Australia’s burger authority Jimmy Hurlston: from Instagram to Easey’s and beyond
/Jimmy Hurlston has gone from reviewing burgers on Instagram to CEO of his own burger business Easey’s. More recently he was one of the judges for Australia’s Best Burger Competition held last month in Sydney as part of the Food & Hospitality Week tradeshow. Foodservice Rep caught up with Jimmy to find out more about his lifelong passion for burgers and get his unique take on what makes a great one.
Jimmy’s love affair with burgers goes back to childhood fishing trips with his father: “We would always stop and get a burger on the way home from the local fish and chip shop. Then from the age of 15 to 19 I went to work in McDonald’s. I always had a love and appreciation for burgers and whenever I went somewhere I would have to try them out.”
Easey's CEO Jimmy Hurlston
Travelling the world eating and reviewing burgers
In 2009 he started setting down his burger experiences in a regular blog. Shortly afterwards, the rise of social media led to an evolution in burgers on the local market – influenced by the images they were seeing on Instagram, foodservice operators began going to a more American style of burger presentation, using buns, fillings and cheese styles which had previously not been commonplace here.
“It was obvious that burgers were taking off, so in 2012 I approached some friends in publishing with an idea for a coffee table style book about them – they gave me the green light so I quit my job in law and started writing! At the same time I started my Jimmy’s Burgers Instagram which soon took off. Eight months later The Burger Book - Victoria was finished and went to print by the end of 2013 and it was an Australian bestseller.”
“I went to the US and had, I think, 67 burgers in about 15 days”
With his Jimmy’s Burgers Instagram account well established, Jimmy soon began travelling the world eating and reviewing burgers: “I went to the US and had, I think, 67 burgers in about 15 days – all over LA, Vegas, Phoenix and down to Mexico.” Asked which were most memorable, Jimmy says “In and Out is still very close to my heart – it’s one of the best value burgers you can get, with all fresh ingredients, and in terms of pricepoint its only competition is McDonald’s.”
Not burger van but burger tram
The next step in Jimmy’s burger journey came in 2014 with the creation of Easey’s – a business venture which saw him join with two friends to create a unique burger venue in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, housed in a converted tram atop a building.
Easey’s collingwood
Easey’s is a collaboration between Jimmy, internationally acclaimed DJ Phil Martin who left the music industry to pursue the concept, and street artist Jeremy Gaschk. With both Phil and Jeremy having experience of working in hospitality, they joined with Jimmy to work on the Easey’s concept, with the doors opening in May 2015.
With the brand enjoying considerable publicity across TV, online and social media, it wasn’t long before Easey’s started partnering with other venues and events around Melbourne which served to further raise its profile. There’s even a line of Easey’s merch, from t-shirts to caps, stubby holders and even its own line of hot sauces.
Easey’s Metropolitan Mayhem
The heart of the Easey’s experience is, of course, the burgers – which come in four sizes: single, double, triple and ‘impossible’!
With enticing names like Rowdy Cheeseburgers, Metropolitan Mayhem (beef patty, American cheddar, bacon, two potato cakes, two dim sims, pickles, onion and burger sauce) and Oklahoma Fried Onion Cheeseburger, Easey’s burgers seem designed to be loaded up with as much as the customer can take.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Jimmy has not stopped with Easey’s: “Since then I’ve had a crack at all kinds of places, not all of which have been successful,” he admits. He currently owns Palomino’s Deli on the Gold Coast as well as the Limerick Castle Hotel in North Melbourne, which he describes as a “a very traditional Australian pub – we sell classic pub fare and we do Easey’s burgers there as well.”
Judging Australia’s Best Burger Competition
His latest high-profile burger gig is returning as a judge of Australia’s Best Burger Competition, held during the Food & Hospitality Week trade show in Sydney from 25-26 May. The two-day event brought top chefs from restaurants, QSRs, pubs, hotels and street food venues together to pit their creativity and technical skills against their peers on a national stage, with prizes awarded for Best Signature Burger, Best Creative Burger and the top gong of Australia’s Best Burger.
