Marlow’s resident Michelin-starred chef just can’t catch a break – with customers homing in on a ‘pompous’ Scooby-Doo-inspired burger in the latest controversy over his local pub grub.
Earlier this year, Kerridge drew the ire of customers at his Marlow pub The Coach by adding a £19.50 jacket potato to the menu – a discussion that was tempered by praise heaped on the gourmet spud by YouTuber Ryan Tricks, prompting a begrudging acceptance of the pricey dish.
The 51-year-old, whose other Marlow pub, The Hand and Flowers, was the first in the world to receive two Michelin stars, has drawn fresh attention this week for advertising a whopping eight-inch Scooby-Doo-inspired burger at The Coach – with one critical would-be customer accusing it of better deserving the title, “a meal on a stick”.
Kerridge explained the inspiration behind the towering construction, which is made up of a beef patty, soy and sesame chicken, smoked cheese and dill pickle in a video shared to the restaurant’s social media pages.
He said: “It’s all about Scooby Doo. The idea was to make it fun, exciting, ridiculous, tasty, packed full of flavour, layer upon layer upon layer as it goes up and up and up.
“It’s just a childhood memory of thinking of Scooby Doo when he solved the crime, ‘stop those pesky kids, they would have got away with it if it wasn’t for Scooby Doo!’
“It’s about fun, flavour and it’s a real treat.”
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Despite his clear enthusiasm for the burger, which evokes the stacked sandwiches eaten by Shaggy and Scooby in the popular children’s cartoon, social media users on TikTok and Instagram took a different, less generous stance on the £19.50 offering.
One person criticised its confusing status as “a burger that is physically impossible to eat like a burger”, while another said: “Am sure (the) taste is great but it’s just a tower of food – bit odd”.
Others were more damning, with one user condemning the dish as “pompous c**p” and someone else, for better or for worse, relabelling it as “a meal on a stick”.
Some also joked about its hefty price tag, with one person suggesting that the elaborate meal must clock in at around £500 – a jab that clashes with the pub’s inclusion on The Telegraph’s list of the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurants in the country over the summer.
The Coach nabbed a spot on the round-up thanks to comparatively cheap menu items like chimichurri-laden sweetcorn soup and honey-glazed bacon, fried egg and griddled pineapple – a light lunch or breakfast that would set you back only £15.
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