Build a Better Burger Contest Winners – 2015

Sutter Home Family Vineyards, one of America’s favorite wine brands, just revealed the five finalists’ recipes to compete for the 2015 Build a Better Burger® Recipe Contest and $25,000 grand prize. With lavish additions like cashew bacon crumble, caramelized sauerkraut and pickled saffron pears, Sutter Home Build a Better Burger® Recipe Contest entrants continue to elevate the quintessential American burger.

Family-owned since 1948, Sutter Home is proud to be an American success story and a household name for wine lovers across the globe. In 1990, Sutter Home uncorked the wine industry’s first major recipe contest: Build a Better Burger®. There were 20 contestants at the first Build a Better Burger® Recipe Contest cook-off in 1990, and the $10,000 Grand Prize went to a retired army colonel from Virginia named Jim Pleasants for his Napa Valley Basil-Smoked Burger. By the mid-1990s, Build a Better Burger® became one of America’s most popular recipe competitions, a fact confirmed by its inclusion, in 1998, in a 26-segment PBS show on cooking contests called “Cookoff America.” In 2003, Build a Better Burger® was featured on the first season of Food Network Challenge, a competitive cooking television series that aired on the Food Network.

For the 2015 Sutter Home Build a Better Burger® Recipe Contest, burgers will be judged on taste, creativity, ease of preparation, and availability of ingredients. The action will unfold on May 19, 2016 at the winery’s state-of-the-art culinary center in St. Helena, California. Each of the 2015 finalists’ burgers will be prepared by Sutter Home’s culinary team and tasted by a panel of esteemed judges. The winning recipe will be announced on the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger® website and Facebook page on or about May 20, 2016. In addition to the grand prize, all finalists will receive $1,000 towards the purchase of Weber® products. Voting for the People’s Choice Award will take place on www.sutterhome.com, beginning on April 1, 2016. The People’s Choice Award winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000.

Building on Sutter Home’s history of creating fun and exciting moments for its consumers, the 2015 Sutter Home Build A Better Burger® Recipe Contest will feature special surprises including unique twists on America’s favorite meal and the Grand Prize Winner for the Best Burger, who will receive a cash prize of $25,000. “The idea behind Build a Better Burger® has always been to take America’s favorite wines and pair them with America’s favorite food—the burger,” explained Wendy Nyberg, Vice President of Marketing for Sutter Home. “Passionate everyday cooks don’t hesitate to experiment with flavors, and we love to see that creativity in the burger recipe entries as well as wine pairings.”

If everyday cooks didn’t get a chance to enter the 2015 contest, the 2016 recipe contest kicks off on March 31, 2016. Recipes can be entered at www.sutterhome.com.

The five 2015 recipes and finalists competing for $25,000 include:

Jamaican Rum Jerk Burgers
With Rum-Cola glaze, Jicama Cilantro Slaw and Jerk Mayonnaise
Recipe by Ashley Lyth, Brooklyn, New York
Suggested Wine Pairing: Gewürztraminer

Sweet & Smoky Spanish Beef Burgers
With Pickled Saffron Pears, Crispy Prosciutto and Smoky Paprika Aioli
Recipe by Phyllis O’Shaughnessy, Naperville, IL
Suggested Wine Pairing: Zinfandel

A Little Heat Pineapple Pork Burgers
With Cashew Bacon Crumble and Creamy Caraway Slaw
Recipe by Meredith Frye, Waverly, AL
Suggested Wine Pairing: Riesling

Garam Masala Lamb Burgers
With Sweet Dates and Salty Bacon Lardons
Recipe by Lily Julow, Lawrenceville, GA
Suggested Wine Pairing: Gewürztraminer

Bratty Patty Pork Burgers
With Caramelized Sauerkraut and Curry Ketchup
Recipe by Julie Merriman, Seattle, WA
Suggested Wine Pairing: Zinfandel