A clever collaboration between Elevation Burger and Khaled Al Baker has produced “The Bello”, a burger as delicious as the Local Chef Collaboration initiative is noble. Elevation Burger is dedicated to providing better and sustainable food choices to empower the local community, and has a proven history of producing the tastiest of results while supporting local farmers, suppliers and local chefs alike.
Chef Khaled and Elevation Burger work together via the TABCo. Food Local Chef Collaboration initiative
Quality ingredients matter and the LCC initiative is a platform for local chefs to express their unique style and elevate their skills while enhancing the company’s mission to consistently give customers an outstanding, quality Elevation Burger experience.
TABCo. Food is committed to delivering quality at all times, and that is why they operate Elevation Burger; there’s a duality of purpose in their missions.
Extending this to really make an impact through Local Chef Collaboration was the idea of the CEO of TABCo. Food Abdulaziz Al Turaiji who is admirably focused on continuing this initiative and says, “We at TABCo. Food are glad to launch our second Local Chef Collaboration with Chef Khaled Al Baker. The LCC is something that we will continue as part of Elevation Burger’s overall initiative to use better ingredients, support our community and empower local talents. We are looking forward to expanding this program and supporting the culinary scene in Kuwait.”
The first LCC resulted in a long term offering of fresh, and made in-house, chimichurri sauce.
The first LCC landed in April 2018 and was so successful that Elevation Burger to this day references it with a fresh, and made in-house chimichurri sauce. This meant that the second Local Chef Collaboration had a big reputation to follow.
You may not be familiar with his name but you will certainly be familiar with the tastes delivered by Khaled Al Baker, the renowned young Kuwaiti chef who featured in 2017’s bazaarDining & Entertainment Guide. No stranger to working with the best prime cuts of USDA certified beef, Khaled has a meaty resume behind him reworking dining concepts and fine-tuning menus.
He is the natural choice to go to if what is required is working with someone who knows how to get the best out of a 100% organic grass-fed beef burger. But what would make the local chef, famed for his magically modern Middle Eastern inspired menus, want to collaborate with Elevation Burger?
We put our skates on and nipped over to Elevation Burger’s Al Bida’a location on The Bello’s launch night to investigate further the thinking behind this juicy new creation, and try to wheedle out of the team exactly how much longer we have to enjoy it.
Chef Khaled with the launch night Elevation Burger Alibda’a team
The Elevation Burger Al Bida’a restaurant is bright and sizeable, covering two large floors with ample space even when it’s busy. The top floor is often used as a community space as well as for regular staff training so they can knowledgeably serve customers.
A well-appointed split-level outdoor area features plenty of seating and heaters for a cooler spring evening, where you can relax and chat with friends while you all enjoy the latest Elevation Burger experience under iconic cerulean blue umbrella shades. For the launch a jazztrio played softly in the background, and the tables were artfully decorated.
Beautifully mossy arrangements of Portobello mushrooms with succulents, cleverly placed as a hint of the type of food experienceyou are about to enjoy. They looked like something you might find on a forest floor while hunting for mushrooms; utterly delightful.
With a huge a welcoming smile Khaled approaches and we grab him quickly because for sure there will be no time later on to chat to the personable chef. “My favorite ingredient is mushroom so I started with the mushrooms and then started to build slowly what goes welltogether. I then added onions,” explains the chef, “I needed a sauce so I tried different sauce combinations and then found the right cheese. Finally,I added arugula…because I hate lettuce!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsqkeUfhBJX/
Unwrapping the burger, you can smell the mouth-watering grill work that has gone into building The Bello. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Let’s start with the bun. It’s the classic potato bun that we have all come to know and love with this brand, because no matter how much you build your burger, this bun is guaranteed to stayin one piece, ensuring you can take one huge bite with a layer of deliciousness in each mouthful.
The bun is slathered with a home-made aioli sauce, made fresh daily and marinated for a minimum of eleven hours before use. There is but a hint of garlic in the mixture with olive oil and parsley, touches of black pepper and the taste of parmesan coming through; the perfect condiment to complement the components of the sandwich to come.
Arugula is a leafy green herb from the mustard family Eruca Vesicaria Sativa sometimes referred to as rocket, and is known for its robust peppery flavor. This is an excellent salad choice to replace typically shredded iceberg, which can be considered mildly pedestrian at its most exciting, but is useful in whole leaf form if you want to lettuce wrap your burger.
On top of the locally sourced arugula, rests a patty of high-quality 100% USDA certified organic beef cooked to perfection on the grill and delivering a taste and texture that we have come to expect only from Elevation Burger.The grill has also been used to seal in the flavors of the thickly sliced Portobello mushroom, giving a succulent bite after cooking. Classic, grilled onions sit atop the hot mushrooms, and a significant slice of white cheddar melts over the deliciously meaty patty. Another dash of aioli, and you are all set for a taste sensation.
Image Facebook @elevationkw cover
One bazaarite [who shall remain nameless but who sheriffs the rest of us] insists on no bun when indulging in a burger, so how did The Bello fare without this carbalicious element? A super tasty thumbs up! The exact type of cheddar was even more discernible in a lettuce wrap; turns out The Bello is good news for the turophile and fungophile alike.
Khaled also admits to bazaar that, on tests, the lettuce wrap has been given great feedback, it’s surprisingly just as popular as when tried with the bun; but the staff will always respectfully suggest that you try The Bello the way Chef Khaled designed it. The chef disclosed, “I wanted to work with Elevation Burger because they are well known for using quality ingredients.”
As always, under the guidance of the visionary TABCo. Foods CEO AzizAl Turaiji,trusted Elevation Burger has globally hunted down all the best ingredients for you, from the Norwegian Portobello mushrooms to the locally sourced arugula leaves. The only thing you have to do is choose The Bello to indulge in a succulent and savory mushroom burger, and be confident that you and your family are experiencing the best quality there is. Enjoy!
Elevation Burger has locations throughout Kuwait, find out where by visiting www.tabcofood.com. Follow the Elevation Burger Kuwait accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @elevationkw. The Bello is a Limited Time Only offering, so catch it while you can! For more of his culinary adventures you can follow @chefkb on Instagram.
For more on CEO Aziz Al Turaiji read the feature article published in the March 2019 issue of bazaar and online on bazaar.townnew.