“I’m a real stickler for maintaining the integrity and history of burgers without bastardising the concept too much”
“I was one of the judges for the first competition, which was held last year in Melbourne, along with Gary Johnson and Matt Wilkinson. This time around they put me in charge of revising the rules, because I’m such a burger purist – I’m a real stickler for maintaining the integrity and history of burgers without bastardising the concept too much.”
One of Jimmy’s revisions for this year is that all burger patties had to be beef: “I find it difficult when people talk about chicken burgers or pork burgers. The word burger is actually a contraction of hamburger sandwich and the hamburg steak or hamburger pattie is beef – if you don’t have that it may be some other kind of sandwich but it’s not technically a burger. I feel you can only abbreviate things so far before you lose their meaning.”
“Cooking a burger is similar to cooking a steak”
Joining Jimmy on the judging panel this year were burger blogger Jesse Freeman, Ross Kemp of Super Nash Brothers and Jake Smyth of Mary’s Burgers, with Shannon Walker of All Things Meat acting as moderator.
“The contestants this year were quite lucky in the sense that the protein ingredient, which comes from Kilcoy Beef, was standardised across all entries. What we were looking for was how they could put their own flavour and spin on what a burger is – this comes down to cooking technique and skillset.
“I always say cooking a burger is similar to cooking a steak – you need it to be the right temperature for the cut of the meat. So if you have a thicker pattie, it needs to be cooked a little longer and the temperature needs to be maintained depending upon the style. Different regions have different takes on what they perceive a good burger to be - in NSW they’re always heavy on sauces, but personally I think if you make your burger correctly it shouldn’t need sauce.
“Arguably some of the best burger makers in Australia participate in the competition and it’s always interesting to see what they come up with. I’m always upfront about what I think makes a good burger and people can go and look that up, but the other judges have their own takes as well – Jesse and Ross both like different things, they’re more into juicy and cheesey burgers, in fact Jesse has a dipping burger style that he goes for.”
Three ingredients is ideal
In recent years there has been a trend towards maxxing out burgers with overloaded ingredients – which Jimmy now feels has gone too far and he’d like to see pulled back. “I feel like it’s mostly my fault that happened, at least in Australia, and I’m sorry for it. When I started my Instagram in 2012, those kinds of burger photos were what drove more likes, and I regret it daily. I’m slowly trying to bring it back to lower profile, less ingredients, to make sure it hits.
“The hardest part of having your own burger business: everyone tells you how you should be making things”
George Motz (l) & Jimmy Hurlston (R)
“My good buddy in the US, George Motz [media personality and owner/chef of Hamburger America in Manhattan’s SoHo] says your burger should ideally have three ingredients, maybe four but not more than five. The truth is the customer drives a lot of the demand for what foodservice outlets produce, and you can only educate them so much. We have a burger on the Easey’s menu with just three ingredients – beef, cheese, onion – plus the bun. There’s no sauce because if it’s made correctly you don’t need it – the cheese and onions melt together to create their own sauce.”
Often credited with introducing a more American style of burgers to our shores, we asked Jimmy whether he feels nostalgic for the more traditional Aussie approach: “I personally don’t like beetroot – I think it’s like cancer for a burger, because it slowly takes over and you end up with a soggy pink bun at the end. Nor do I believe avocado has any place on a burger. And unfortunately ketchup exists, but ketchup on its own I don’t like on a burger – I’d rather just have mustard, or have it mixed with mayo or aioli because ketchup is too sweet and too acidic, it kind of ruins the complexity of flavours.
“Aside from that, I think it’s so subjective – the biggest finding from years of research has been that different people like different things and that’s the hardest part of having your own burger business: everyone tells you how you should be making things.”
Asked which burgers have impressed him recently, Jimmy mentions Macgregor’s Original in Abbotsford – “they have a very traditional, basic offering and for me that’s always the most powerful approach, not to overcomplicate things. I sometimes wish I could go back to having just one burger on the menu at Easey’s like we did when we first opened. Hugo’s Deli Richmond occasionally puts on a burger which is delicious – they’re one of the few places still using sesame seed buns, which I love.”
His closing advice for those wanting to up their burger game: “Don’t overcomplicate it – your burger pattie should be just beef, nothing else, and correctly seasoned when it goes on the grill. Don’t season it beforehand because it dries out all the moisture.”
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