What's a curler to do when there's no curling to be had?
Become a judge for a virtual burger-making contest, of course.
That's what Jamie Koe did this past weekend as he was part of a celebrity panel of arbiters for a contest organized by Doug Suerich of Kitchener, Ont., who goes by the Twitter handle CurlingGeek.
Michael Burns/Curling Canada photo
Koe was among a star-studded field of who's who in the sport with players such as Lisa Weagle, a three-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner with Rachel Homan; John Shuster, skip of the reigning U.S. men's Olympic champions; and Sherry Middaugh, one of Canada's top women's curlers for many years.
“I was asked if I would get in on it and they signed me up,” said Koe.
The contest had five categories of burgers open to public entries – all rated based on looks rather than taste. Koe's category consisted of a classic burger and his job was to go through all of the submissions that were linked to the CurlingGeek feed and determine which one was worthy of winning.
“There were entries from all over,” said Koe. “All of us judges went to the site and tried to pick out which one belonged to our category.”
Koe's plan was to stick to the ones that had the simplest of ingredients: meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle and a bun.
“Some of them had a good side (dish) to go along with it, like French fries or a beer,” he said. “One person put mac and cheese as a side and that was a clever one.”
Naturally, judging burgers through the power of social media wasn't how Koe would have liked it but it still had the desired effect on his appetite.
“It was making me hungry, that's for sure,” he said. “Some of the burgers were huge and that's when you wish you could just grab it and take a bite.”
The burger-making event was part of an ongoing feature under the #CurlersWhoCook hashtag and Koe is game to go another round of judging food.
“I've been a judge for a chili cook-off before and it will be interesting to see what else they'll come up with,” he said. “I'd do it again if they asked me.”
The winners were announced on Monday evening with Koe settling on a fully-homemade burger made by @CalmCurling. Even the bun was homemade.