Most expensive hamburger (single portion)

The most expensive hamburger (single portion) was sold for €5,000 (£4,295 / $5,967), and was achieved by Robbert Jan De Veen (Netherlands) at The Daltons in Voorthuizen, Gelderland, Netherlands, on 28 June 2021.

Robbert decided to attempt this record during the Covid-19 pandemic. His restaurant was closed for seating at the time but they were still able to do takeaways. One night, he was helping with the training of a new manager and was on call in the back in case they needed any assistance. He was having a quick scroll on Facebook and came across a post from Guinness World Records for the most expensive hamburger. He was shocked at how big the burger was and thought that he could also attempt a record like this but for a single portion size.

The entire burger - named 'The Golden Boy' - was made completely from scratch and was a recipe developed by Robbert himself. For €5,000, he wanted to ensure the burger was excellent quality as well as tasty. The bun is lightly toasted but still soft inside and is made using Dom Pérignon champagne. The onion rings are champagne battered, the beef is juicy wagyu, with the addition of king crab and caviar. Another show-stopping element is the bun which is completely covered in gold leaf and when picked up, gives you golden fingers! Robbert describes the taste as sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

Robbert is very confident in his cooking skills as he makes hundreds of burgers every week. The only thing he was nervous about was potentially dropping the burger in front of the crowd of people (with many cameras) who came to view the attempt. He says he almost tripped on the day, but luckily the plate stayed in his hand!

When asked about any challenges in achieving the record, Robbert states "There were a few challenges, not going to lie about that. But the first big one was: how are we going to make sure that this burger is going to taste awesome? I mean, it's easy to just take a few really expensive ingredients and put them on a burger. But for me, it was very important that the burger also tastes awesome. I wanted to see how far can we go with it, how much can we put in to it - and still make sure that the 5 tastes are in perfect harmony. The second big challenge was to source the ingredients. For example, a few ingredients that are in the burger are normally not available in the Netherlands, but I had great help from my suppliers."

Robbert had a lot of support from his friends and family with the attempt who immediately offered their help without him having to ask. He says his parents were very supporting and his staff really went the extra mile. He would like to give a shoutout to the following people: "Geor, Marcel, Jordy, Dennis, Dick and Mikel, couldn’t do this without you!"

There was generally a great public reaction to the event. Everyone in his home town was very proud. However, this also came with some criticism from people who said that he only did this for money which was certainly not the case for Robbert who says he did it for himself but also to raise awareness of poverty within the Netherlands, and for the people who cannot afford their weekly groceries and need to use foodbanks. He donated the full €5,000 from the first 'Golden Boy' order to a local foodbank which was used to make 1,000 food packages for the families who needed help.

Robbert's childhood dream was to be a Guinness World Records title holder. He reminisces back to his days as a child when he would visit his grandparents. They had a lovely home and in their front room they had a collection of GWR books that he would just sit and scroll through. He expresses that this is his own way of honouring them.