The Cheeseburger: The World's Best Kept Mistake

It is one of the world's most popular dishes of all time with restaurants across the globe offering their own take on it, but now a California diner has claimed that the famous cheeseburger was in fact invented by mistake.

According to city officials, the cheeseburger's humble beginnings started when a young chef named Lionel Sternberger, working at 'The Rite Spot' accidentally burned one side of the hamburger he was cooking in the late 1920s.

Rather than throwing it away, fast-thinking Sternberger flipped it over, put a bit of cheese on it to disguise his mistake and served it to a customer. From that moment on the cheeseburger was born.

The town is now staking its claim as the birthplace of on the world tastiest inventions by launching a week of events in its honour.

Pasadena Cheeseburger Week, is set to promote restaurants in the area with a range of burger themed events.

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce's Paul Little told mysanantonio.com: "Most of these burgers are things people have eaten before. They perhaps just haven't thought of piling them on top of one another."