Spokane chef chows down artisan burger at 2 miles up

He blinked. Then laughed. Then said, “Let’s do it.”

When skydiver Kara Menke asked chef John “J.D.” Leonetti if he’d jump out of an airplane to eat his Voot Burger at 12,500 feet, he didn’t hesitate.

The owner of Prohibition Gastropub in Spokane recently had completed only the second skydive of his life when Menke posed the question on the patio of his North Monroe Street restaurant. Sunday, he made two jumps with a total of four burgers and four cameras – two for video and two for still shots.

“The hardest thing was just trying to eat it,” Leonetti said, noting the wind speed of 120 mph. “You’re floating, falling. You feel like you’re flying.”

Leonetti created the specialty burger for the James Beard Foundation’s Blended Burger Project. The third annual contest challenges chefs to add finely chopped mushrooms to patties for more sustainable burgers with reduced calories, fat and sodium.

About 350 chefs nationwide are competing in the contest, which runs through July 31. The five chefs with the most online votes will win a trip to cook their blended burger at the James Beard House.

Other Spokane restaurants taking part in the competition include Allie’s Vegan Pizzeria and Cafe and Remedy Kitchen and Tavern.

“We may not win the popular vote, competing with restaurants in big places like New York and Florida,” Leonetti said. “But it would be hard for them not to notice when you see a chef skydiving with a burger, trying to eat it.”

Leonetti did the stunt to promote his burger and business and the competition. But he also did it just for the fun of it, he said.

He first had tried skydiving in Arizona for his 18th birthday. And he had tried it again recently because of a group of regular customers who are skydivers, including Menke. She’d been coming to the restaurant “almost two years, pretty much since they opened,” Menke said.

She said she was hooked by the Caprese salad. But the burgers kept her coming back.

Leonetti uses coffee grounds in his patties to keep them extra moist and boost their flavor. For the Blended Burger Project, he used that base, plus a blend of crimini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms.

His wife, Jill, named the Voot Burger for the Jazz Age slang term for money. It also features candy-coated bacon, mesclun greens, diced onion and tomato, feta and fontina cream sauce on a pretzel bun from Spokane’s Alpine Bakery. It sells for $14 with fries.

Leonetti was planning to keep it on the menu through July for the contest. But, “People seem to like it,” he said. “We might keep offering it.”

Menke hopes it remains on the menu. “It’s just delicious,” she said. “The juice that comes off it is just amazing.” She likes to drip it over her fries, “kinda like an au jus. It’s just an incredible burger.”

Menke is the manager of Skydive West Plains, located outside Ritzville. Her dad, Rex, is the owner. On the day of the burger jumps, she served as photographer and videographer, with two cameras mounted to her helmet. Leonetti’s diving instructors – he had a different one for each jump – also had two wrist-mounted cameras.

The first jump was practice. “I figured the first time I’d be laughing too hard to take any pictures,” said Menke, who skydived alongside Leonetti and his instructors. “And we just thought it’d be fun to do it twice, so why not?”

The first jump took two burgers, one of which Leonetti shared with his instructor. (Both of his jumps were tandem jumps, meaning he was harnessed to an experienced skydiver.)

“It’s definitely addicting,” Leonetti said, who’s now completed four jumps and is considering taking classes toward certification. “I think everyone should try it at least once.”

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t scared. But I was somehow more nervous this time than the last time I went.”

That time, no burgers were involved. “I think you were more nervous about getting your chef’s jacket dirty,” said Menke, noting Leonetti kept the spare burger in a plastic bag tucked inside his harness.

“I didn’t want to lose the burger,” he said. “Skydiving is such a thrill. Trying to eat a burger added to it. But I prefer to enjoy the view.”

The second jump only required one burger. And that meant there was one left over.

“I ate the extra one,” Menke said.