A DOUBLE smash burger, made with Galician organic beef and a specially sourced local cheese, as well as Korean kimchi, a pork cheek stew and chestnut-fed Celtic pork jowl. Believe it or not, this unusual and highly original combination, which costs €12, has just won a competition to find Spain’s best gourmet hamburger.
The creation comes from young chef Martin Fernandez, whose restaurant, Bagoa Gastrobar, is located in the city of Ourense, in the northwestern Galicia region.
“We opened a year and five months ago, and we’re not a burger joint as such because we also have a few rare wines,” he told radio network Cadena SER. “But why not have a burger with a good wine? That’s our idea.”
Fernandez, 27, was speaking from the Salon de Gourmets in Madrid, where the final of the Burger Combat competition was held.
The name of his creation is Fuxidia, which means ‘ephemeral’ in the Galician language.
As the name suggests, the burger is not always on the menu at his restaurant, as its high price can sometimes prompt surprise among customers.
“In Galicia there are people who complain if you sell a hamburger for €12 without fries or a drink,” he explained.
The recipe, however, draws on some of the best ingredients from the region, which is famed not just for its seafood but also its excellent beef.
“For me, there is nothing more gourmet in Galicia than tradition,” he told Cadena SER. “That’s why we make the kimchi with the same cabbage that is used for Galician stew; we make the pork cheek stew with red wine, garlic, onion… and it is cooked for many hours; we texturize the reduced broth of the stew with butter and add the kimchi. That’s what gives it such a potent flavour!”
The cheese, meanwhile, is a cow’s cheese that is very similar to Galicia’s famous Arzua, but that he sources from the children and grandchildren of a woman who started to make it in Ourense some 70 years ago.
And as for his own inspirations in the kitchen? He cites his grandmother.
“All my cooking is based on Galician tradition and on everything my grandmother Rosa taught me,” he told Cadena SER. “She didn’t teach me how to make hamburgers, but she did teach me how to cook and how to give love to cooking. She still cooks using clay pots and wood-fired ovens.”
