constitute ‘rare’, although the council say it is still “somewhat pink in the middle.” Their alternative method dubbed ‘sear and shave’ involves taking a whole piece of meat, searing it to kill external contamination and then shaving off the cooked edges, effectively killing any bacterial contamination. The meat can then be minced and served raw or cooked to any degree, although again many chefs have queried the hygiene in such a technique. The fact remains that searing the outside of a piece of meat will kill external bacteria; it’s simply not possible to apply the same technique to mince so the responsibility lies with the restaurants to handle their raw mince responsible to ensure there is no risk of contamination.
Chefs are also claiming that the additional cooking required could add up to a (slightly eye-watering, mind-boggling) 15% to the cost of your burger – an already increasingly expensive commodity as the luxury burger market expands. Davy’s burger already costs just south of £14 – another 15% to have it cooked through would seem to send the argument see-sawing in the opposite direction with customers paying less for pinker burgers. Some restaurants, including Joe Allen and Byron, have actually stopped serving their burgers rare, although it remains to be seen if prices increase.
Predictably the food world has thrown up its pickles in outrage. The old edict of the customer is always right has been cited over and over again and it’s probably fair enough that if you’re paying to eat a piece of meat, minced or not, it should be cooked how you like it, rather than how the Nanny State would prefer. The case does, however, raise the issue of how raw mince is being handled (it’s worth stating there isn’t very much guidance from the council to be found on handling raw mince, given their incredible fear of it...) and as usual, the customer can only assume restaurateurs and chefs have their raw meat under control. Fugu clearly has nothing on dead cow.
What do you think? Would you pay more for an overcooked burger? Do you prefer your burger rare and would you pay even more to keep it that way? Is this just scare-mongering or has it made you think twice about your patty?
