Courtesy World Food Championships
Mike Johnson collecting his first place prize money for his vegetarian spin on the Hi-Pointe Cowboy Burger
It’s official: St. Louis has the greatest burger in the world.
Mike Johnson—co-owner of Hi-Pointe Drive-In, Sugar Fire Smokehouse, and Chicken Out—brought back top prize in the burger category at the 9th annual World Food Championships in Dallas, Texas. The prize for winning the category was $7,500.
Courtesy World Food Championships
Mike Johnson’s winning burger entry
The burger competition consisted of two rounds and three burgers. During the first round, which required a Southwestern chili burger and a classic burger, Johnson produced a jalapeño popper chili burger and a reliable Hi-Pointe smash burger, respectively. The second round required the use of Impossible Burger, one of the competition’s sponsors. Johnson incorporated this element into a creation based on Hi-Pointe’s Cowboy Burger with a smashed double beef patty, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, onion rings, and topped with beer cheese made with suds from Boulevard Brewing.
“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Johnson says of working with the Impossible Burger meat alternative. “You actually have to cook it to temperature like you would meat. You can undercook it and it’s weird, or you can overcook it and it’s dry. A lot of people in the contest weren’t used to cooking with it. Luckily, I’ve cooked thousands of them with Hi-Pointe."
Johnson wasn’t the only St. Louisan to win in the international contest. Competing in the bacon tournament was Jack MacMurray III, head chef at The Bistro at Old Hickory Golf Club in St. Peters. He's also a cooking instructor at the Kitchen Conservatory and Dierbergs School of Cooking. MacMurray previously competed in the bacon category in 2019, but he was just short of cracking the top 10.
“I’m really proud of this,” MacMurray says on the win. “To get No. 1 is awesome."
Courtesy Jack MacMurray
Courtesy Jack MacMurray
The bacon category consisted of two rounds, with the first requiring two dishes of bacon hors d’oeuvres. The starters that the chef produced included a Szechuan glaze–topped bacon-wrapped pork belly lined with bacon bourbon jam over a bacon jalapeño pancake (a dish that will soon be featured at the restaurant) and a bacon cream cheese egg roll that was also topped with Szechuan glaze. The next round required Hershey’s semisweet chocolate to be used as an ingredient. MacMurray created a dish consisting of a chocolate-lined bacon-wrapped pork belly over a bacon chocolate chip pancake with bacon bourbon jam, all topped with a chocolate Szechuan sauce (pictured above).
“The No. 1 factor is don’t overpower the bacon,” the chef says of the chocolate used in the bacon dish. “Six out of the 10 finalists literally gave them chocolate desserts. From experience, I know not to overpower the category."
MacMurray plans to put his winnings toward “ask wife/college funds.” Johnson, on the other hand, is looking to present his partners and collaborators at the event with a unique gift: “I’m going to make Super Bowl–style burger rings—like, gaudy rings with a hamburger on it that say ‘Burger World Champion’ on it. We’re the world champions. It’s scientifically proven. It has been confirmed through science.”
The winners of each of the 10 categories move on to a final competition, called The Final Table, which will be held at Lake Murray in South Carolina April 28–May 1, 2022. The winner of the competition will receive $100,000 and the title of "World Food Champion." Both Johnson and MacMurray have confirmed that they will be in attendance. Before the two compete against each other at the event, MacMurray says they'll be collaborating on a yet-to-be-announced Hi-Pointe Burger that will combine their winning dishes: "the champion burger, topped with the champion pork belly and bacon with a hoisin glaze.”
Follow Hi-Pointe on social media for an official announcement and additional details.
