Which sandwiches do top chefs make themselves?
Words by Gordon Ramsay
Illustrations by Mabel Esteban Garcia
Chefs are mavericks when it comes to sandwiches because we can put the best sandwiches together that, sadly, money can’t buy. We’ve got all the burnt ends, the drippings and all the best cuts. I made a fucking amazing Beef Wellington sandwich when I’d finished service one night at Claridge’s, and we’d saved all the ends for our staff dinner. I stuck it between two slices of sourdough that I’d spread with this truffle mayonnaise – I squashed it together and I was like a pig in shit. I could never sell a sandwich like that but it had all the best flavours. Chefs are the best sandwich makers on the planet – so I asked some of my favourite people in the culinary world what they make when they get a break in the kitchen.
Christina Tosi – Grilled cheese
“Nothing trumps the classic – perfectly caramelised on the outside, outrageously gooey, stringy, and cheesy in the centre. The sandwich that tastes like home, that reminds you who you are and why amazing food moves people the way it does.”
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 teaspoons mayonnaise
8 teaspoons butter
8 slices bread
All the grilled cheese fixings you please
Spread one teaspoon of mayonnaise evenly over one side of each slice of bread and one teaspoon of butter over the other.
Top the butter side with the condiments, meats and cheeses of your choosing. Then top that with the remaining slice of bread, mayonnaise side up. Butter on the inside, mayonnaise on the outside – that’s all you need to know.
Fry the sandwiches in a nonstick/greased pan, or griddle over medium heat until golden brown and crisp, roughly three minutes per side. Eat while the melted cheese is still gooey and warm.
Paul Ainsworth - Granny Ainsworth’s chip butty
“I used to stay at my gran’s every Saturday night, and for tea she would make me the most amazing chip butty. She would have a pan of oil on her stove, and I loved the way she would cut the chips with a small knife in her hand, rather than on a chopping board. She’d cut slices from a white loaf and liberally spread them with proper butter. Once the chips were nice and crisp, she’d season them with lots of salt. I loved ketchup, which she would cover the chips with inside the sandwich. The food memory for me was how the hot, crisp chips would melt the butter into the bread and how the ketchup would mix in with it, and you’d have warm butter rolling down your chin. Those were the days. Gran, you were the best!”
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the tomato fondue
3 tbsp olive oil
1 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 bay leaf
4 sprigs thyme
30g dark, soft brown sugar
30g white wine vinegar, plus 5g for finishing
600g tinned, chopped tomatoes
Cornish sea salt
Cracked black pepper
For the crisp chunky chips
4 large potatoes (King Edward, Maris Piper or Yukon Gold)
1.5 litres vegetable oil
Fine salt
Cornish sea salt
Malt vinegar
For the eggs
4 eggs
60g thick mayonnaise
Cornish sea salt
Cracked black pepper
2 pinches cayenne pepper
To assemble your sandwich
8 slices bread
50g salted butter, softened
100g homemade tomato fondue (from the recipe above)
30g cheddar, finely grated
20g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
First make your tomato fondue. Take a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat and add olive oil. Once warm, add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and a pinch of sea salt. Cook the onion mixture until soft and the onions are translucent. Add the brown sugar and stir until it starts to melt. Add 30g of white wine vinegar and turn up the heat. Once the vinegar has reduced to nothing, add the tinned tomatoes. Turn down to a simmer and cook the sauce until it has thickened. Once cooked and thick, take the sauce off the heat. Check the seasoning and add the last 5g of white wine vinegar to taste. Set aside.
Now cook your chips. Peel the potatoes and cut into medium-sized, Jenga-style pieces. Wash the chips in a bowl under a cold tap to remove excess starch. Pat chips dry on a tea towel. Place a pan on the heat, or use a deep-fat fryer, and heat the oil to 100°C. Carefully place the chips into the oil and cook the chips, keeping the fat at this temperature until the chips are soft. Test with a small knife or skewer. Remove chips carefully or lift up the fryer basket. Leave the chips to cool but don’t put them in the fridge. Once cooled, or when you’re ready to serve them, increase the heat of the oil to 190°C and fry the chips again until crisp and golden – this will take at least five minutes. Drain the crisp chips onto kitchen paper and season liberally with the fine salt, then the Cornish sea salt and some malt vinegar.
