Would you spend £20 on a burger? To many in Britain, that price would be unaffordable. Possibly this applies to more people in 2023 than it would have done five years ago because the country has become that much more egregious. Financial progress today is an increasingly laughable concept. Unless you own Amazon, that is, or landed a PPE contract in the pandemic.
But there are many others who could afford a £20 burger, yet find the notion of paying that sum unacceptable. This was made glaringly apparent recently when the chef Gary Usher shared the menu from his new Cheshire pub, The White Horse. The pub doesn’t open until 3 March, but already would-be punters have been scoffing at the burger on offer. According to the description, it will come with Comte cheese, mustard, relish and a pickle, along with skinny fries. It will also cost £19.50.
Admittedly, this is by no means a typical price tag for a burger. Those who require something gentler on the purse strings might instead slip into McDonald’s, order a Quarter Pounder with fries and a Coke Zero, maybe a bag of those cheesy garlic triangles because they really are quite exciting, and depart with change from a tenner.
But Usher’s burger is not the work of a global corporation with near-inordinate resources. Nor is it from a burger chain with a handful of sites in and around major cities. The White Horse is part of a small group – Elite Bistros – based in the north-west of England, but each venue offers a separate menu, and the pub stands alone.
Quality beef costs money; chefs who won’t burn the patties as orders stack up and the pub gets rowdy need paying well – they are not easy to find, especially these days
Usher, who is well-known for being outspoken on social media, went some way to making this point in a video he shared online in response to the torrent of criticism he had received. As if people need reminding, the chef explained that energy bills are soaring and food prices rocketing; staff need paying, too, and cooking a good burger is not easy, just as serving one with grace and efficiency isn’t.
We have all seen those headlines declaring the imminent arrival of £10 – more, even – pints of beer. Pints will not get to that point; pubs will close before it happens. Outside of Cannes or some hellhole hotel in Dubai, who in their right mind would pay that much for a beer? There might be a handful of profiteering hospitality types, but most would rather stay open to serve customers than fall off a cliff. It’s a balancing act.
It is the same with food, for the most part. I’m sure Usher wants to make a handsome profit, as is his right, but I don’t think he’s trying to rip people off either. Quality beef costs money, just as good Comte does; chefs who won’t burn the patties as orders stack up and the pub gets rowdy need paying well – they are not easy to find, especially these days.
We in Britain have arguably become desensitised to what food – and meat most of all – should cost. This is largely the fault of budget supermarkets and discount chains. Visit a Gourmet Burger Kitchen or a Byron and order a £7.95 burger if you like, but I’d wager your sandwich will be dry and texturally unreliable, lacking in flavour to boot.
I admit that there are excellent burgers, made with well-sourced beef and by proficient kitchen hands, for less than the £19.50 Usher is asking for. My favourite, Black Bear in London, charges £11, or about £16 with chips. At Bleecker, another tremendous place to eat a cheeseburger, a regular meal will set you back about £12.
And sure, maybe a burger, by design, is supposed to use up the cheaper cuts, the less appetising parts of the cow. I’ve written before about why the McDonald’s 99p number is the best around. It is the very pinnacle of what a cheap, easy burger should be. Never mind sustainability.
But I maintain too that £19.50 for a dry-aged beef burger in a neighbourhood pub, made with love, care and pride, is not extortionate. Far from it. It is an indication of worth. Those who find the sum intolerable might instead take aim at Gordon Ramsay’s £85 offering, or Salt Bae’s gold-covered, £100-plus monstrosity, for these are the ones that ought to be maligned.
Anyway, as Usher mentioned in his video, he’s not forcing anyone to visit his gaff. But I suspect it will be worth a trip. We have a long way to go before we appreciate the value of beef.
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