7-year-old food critic dishes on P.E.I.'s Burger Love
Jack Pickering has sampled 22 hamburgers in April, and he'll tell you all about them
Seven-year old Jack Pickering is P.E.I.'s newest — and possibly youngest — food critic.
He has sampled 22 hamburgers so far during P.E.I.'s month-long Burger Love campaign — and he's happy to share exactly what he thought of the burgers, rating each of them on a scale of one to 10.
Pickering's online reviews are getting hundreds of views — one received more than 1,000 hits.
"I've been wanting to be on YouTube since I was four or five years old," Pickering told CBC.
The second-grader said he was inspired by watching a lot of YouTube videos on his iPad.
"And I was like, this is really cool, I want to be a YouTuber when I grow up!" he said.
He has a YouTube channel called Electronic Freak where he's posted a series of reviews of this year's Burger Love offerings.
'Too spicy for a kid'
Pickering, who is missing his two front teeth, speaks to a camera that's operated by one of his parents. He shows users a view of his burger, cut in half, each time.
He tells people who want a burger from one restaurant that it's "too spicy for a kid." The burger also boasted edible salad flowers but Pickering said he loves flowers "so much I would not eat them."
In another video he says "the blueberries are not in an ordinary place, folks — they're in the bun!" Another burger was "too big and tall." However he comments that most of the burgers are "really good."
So what makes a good burger?
"For Burger Love, they put all random stuff on it," he said. "But it has to, all of it combined, taste good."
Jack doesn't eat the entire burger, though — sometimes half, sometimes just a bite.
'They want to know which one is good'
His beefy quest has taken him to many new places across P.E.I.
"I've been to places like Tyne Valley, Montague, Summerside, Charlottetown," he said.
J.R.'s Pizza, with its Bunkhouse Burger, has Pickering's highest rating so far.
"Almost everyone wants to do some Burger Love," Pickering said. "Most people don't just jump up, go to a random restaurant and have it — they want to know which one is good."
Minor celebrity
The online reviews have meant Pickering has been recognized in public. He was recently approached by several people while waiting for takeout.
"I was busy talking to people who recognize me from my channel," he said. "I'm saying in my mind, when they recognize me, I'm 'Yes, yes! Another follower!'"