Bring a saucepan of water to boil, add your eggs and cook for eight minutes. Remove the eggs from the boiling water and place them in a bowl of iced water. Once cooled, peel off the shells. Cut the eggs in half and remove the set yolks. Chop the yolk finely and add them to the thick mayonnaise, season with Cornish sea salt and cracked black pepper. Spoon or pipe the yolk mix back into the white of the eggs and sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper.
Grill or toast your bread and then spread liberally with the softened butter. Next, spread a thin layer of the warm tomato fondue over each slice of toast. Stack up four slices of the bread with your crisp, well-seasoned chips then grate both cheeses over the top. Place your final slice of grilled toast on top and on one side of the butty add your egg, secure with a cocktail stick and cut in half.
Now take a bite, shut your eyes and if the warm butter isn’t running down your chin, you’ve gone wrong somewhere in the recipe! Enjoy.
Thomas Keller - BLT fried egg and cheese sandwich
“This was first featured as a late-night snack in the movie Spanglish, starring Adam Sandler. The recipe combines ingredients from three of my favourite sandwiches: BLT, fried egg, and grilled cheese. You’ll want to eat it right away, while the egg is still warm.”
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS:
4 thick slices bacon
2 slices Monterey Jack cheese
2 thick slices rustic white bread, toasted and hot
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
4 slices tomato
2 leaves butter lettuce
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 large egg
Preparation
In a frying pan, cook the bacon over moderate heat for about 8 minutes, turning until crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Set the Monterey Jack slices on 1 piece of toast. Spread the mayonnaise on the other slice of toast, then top with the bacon, tomato and lettuce.
In a small, non-stick frying pan, melt the butter. Add the egg and fry over moderate heat for about 4 minutes, turning once, until crisp around the edges; the yolk should still be runny. Slide the egg onto the lettuce; close the sandwich and eat right away!
Anna Haugh - Smoked Salmon
“I love this sandwich. I often eat it for breakfast but just as often I’ll eat it for lunch. And let’s be honest, if it works for either of those it’s definitely good for brunch. The bread is key and the salmon has to be great Irish smoked salmon, but the secret weapon is the caper cream cheese.”
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS:
Sliced Irish soda bread
Hand-sliced smoked Irish salmon
1-2 tablespoons chopped capers per sandwich
1 tablespoon cream cheese
1/4 lemon zest
Lots of fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 cucumber peeled the length of cucumber with a vegetable peeler until you hit the seeds
Slice your bread thick. Mix together the capers, cream cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice and black pepper. Spoon a layer of the caper cream cheese on top of the bread and fold a few ribbons of cucumber on top. Add your folds of smoked salmon, then finish with lemon zest and sprigs of dill and a squeeze of lemon juice if you feel that way inclined.
Pull up a chair, brew a nice pot of English Breakfast tea and treat yourself to this slice of luxury.
Grant Achatz - The Depot Reuben
“My parents owned Achatz Depot, a diner next to a train line in a small town in Michigan. I would spend hours washing dishes, peeling potatoes, getting in the way, and, most importantly, learning how to cook and witnessing the rewards of hard work. I’d cook my own lunch, using whatever ingredients in the walk-in I wanted. My favourite was this Reuben. 40 years later, the sandwich has even more meaning – when I taste one it becomes a time machine, taking me back to my first experiences in a professional kitchen.”
Serves 1
INGREDIENTS:
Thinly sliced corned beef
Sauerkraut
Swiss cheese
Marbled rye bread
4 teaspoons butter
Thousand Island Dressing
Preheat a large, non-stick sauté pan over medium heat. Add butter and when melted, evenly coat the entire pan surface
Place bread in the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low
Arrange two pieces of cheese on each slice of rye, then evenly add corned beef on one and sauerkraut on the other.
Turn heat back up to medium and cook, covered, for five minutes or until the bread is golden brown and the cheese and meat hanging over the edge of the bread has caramelised.
With a spatula, turn one of the sandwich sides on top of the other and press down gently.
Place the cover back on the pan and cook for three minutes.
Flip the sandwich and repeat.
Remove the sandwich, cut on a diagonal, and plate with the dressing for dipping.
This story first appeared in Sandwich 08 - the Chef’s Special issue. You can buy your copy here.
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