ECC student's dessert burger wins spot on Prime menu

The winner of the 2011 Prime BurgerHouse/Elgin Community College Burger Competition will leave you with one question: Where's the beef?

Bernard LoMonaco's creation pairing a flourless chocolate cake patty with fruit toppings that resemble condiments — sliced strawberries for tomatoes, mango slices for cheese and kiwis for pickles — between a concha bun, took the top prize Tuesday.

The six finalists, all culinary students at ECC, competed for scholarships and the chance to appear on the menu at Prime BurgerHouse, the upscale burger-joint at the Elgin casino.

LoMonaco, 38, a Bartlett resident and chef at the Elgin Country Club, said his burger was a take on a dessert he had seen in a pastry class where each layer of a cake looked like an ingredient.

“I added my own ideas,” LoMonaco said. “The concha bread already looks like a bun and flourless chocolate cake is popular right now. Then I used different fruits that look like the condiments. I put it together and it looked exactly like a burger.”

It was also the first time LoMonaco, who said he specializes in meats and seafood, dropped proteins from his recipe.

In his first two attempts in the burger competition, LoMonaco said he finished fourth. His previous entries included a beef patty topped with cheddar cheese, jalapeños and crab meat and another with popcorn shrimp and an onion ring. “I thought I would try something different,” he said. “You don't really see anything like it at all anywhere.”

A half-pound burger with bacon, goat cheese, tomato-caper relish and baby arugula with a balsamic vinaigrette won second, while a and a chicken burger with apple slices rounded out the top three.

The flourless chocolate burger will appear on the restaurant's menu in the new year, LoMonaco said.