Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Fat-cat burger

Boca Raton loves to play up its image of wealth and luxury. Here was a chance to hold up a mirror.





THAT $100 BURGER MAY BE TASTY, BUT IT'S ALSO TASTELESS
Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Edition: Palm Beach Section: LOCAL Page: 1B
Byline: HOWARD GOODMAN COMMENTARY

Just in time for your Fourth of July barbecue: the $100 hamburger.

The Old Homestead Steak House in the Boca Raton Resort & Club put this baby on the menu to great fanfare last week.

Their 20-ounce softball-size burger is made from beef from three continents: corn-fed American prime; free-range cattle from the Argentine pampas, and Japanese Kobe from cattle that were fed soybeans and beer, bathed in sake and massaged by hand.

For the debut last Tuesday, "the coveted ingredients were flown in fresh," the restaurant's publicists said, "and delivered by armored car to a synchronized cavalcade of 10 uniformed chefs who ground, chopped and basted the beef" to be cooked up by a former executive chef for Donald Trump.

It was history in the making -- a milestone of hyperbole, if not gastronomy. Restaurant owners Greg and Marc Sherry called their creation "the Beluga caviar of sandwiches" and "the Romeo and Juliet of food."

I haven't tasted this two-handed ode to excess, which comes with a special chipotle sauce mixed with white truffles and champagne. Mere ketchup isn't allowed.

I asked, but my editor wouldn't expense it. "You can get a burger at The Green Owl for $4.95," he growled.