Ronnie Killen's Burger Bet
Ronnie Killen makes $10,000 bet that he can build a better burger than unfriendly reviewer
Never let it be said that Ronnie Killen won't put his money where his mouth is — or more accurately, where his fingers are.
In response to a one-star review on the Killen's Burgers Facebook page where a user wrote that the restaurant's burgers are "very basic, can be made at home better," Killen offered a challenge.
"Anytime you would like to throw down food, we could see how much better your home cooking is to my basic cooking," the chef wrote. "$1,000 of my dollars to $10 of yours. Winner take all."
Killen tells CultureMap that he upped the offer to $10,000 in a private message to the reviewer. The chef, who famously graduated first in his class from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in London, also offered at one point to cook with only one arm.
"He wrote that I relaunched it to get a five-star rating, and that isn’t true. I just want people who are interested in what we do," Killen says. "If people want to write (negative reviews) on Yelp, that’s fine. For people to like our page, they should be fans of what we're doing, in my opinion."
So far, Killen says he hasn't received a response (nor has the reviewer responded to CultureMap's messages on Facebook), but the chef sounds like a man who's proud of his work and ready to defend his reputation as one of Houston's premier culinary talents.
"$10? What do you have to lose? You have nothing to lose. Or be a man. If you don't want the money and you win, I’ll donate the $10,000 to charity."
