When he appeared at the Zagreb Burger Festival in 2017 with his Mason burgers, it caused a real frenzy. Although other restaurants were already presenting quality examples at the time, Ivan Zidar caught the public‘s eye first because of the great attention he paid to every element of his burger, and then the final product, which was something completely different at the time. The meat melted in your mouth, the bun was sourced from a bakery in Pula because he couldn‘t find one like it anywhere else, and the toppings were simple but worked perfectly. And so, with a lot of effort and thought, Zidar quickly became the king of the Zagreb burger scene. He won the same festival the following year, later tried franchising his brand, was included on the list of the 50 best burgers in Europe, and even announced the opening of his own place.
Then the coronavirus hit, other business opportunities came to the forefront, and Mason was put on hold for a while, even though his recipes lived on in other venues. Until this year, when he is ready to return to the scene. And in a big way! Ivan Zidar, with his brand Mason burgers and stuff, has been invited to an international burger competition in Barcelona. He will head there at the end of the year, and for the occasion, he has created a very special burger, once again simple in ingredients but with explosive flavors.
"It‘s a pretty well-known competition where burger bars from all over Europe participate. At 25 booths, everyone prepares just one burger, all at the same price - 12.50 euros, and people come to show their very best. When The Champions Burger contacted me, I couldn‘t believe it was happening, but I immediately accepted and started brainstorming. You know, it‘s hard to make a burger that everyone will like. I had the idea from the start, but it took me three weeks to perfect it. Our burger consists of meat made from a blend of rib, brisket, and neck, and we also included aged meat, then a brown butter sauce with koji culture, trappist cheese, pickled shiitake mushrooms, and a bun that I still, after all these years, get from Brionka in Pula. It‘s actually very simple in terms of ingredients, but the preparation process is a bit restaurant-like, so it took me some time to translate it into a street food version," Zidar explained to us.
As he tells us how he prepares the burger, how long it takes to make the brown butter and koji culture sauce, which he makes with soy milk, without eggs, yet it somewhat resembles a light mayonnaise, he explains that he brushes the meat with soy sauce before cooking and adds that he didn‘t want to complicate things with toppings, so the shiitakes fit in perfectly, while we try as subtly as possible to wipe the drool from the corners of our mouths. The burger sounds fantastic, and Zidar describes it as a total umami explosion, the fifth taste that brings out the best of salty, sweet, sour, meaty, deep, and creates a sensation on the tongue.
"The goal was, and I think I succeeded, to make a burger you want to come back to. You try it and it doesn‘t leave you indifferent, but you keep thinking about it for a long time," Zidar added.
The fact that he really thought deeply about every element of his new burger is also shown by the fact that he recently became especially connected with the team from PRIME CUT - Meat House, the former Bašljan butchery, which many gourmets consider extremely important and high-quality, and he also paid a lot of attention to the choice of cheese.
"We wanted to go to Barcelona with local cheese, we didn‘t want cheddar or anything similar. I needed a complex cheese, similar to gruyère, that melts well but isn‘t too intense and doesn‘t overpower the other ingredients, but just blends nicely with everything. So the decision fell on young trappist."
Zidar also added that he understands that all sorts of trends are circulating on social networks at the moment, smash burgers have been an absolute hit for some time, and many people like to stuff as many ingredients as possible between the buns to make it more filling and richer. He, on the contrary, has always focused primarily on quality from the very beginning and doesn‘t want to stray from that this time either. Although he doesn‘t like to think about winning in advance, so as not to be disappointed, after we tried his Mason 5th, we believe that in Barcelona he has a great chance to win over many visitors, who ultimately decide the winner. Whether the burger is that good, all visitors to the Zagreb Burger Festival, which started on September 4 and lasts until September 14, will be able to see for themselves, where Mason, after so many years of pause, once again has his own booth.
"I lowered the price as much as I could, just so more people could try and react to this burger. My goal, among other things, is to introduce people to something new, for example koji culture, which is so versatile and so many beautiful things can be made from it, but many people don‘t actually know what it is. It‘s a culture grown on substrates such as soy, rice, and barley, and over time it develops a deeper, richer flavor. It is most often used for making miso, when mixed with legumes and salt, and as it ferments, it becomes stronger and takes on that umami. Koji culture can really be used for anything, from making bread to various drinks, it can be added to meat, and it can also be used in sauces like ours," Zidar explains excitedly.
In the end, he brings us his burger and lets us enjoy it in peace, to experience the flavors without any suggestions from his side, and from the very first bite, we completely understand everything he has talked about so far. Salty, slightly sour, juicy to the point of madness, and very likely one of the best burgers we‘ve ever tasted. In conclusion, Mason‘s comeback by Ivan Zidar was done in grand style!
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