The Sweetness Burger took top honors for tastiness Friday afternoon as The Chicago Street Pour House hosted a challenge for seniors studying in the popular culinary arts program at Elgin High School.
Budding chefs Mario Perez and Geraldo Depaz said they named their creation after Chicago Bears football legend Walter Payton.
“We’re big Bears fans,” Depaz said.
Perez said the burger’s toppings included sauteed onions and jalapenos, American cheese and candied bacon, which was served on a toasted pretzel bun.
Depaz said he thought to add the candied bacon for some sweetness to contrast with the dish’s spiciness.
The duo’s burger competed against four others prepared onsite by fellow classmates. Those included the Southwest Chili Burger with an egg from Melody Leynis; a “Guac Monster” made by Eduardo Lopez and Alejandro Gatan-Corona; the Valentino Parm Madness featuring a chicken-fried burger and mozzarella sticks from Valentin Perez and Hermino Ayala; and the Big Bang Burger with coleslaw, Thai chili and lightly battered shrimp served on a pretzel bun made by Ernesto Palomar.
Leynis said all 41 seniors in the program were welcome to come up with a burger. The rules had it they could only use ingredients or items found in dishes on the menu at the Pour House.
Students worked in class for a few weeks on the project, she said, but Friday was their first time using the Pour House kitchen. Elgin High School faculty came to a consensus on which five burgers would head to the finals at the restaurant, located about a mile from the campus.
“I feel like I’m on ‘Master Chef’ right now,” Leynis said as she waited to head into the restaurant kitchen to cook her creation.
Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain was one of the four judges of the contest and had prior experience doing so.
“The city used to hold a chili cookoff,” Kaptain said.
Fellow judge, Pour House owner Scott Ward, said all the entries had plate appeal and that a few intrigued him.
“I might use some of them down the road,” Ward said.
As it is, Ward will be adding the Sweetness Burger to the Pour House menu by January. Perez and Depaz will also get $100 for their winning effort.
The idea for the challenge came from Nathan Pauley, director of operations for Four Napkin Hospitality Group, which owns Pour House. The group once held a similar event at its The Local Kitchen and Tap in Schaumburg for Schaumburg High School students.
Elgin High School teachers Ammee Schubert and Elizabeth Schimmel said this was the first time the program has been involved with a local establishment in an event like the challenge.
“”We’d love to do more things involving our students with local restaurants,” Schubert said.
The two teachers said that across all four grade levels, the culinary arts program at Elgin High School has 600 students taking its classes, making it the biggest program of its kind in Elgin School District U-46. Enrollment at the high school is 2,482 this school year, according to the Illinois Report Card website.
Schubert said costs of the burger challenge and feeding the rest of the students who came along to cheer on their classmates were covered through money raised by catering projects run through the culinary arts program.
“The students were very creative. I was so impressed,” Schimmel said about this first challenge.
Mike Danahey is a freelancer.
