Mariana Hernández, from ‘El Baifo Street Food’ (Santa Cruz de La Palma), has won with her ‘Benahoarita’ in the third edition of the Burger Combat, Spain’s Gourmets/Lantmännen Burger Championship 2023, which took place as part of the 36th edition of the Salón Gourmets, held at Ifema, Madrid. As such, this is official: the best hamburger in Spain can be found in the Canary Islands.
Six contenders made it to final battle where they had to create a dish with ingredients of their choice (meat, sauce, etc.), with the only condition that they had to use one of the breads from the range offered by the Lantmännen Unibake group.
The winners of this edition were Mariana Hernández, from El Baifo Street Food (Santa Cruz de La Palma), with her ‘Benahoarita’ burger; runner-up, Sergio Sanz, from Pólvora (Madrid), with his ‘Soft Shell Crab Burger’; third place, Javier Almado, from El 2 de Gastéiz (Vitoria-Gastéiz), with ‘La Vacuna 2.0’; most popular on social networks, Sergi Mateo Lladó, from Hamburguesería Paradise (Girona), with ‘La Amante’.
Mariana Hernández won Best Gourmet Burger Chef in Spain with her ‘Benahoarita’, a combination of Lantmännen Unibake Pretzel bread, 15-day matured Palmera beef, goat meat stew, La Palma cheese sauce and Palmera goat leg ham.
The jury valued criteria such as the creativity of the dish, the ingenuity of the chefs in combining the ingredients, the harmony of flavours and the innovation of the recipes. It was made up of Daniel Salas, founder of Cocinillas and gastronomic critic of El Español; Felipe Ruano, president of ASEMAC; Íñigo Urrechu, chef and owner of the Urrechu and Zalacaín restaurants; Mikel Galán, winner of the 2nd Burger Combat; Juan Antonio de la Rica, founder and owner of Juancho’s BBQ; Sergio Fernández, executive chef of Grupo La Fábrica; María Lo, winner of MasterChef 10.
The other contestants who took part in the final were Alfonso Escolar, from Restaurante Autocines (Madrid); Juan Manuel Giralda Álvarez, from Tapas Camino de Santiago (Cádiz).
Last year, in the second edition of the competition, the winner was Mikel Galán, from El Búho Rojo (Bilbao) with his ‘Cheese Bacon Mediterrasian Gourmet’ burger (Pretzel hamburger bun from Lantmännen Unibake, dehydrated Iberian shoulder, smoked burrata, fusion mayonnaise sauce, dry-aged txuletón blend, lamb’s lettuce and shavings of Iberian ham.
