Top chefs shift from fine dining to burgers

Are burgers the new fine dining? Two of Sydney's hottest chefs of the noughties certainly think so as they turn their hands to flipping burgers.

Short Black hears Justin North, who has recovered from the implosion of his Becasse restaurant empire, is involved with a new burger outfit opening in Mosman next month, while chef Warren Turnbull has decided to reboot the former site of his luxe Assiette on Albion St, Surry Hills, as a burger joint.

Turnbull briefly renamed the restaurant Assiette Albion St Kitchen, which was getting good reviews when a fire tore through it in March. But it was the restaurant's sideline of trying to lift lunch trade by selling ''Chur'' burgers that got Turnbull thinking.

''After the fire I joked we'd need to rename it Charred Burger, but the idea stuck, so this week Chur Burger will open in the space,'' the chef says.

Turnbull says it is a burger joint, but you can't take all the fine dining chef out of him.

''We'll also have a few dishes like quail eggs and miso brisket pancakes on the menu,'' he says.