Move over mayo and ketchup, Nick Loeb is banking on getting Americans addicted to a new condiment: Onion Crunch.
Loeb has just teamed up with the Old Homestead Steakhouse to create a new hamburger adorned with the condiment that they hope will win the New York City Wine & Food Festival’s Blue Moon Burger Bash hamburger contest on Friday.
“We are very excited to be part of the competition,” said Loeb, the son of banker John Loeb, who was former President Reagan’s ambassador to Denmark.
The junior Loeb claims Onion Crunch, which he discovered during his childhood in Scandinavia, to be the first new condiment introduced in America since salsa.
His fiancée, “Modern Family” star Sofia Vergara, is also a fan of the product. “She loves putting it in tomato basil soup,” he said.
Loeb has invested $5 million in the Netherlands-based company that produces the topping. It was launched 18 months ago and is now available in stores, including Safeway and Walmart and, locally, Fairway and D’Agostino.
To prepare for the burger bash, the owners of the Old Homestead, Greg and Marc Sherry, turned to Romeo DiBona, the executive chef at Atlantic City’s Old Homestead Borgata, to create something new with Onion Crunch.
They went through 90-to-100 creations over two months, testing a dozen different rolls, 48 toppings and eight different cheeses.
The favorite: a prime beef/brisket mix with sweet onion marmalade, gooey bubbly cheese, pepper slab bacon, and Onion Crunch on a roll.