The humble hamburger has come a long way in the last century. Many theories abound as to who first created the burger, but according to many, the glory belongs to Otto Kuase of Hamburg, Germany – and yes, that’s where the name is said to originate from. Otto apparently created the first beef patty in 1891, cooking it in butter and topping it with a fried egg – popular amongst German sailors, legend goes they brought the meatball-on-bread notion over to the states, minus the fried egg however.

The burger is so entrenched in our culinary timeline, that in 2014 Time magazine dedicated an article to its immense influence. Topping the list as the most influential burger of all time is the White Castle Slider – ‘slider’ being an American term for a small hamburger. White Castle was America’s first chain of fast food stores. Begun in 1921, it gave rise to the square hamburger patty and by 1930 White Castle had grown to ten locations spawning a fast food-empire unlike any other. Second on the list is the McDonald’s Burger – now operating in 118 countries, the fast food king’s Big Mac burger even serves as an informal measure of purchasing-power parity, better known as the Economist’s Big Mac index. And third on the list is the In-N-Out Burger – opposite to the fast-food movement and first debuting in 1948, their approach has always been to focus entirely on the food, sourcing only the best ingredients possible. As a result, foodie enthusiasm regularly keeps this burger top of best-of burger lists, and has helped the burger shift from humble and rather pedestrian to sought-after and gourmet. Five Guys is a prime example of this elevation in status. Boasting over 250,000 possible ways to customise a burger, all their food is handcrafted using only the freshest ground beef – there are no freezers in any Five Guys locations, just coolers so nothing is ever frozen.

This shift in status over the last few years is also evident in South Africa. Eat Out in their ‘Ultimate Gourmet Burger Guide’ include a host of eateries throughout the country who specialise in high-end hamburgers, from The Wolfpack in Johannesburg which offers a wide variety of patties from pure beef, cheddar stuffed, pork, ostrich and Karoo lamb; to The Dogs Bollocks in Cape Town which boasts a ‘burger of the month’ (this month it’s chicken cheese and pineapple, coriander and onion salsa) and has an almost cult-like following with their ‘we only make 50 burgers a night’.

There really is no end to the hamburger, whether saucily simple or divinely decadent, and to help you cater for all your needs, N1 offer a wide range of high-quality Halaal and Non-Halaal burger patties from steak burgers and beef rib burgers to the delicious breakfast burger. Call now to stock up – and long live the burger!