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Me with two chefs
on the Costa Fortuna
     I can't believe it - I won!!!

I am a confirmed restaurant winner in Red Robin's The Next Gourmet Burger Kids' Recipe Contest! I won for the Grandville, Michigan location. There are about 390 locations and one winner at each location. Around October 1st they will pick ten finalists from the 390 to go to Denver to compete to be the national winner!

In the meantime I am taking an unofficial poll to find out what you think about whether or not I should win this contest:

                Results:
Please don't vote more than once (unless you want to).



This is when I found out that I won
Wyoming 12-Year-Old Confirmed as Local Restaurant Winner of a National Kids Burger Recipe Contest.


Matthew Burbridge, age 12, is thrilled to learn that he is the local restaurant winner of a national kids burger recipe contest. On Thursday Matthew’s mother, Jennie Curtis, received email confirmation that her son’s burger creation is this year’s winning recipe at Grandville’s Red Robin Restaurant in the first round of the chain’s “The Next Gourmet Burger Kids’ Recipe Contest”. Jennie handed her son the confirmation email that she received from Nancy Hubert of GameSafe USA and asked him to read it out loud. Halfway through the first paragraph Matthew felt his heart begin to race as he sat stunned. I won? He asked in disbelief. “Yes! You won!!” his mother responded in excitement, assuring her son that this was not a practical joke.

Those who know Matthew well, know that his first love is cooking and creating recipes. Dawn White, Matthew’s aunt, recalls that at an extremely young age Matthew began talking about his idol, Bobby Flay, regularly. White says that the way her nephew spoke about Flay led her to believe that he was a famous athlete, racecar driver or a pop star. She was amazed to learn that Flay was actually a chef on the Food Network that Matthew watched incessantly. “Yep, ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to be Bobby Flay,” Matthew says and jokes “before that, I pretty much just wanted to be Bob the Builder”.

Matthew got the idea for his burger while aboard an Italian cruise line where he met many different people from many different backgrounds who spoke many different languages. The ship he was on has a European flare and he wanted to bring that experience home with him and share it with America in the form of a burger recipe idea he would develop and entitle “A Taste of the Mediterranean”. He hopes that he will be able to do that through his favorite burger chain – Red Robin. Matthew is inspired with the company’s business model of taking an ordinary American cuisine and making it “extraordinary” through the concept of gourmet burgers. His winning recipe includes such toppings as Greek style hummus spread, balsamic vineagrette, onions, black olives, feta cheese, fresh spinach, artichoke hearts and tomatoes.


Aunt and Uncle make me dress up
While he never thought he would have the chance, Matthew has wanted to go on a cruise vacation for a very long time. Why? To experience 5 Star Dining, of course… oh, and to tour the galley and meet the chefs! Last December Matthew’s aunt and uncle helped fulfill that dream by taking him with them on a cruise vacation. “While many other children were spending time at the waterslide and pool,” White recalls, “Matt was enthusiastically attending cooking classes on the Lido deck, napkin folding demonstrations in the Atrium and waiting anxiously to meet the Maitre D’ and have his photo taken with the chefs.” The essay Matthew submitted along with his winning burger recipe tells us that he feels people all over the world can only benefit from sharing our cultures and embracing others’.

Each of the Red Robin restaurants across the country chooses 1 winner from all of the recipes submitted at their local restaurant. As winner, Matt will receive a $50 Red Robin Restaurant gift card. Matt is the Grandville winner and one of 390 children out of thousands of submissions who now have a chance at the finals. Ten of the 390 will advance and Matt hopes to be one who will have the opportunity to go to Denver, Colorado where the top 10 burger recipe submissions will be critiqued by judges that may even include a famous chef or two. The top winner of the finals will be awarded a trip to Universal Orlando Resort for 4 and have his/her burger featured on the Red Robin Restaurant menu. While Matthew dreams about his chances of winning top prize and being awarded the Universal vacation, he does say he would give it up if asked in exchange for just 1 day of training at a culinary arts school or the opportunity to meet a Food Network Chef.

Last year Matthew purchased a website domain name with his own money ($12 per year) www.CookWithMatt.com. He admittedly doesn’t have much on the website as of yet but has big hopes for the future. Matt says you can find a version of his winning burger recipe here on his website.