Leslie Turk

GraHAM burger goes for gold

by Leslie Turk

Spicy, saucy, crunchy, colorful. There’s nothing ordinary about George Graham’s Bluesiana Burgers with root beer glaze, topped with Zydeco sauce and Mardi Gras slaw, which he’ll be cooking this week for eight esteemed judges from the culinary world in the Annual Sutter Home Build a Better Burger competition in Napa Valley, Calif. Graham’s recipe is one of five finalists in the beef category for the 18-year-old national recipe contest and cookoff at Sutter Home Winery.

Courtesy of the contest, Graham and his wife, Roxanne, leave today for Napa Valley. On Saturday he'll have three hours to prepare his burgers solo. If you tune your TV set to the Today Show Monday morning and see the local ad exec’s familiar face, you’ll know he took home the $50,000 grand prize — one of the country’s top cooking prizes.

Read more about Graham's journey in today's issue of The Independent Weekly.