Everything starts with something, right? Well, here’s a story.

*She said ‘it’s the best burger I’ve ever eaten.’
Last week, BARiSTA Chef Anton told me how his wife had been bowled over by our Yorkshire Bird Burger. After finishing a busy shift, he’d taken dinner home and even he’d thought, ‘this is so good!’. 

The revelation that our Chef (who designs and cooks our dishes) would be surprised by the quality of our Yorkshire Bird Burger, was a little alarming to say the least. Surely, he tests the food on a regular basis? Anton explained, of course he does. But he rarely gets the chance to enjoy a full dish, in the company of his wife. Like a ‘normal’ person.

*Disclaimer – At this point, it’s worth confirming that Anton and his wife are firmly out of the honey moon period of marriage. They’re in the no holes barred, one small child, no secrets, ‘tell it like it is’ stage. So, we can trust ‘it’s the best burger I’ve ever eaten’.

As a life long vegetarian, slash vegan (a long story, perhaps for another post), with a disgruntled husband who’s a reluctant vegetarian and a daughter who’s an avid vegetarian, I couldn’t help feeling a bit left out. 

Let’s Not ‘Go There’
Lets get this out of the way. Not all vegetarians are vegetarian because they dislike the taste and texture of meat. Some veggies love the taste of meat and miss it soooooooooo much…..BUT they also love the sight of moo cows happily chewing the cud and baby lambs prancing. So we’re not going to get all judgy about whether meat substitutes are morally correct here.

A Challenge
No sooner than my bottom lip had appeared, Anton the challenge junky, set about creating the best veggie version of our Yorkshire Bird Burger. All I had to do was eat it. Love it. Name it.

What exactly do you call a non bird burger? An Essex Bird Burger (work it out guys). Too offensive.

A Southern Softy Bird Burger? Let’s not assume all veggies are soft, thank you. 

Our new fake burger name fell into my lap, after a text from a fellow veggie, who told me how she was forcing her husband to watch Game Changers. (For those of you who don’t know, Game Changers is a very famous documentary about veganism which claims cutting down on meat is better for you and the planet).

Ta Daa! 
Allow me to introduce our Game Changer Burger. Okay, so technically chicken is not ‘game’ it’s actually ‘fowl’ but I’m pretty sure the Fake Fowl Burger wouldn’t cut it in the dog eat dog marketing world. 

And the point is?
You know how I said everything starts with something? This story started with ‘that’s the best burger I’ve ever eaten’. And not only did it bring me the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten, but it also brought you our first story about us. In the form of this blog. 

A big welcome to you all.