This year, The Greenhouse Tavern team was invited to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. We had done big food festivals before, including Epcot’s, but this would be the biggest. We knew that we would be serving food to more than 3,000 people, but we certainly hadn’t planned on working at Rachael Ray's Burger Bash. However, it wasn't long after we landed in Miami that we found ourselves slinging burgers for Michael Symon.
Symon, a longtime friend and mentor of my husband Jonathon and I, was among the star chefs at the burger showdown on the beach. His restaurant, B Spot, would be pitting its Fat Doug burger up against burgers from some of the best chefs in the nation, including Morimoto, Bobby Flay and Cleveland’s own Jonathan Bennett, executive chef of Moxie and Red the Steakhouse in Beachwood.
The Bash took place in a football field–sized tent, filled with the aroma of grilled meat. As soon as I stepped inside the tent, I knew by the grand scale that we were in for an intense night. I found myself slightly overwhelmed by the competition: Laurent Tourondel and Daniel Boulud walked by us with determined faces as they headed to burger land. It’s not often I’m three feet away from the most famous chefs in the country.
We eventually settled in with Symon and The B Spot team. The guests began to arrive and the ladies took their mark. Symon’s assistant Rebecca Yody, Symon's wife Liz and I would be the faces in front. We would be selling The Fat Doug to the masses.
At first it seemed like an easy night. The crowd trickled in, and it seemed calm. Then I saw it: an excited and hungry tidal wave of thousands upon thousands of people, all searching for the most delectable burger under the massive tent. Their eyes were on fire as they raced towards The B Spot. For a moment I panicked, before remembering what my dad used to tell me when I played t-ball: "keep your eyes on the prize Amelia, eyes on the prize." I began to lose my voice as I loudly proclaimed the greatness of the Fat Doug. We handed burger after burger, milkshake after milkshake to the ravenous crowd. It seemed like the night would never end.
And then it did.
Rachael Ray, supreme hostess of the event, came to the B Spot stand, looking to try the Fat Doug. Her smile widened after she took a bite. This was a good sign. With that, the emcee announced that the voting for the People’s Choice burger would end soon, and everyone who wanted to vote should quickly do so. Guests raced to The B Spot and dropped their tokens in the stand's voting box. Symon and the team's faces watched in excitement as people flooded the table, depositing their wooden tokens. The box of tokens was whisked away just before a fan of the Fat Doug arrived with two more tokens. He grabbed my arm, and we went running through the tent looking for the box of tokens. In a swarm of 5,000 people, we somehow spied the girl with the token box, and he placed his final votes. His excitement was contagious.
After what seemed like an eternity of introductions and speeches, Rachael Ray was ready to read the People’s Choice verdict. Out of 27 different burgers, representing 10 states, and more than 48,000 burgers sold, Michael Symon was crowned king – the real burger king.
It was a crazy night, and my feet burned from standing on the sand for six hours straight (in heels, no less), but it was well worth it. The event was spectacular, the burger delicious and the winner very much deserved. It was another Cleveland victory. [Photos by Amelia Zatik Sawyer]
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