Page 22 - foodservice magazine April 2019

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TRADE TALK
“I don’t want to jump in the pool with everyone, I want my own pool. If you create your own pool, your business will always be a little bit more insulated.”
specials, sometimes themed to coincide with holidays – like a burger with pumpkin hummus inside a black bun for Halloween.
But he’s convinced that classic American-style burgers are protected from changes in consumer spending habits, as the demand for them will always be strong.
“It is nostalgic [food], for the fact that people do have McDonald’s and Hungry Jacks as a kid. Burgers have always been there, and I don’t think burgers will ever die.”
SO WHAT’S NEXT?
With high-end chefs like Neil Perry and Shannon Bennett opening casual burger chains, McCallum thinks it’ll be a while before fine-dining burgers are back, and that chefs will continue to play with nostalgic fast-food theme.
He also foresees an exponential spike in demand for vegetarian and vegan variety.
Originally, 8bit was meat only, but when it brought on one vegetarian burger as a special, “it just went berserk”. Now there are multiple vego options, which can be made vegan on request.
He also thinks we’ll see more Asian flavours in burgers, from bao buns to pork belly to sriracha mayo; and, he laments, probably more liquid cheese for a while.
Craig thinks simplicity and restraint will always win, but
is quietly hopeful that a chef somewhere will start doing burgers with native Australian ingredients; kangaroo patties with lemon aspen mayo, and so on.
At the end of the day, a burger joint needs to offer “the whole package” to succeed, says Craig. No one is shielded from changes in trends, so every venue needs to have attentive service, a vibrant atmosphere, a thoughtful
drinks list and considered food. The restaurant needs to have balance and tick all the boxes – just like a good burger.
From top: 8bit's burger boxes are designed to make the burgers look more aesthetically pleasing and Instagrammable.
Shayne McCallum at 8bit.
hamburger places really fit into my philosophy for why I cook Japanese food. You can’t hide ... you have to do it perfectly,” says Craig, who has been to Japan 19 times.
So that’s what he did, and Sydney ate it up. Ume carved out its own space in the market with what Craig calls “an Australian take on a Japanese take on an American burger”.
Each of his burgers has between four and six components, with strictly no alterations to
the menu to ensure a balance of flavour and texture.
While McCallum agrees that when it comes to burgers, the simpler the better, and his best selling burger is also the simplest (8bit with cheese: beef, cheese, sauce and salad), he also believes that you should use trends and the hype around novelty to your advantage.
“Nearly everything’s been done now, you nearly need to be doing Pokemon burgers or something stupid just to stand out.”
To encourage new business, McCallum introduces regular