Bay Ridge resident brings home the bacon in Build a Better Burger contest

This Brooklynite sure knows how to bring home the bacon.

Erin Evenson won first place in Sutter Home’s Build a Better Burger contest, a nationwide amateur recipe and cook-off competition, in which she took home $100,000.

This isn’t the first time the native Illinoisian entered the contest.

“In 2006, my dad suddenly passed away while he was in the process of building his dream house in Colorado,” Evenson recalled. “When he passed away, we didn’t have the means to hire people [to finish the construction], so I started thinking of things I could do to make money – within reason.”

That’s when she came across the burger contest.

“People have told me, ‘Oh, this is great chili, you should enter a contest,’” Evenson said, adding that she is fond of cooking for family and friends.  “In a moment of desperation, I figured [I would look into] the competition.”

The competition works as follows. Five people are chosen from each regional category across the country. The winners are flown to Saint Helena, California for first-class treatment and the grand prize cook-off. There are also burger two categories, beef and alternative, which can be anything from a vegan to an ostrich burger.

Evenson submitted her recipe in 2007, just 30 seconds before the deadline, secretly at her former job as a paralegal. A month later, she got an invite to go out.

“I went out there and there were awesome home cooks that don’t take themselves seriously. We love to cook, are all here for the same reason and I just got hooked on the whole idea of competitive cooking,” Evenson said, noting that she only took home first runner up.

“We lost the house, but I gained something else, a love for competitive cooking,” Evenson said. “I am not really competitive by nature, but a calmness comes over me when I begin cooking in a contest environment. It’s an enjoyable and euphoric thing to do…especially when cooking for famous judges.”

But this year, she really wanted to go back to the contest, so she entered knowing the prize had increased to $100,000.

“I have been unemployed since last August and entered the recipe,” Evenson said. “I will never forget getting the call, it was the day of Sandy rolling in. Just before we were powering down everything in the apartment because nobody knew what was going to happen…and I didn’t pick up the phone. Later, I saw the e-mail inviting me back to the cook-off in May.”

Over the following months, Evenson was “excited and nervous.” But when the contest day came on May 18, “lo and behold…somehow or another I pulled it all together and won.”

Evenson snagged first place for her 7 Train Burger, modeled after a crispy watercress salad she was obsessed with from Sripraphai Restaurant in Queens.

“It was truly surreal,” Evenson said of her winning moment. “The stage is mobbed, there is a live audience, renowned chefs, a massive crowd and I am thinking ‘Okay, who is going to win?’”

She said before she knew it, “there was this huge novelty check in front of me and people are taking pictures. I actually had to look down at the check and thought ‘Oh, that says Erin Evenson.’ Over the next 20 minutes I truly don’t know what happened.”

After much planning, the winning recipe features Thai green curry with crispy watercress, pancetta, cashews and a mint aioli.

“After months of recipes, researching techniques for frying, doing lots of sketches on the subway, it finally came together,” Evenson said.

This year’s deadline for the contest is fast approaching and Evenson said she would like to have another New Yorker win the grand prize again.

“Anyone who is testing burgers over Labor Day Weekend can enter,” Evenson said, adding that recipes can be submitted at SutterHome.com or by visiting its Facebook page. “Anyone who does not work in the restaurant industry can enter. It would be awesome to keep the burger crown in Brooklyn.”

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