National Culinary Arts Month in July recognizes the professional cooks and chefs who bring innovative, and unique cuisine from their kitchens to our tables. Green Energy Biofuel will talk with some of our great chefs to bring attention to their unique styles and environmental focus.
By Taylor Strickland, 07/23/2020
BurgerRito, Knoxville TN
BurgerRito, created by Chef Pauly Kukich, is a phenomenal new food truck you will find cruising around Knoxville, TN, and home to the Original Mexican Hamburger. This special edible dream-come-true is made up of a large flour tortilla topped with creamy refried beans, a juicy quarter-pound beef patty, a stew of New Mexico hatch green chile with pork, and shredded cheese. Originally from Tuscan, AZ, BurgerRito recently moved to Knoxville in March and has been making a name ever since. Chef Pauly enjoys the food truck scene because there are fewer overhead costs than a conventional restaurant, which means he can offer higher quality food to his customers. BurgerRito boasts 7 different types of meat and 8 sauces for a menu that provides 792 different sandwich combinations. Also, He can target where his customers and events are and bring the food to them.
Q: What is your philosophy of cooking?
A: I view food and cooking like music. A person’s mood can change from day to day and will want music to correspond to that mood. I have a wide variety of menu items to offer tasty food for whatever mood you are in.
Q: What is your favorite food to fry?
A: Everything. Right now, we are offering crab cake or salmon, seasoned and deep-fried. You can have it served in a wrap, sandwich, or over a salad.
Q: What type of cooking oil do you use and why?
A: Rice bran cooking oil for all my deep frying. Besides its high smoke point and ability to cook without absorbing into the food, it is surprisingly healthy. Rice bran has a low cholesterol level and antioxidants.
Q: Why is recycling used cooking oil important to you?
A: I try to recycle as much as possible, used cooking oil is an obvious extension of that. If everyone did the little things, our environment would not have the major issues we have today.
Our Experience:
Chef Pauly prepared a fried salmon wrap. 
The salmon was seasoned with the perfect amount of spice and heat, combined with lettuce, tomato, onion, and avocado, wrapped in a flour tortilla with sharp cheddar. He toasted the wrap in a press which melted the cheese without wilting the vegetables. I dipped the whole wrap in the New Mexican hatch green chili sauce, and everything came together wonderfully. I recommend looking BurgeRito’s location up on Facebook or calling ahead to find where BurgerRito will be parked.
BurgerRito
Knoxville, TN
520-991-2199