Hamburger with ‘the lot’ 2024

Summary

This ceramic artwork of a hamburger with 'the lot' was made by Kenny Pittock for the 2025 City Gallery exhibition 'The Dirty Dozen'. Curated by award-winning food writer and author Richard Cornish, the exhibition delved into the sometimes-dark, often-uplifting stories behind street food, produce markets and the dining habits of the 19th-century elite. The twelve ceramic artworks produced by Pittock bring to life 12 quintessential Melbourne street foods. All look good enough to eat.

"While meat rissoles were nothing new in 1930, trapping them between two halves of a bun, along with lettuce, onions, tomato and ketchup, was. Melbourne’s first recorded dalliance with the burger came about in Williamstown during the mid-1930s: Mrs Hayward started flipping them in her Ferguson Street venue opposite the cinema. The addition of a slice of beetroot sometime in the 1940s localised the burger." - Richard Cornish, 'The Dirty Dozen' exhibition catalogue