Lawrence residents Kevin Lavene, right, and Ralph Reed go to work on their burgers during the first-annual Your

The reason for holding a burger cook-off Saturday at her store was simple, said Geri Riekhof, owner of culinary supply store the Bay Leaf, 725 Mass.

“It’s burger season,” she said.

And to honor the time of year when it’s popular to grill up some patties with friends on a sunny weekend day, the Bay Leaf hosted its first-ever burger cook-off, featuring four local amateur burger chefs.

The contestants, chosen from a pool of entrants, faced off in the Bay Leaf’s kitchen stadium, where cooking classes are usually taught, in a fierce competition for a $100 Bay Leaf gift certificate.

The four contestants brought their own supplies and cooked their specialty burgers in 15-minute increments. The burgers were then tested by four local food connoisseur judges, including chefs and cooking instructors.

The contestants’ recipes, honed in their own kitchens and outdoor grills, featured creative combinations intended to spark the judges’ taste buds.

And each of the recipes had a story of its own.

Contestant Ralph Reed said his special burger recipe was “several years in the making.” Reed used three different types of meat, and his goal was to use as many local ingredients as possible. Despite using the recipe many times over the years, he said the best part is that it always turns out different.

“It’s never the same twice,” Reed said.

It’s that spontaneity in the culinary arts that attracted Kansas University student and contestant Kevin Lavene to the event. Lavene said he loves the “random, creative ideas” that he comes up with while cooking. When in the kitchen, Lavene said he will use anything to help out a recipe.

“I’m probably the only chef with a drill in his kitchen,” Lavene said. He uses the drill to make holes in baked potatoes that he fills with bratwurst. Lavene left the drill at home for Saturday’s competition, and instead made what he calls a “simple, stuffed burger.”

The idea for contest winner Aubrey Cain’s burger — the Bloody Mary — came from her experiences as a manager at Henry T’s Bar & Grill, 3520 W. Sixth St. Cain said she was making a Bloody Mary for a customer one day when she got the idea.

“It’s a lot of good ingredients,” Cain said of the drink. “You could probably make a good burger out of it.”