Cheese wiz: chefs grill up medley of garnishes and upscale ingredients to put new face on old favorite

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 17, 2003 by Pamela Parseghian

A grilled cheese sandwich is, perhaps, one of the most comforting comfort foods around. And unlike other home-style dishes, updated, restaurant-quality grilled cheese sandwiches are enticing many customers.

But besides a consistent browned exterior and warm and gooey cheese interior, practically everything else about the sandwich can be substituted. Garnishes run the gamut from boiled ham or fried eggs in France to cured ham in Italy. And the bread may switch to a flour tortilla in Latin America. Nevertheless, this nation's grilled cheese clearly is related to the croque monsieur or panino, which is the singular form of panini. Then there's also quesadilla, which is another of the sandwich's many incarnations.

So why bother to improve upon perfection? The truth is that almost every soccer mom in the United States can prepare a grilled cheese that closely rivals those made by a skilled grill cook on a diner's flattop. Therefore, it sometimes takes a little imagination and high-quality ingredients to heighten consumer interest.

And like those who feel the need to climb a mountain just because it's there, many cooks, just for the sheer thrill of it, try to create "not-your-average-mom's" grilled cheese sandwiches. They sometimes succeed in the most unlikely places.

At Campanile's in Los Angeles, "Grilled Cheese Thursdays is the place to be," says Neil Hedin, the upscale restaurant's manager, who may be partial to the product. In fact, he adds, a once-a-week menu of 12 sandwiches draws big business. "It is our busiest night of the week," he says.

Five years ago Nancy Silverton, the restaurant's owner and pastry chef, "decided it would be fun to do [the sandwiches] for friends and guests at the bar, and it just grew and grew," Hedin says.

Silverton's sandwiches change depending on ingredient availability. The menu currently includes a classic croque madame, featuring a fried egg, and an Italian Autostrada that emulates those found at rest stops along Italian highways. In Los Angeles Campanile's Autostrada blends coppa, salami and cherry peppers. To accompany the Thursday night sandwiches, Campanile's staff also prepares appropriate appetizers, such as retro deviled eggs with celery salad and cheese fritters with endive salad.

The restaurant's sandwiches run from $14 to $18 and are served with arugula salad and french fries. The regular menu features entrees that range up to $38.

Tom Colicchio, chef of such establishments as Gramercy Tavern, Craft and Craftbar in New York, confirmed his commitment to sandwiches when he announced the opening of "Wichcraft," located next-door to Craftbar. As the name indicates, sandwiches will dominate the offerings at that shop. Colicchio says he will feature "several" grilled cheese sandwiches, and his preliminary menu will include cheddar with bacon and apples on pumpernickel.

At Craftbar this winter "warm, pressed" sandwiches cooked on apanini press dominate the sandwich section of the menu. A pressed favorite includes duck ham, hen-of the woods mushrooms and Taleggio, for $11. For vegetable lovers Craftbar presses an eggplant, red pepper and mozzarella panino, which sells for $9.

The panini "sell extremely well," Colicchio says. "They remind me of cold winter afternoons and the grilled cheese and tomato soup my mom used to make for me."

Tomato soup and rotating grilled cheese sandwiches have become a signature lunch dish at One Walnut, a white tablecloth, restaurant in Cleveland. "I've. seen an enormous amount of popularity 'in grilled cheese recently," says One Walnut's chef-owner Marlin Kaplan. "People immediately gravitate to that sandwich."

Since offering grilled cheese about a year ago Kaplan says he and his staff have dreamt up about 150 different combinations. "This is the only place I let the chefs experiment," he says. "We throw things around."

Kaplan adds that the.. ingredients of the "weirdest" grilled cheese sandwich he and his staff ever cooked up included rind-removed Camembert, green apples, Canadian bacon and foie gras on walnut-raisin bread. "It's a heart attack waiting to happen," he admits.

His "hands down" best-selling sandwich is a grilled sirloin steak with blue cheese, roasted peppers and balsamic cured onions on house-baked Asiago bread. Kaplan says that typically 25 of 100 covers will order the sandwich, which sells for $9.50. During the lunch service he teams it up with veloute-based tomato soup.

At the Washington, D.C.-based Equinox restaurant, a grilled cheese combo was among the dishes that tempted Washington Post restaurant reviewer Tom Sietsema to write: "I wanted to order everything in sight."

Equinox's chef-owner, Todd Gray, also changes his grilled cheese sandwich and soup or salad combination with the seasons. He currently is offering caramelized onion soup with a "little" grilled cheese sandwich and Parmesan for $10. The dish essentially is a deconstructed French onion soup. He fashions the classic soup's crouton and cheese topping into a grilled cheese cut on an angle and served alongside the soup.