Cheese Toastie vs Grilled Cheese

Late one night while checking my facebook account I stumbled across a fan page for “cheese toasties” and felt a need to become a fan. I posed the age old debate the next day on Facebook and Twitter: cheese toastie vs grilled cheese, is there a difference? My blackberry rattled throughout the day in the kitchen with responses, some with strong conviction to the beloved cheese toastie those of us from my hometown of Decatur IL grew up with. What is this elusive toastie filled with cheese and why does it hold such a connection both with our youth and the town we called home? Is it an actual culinary term or is it just a form of solidarity for Decaturites who also boast of being the home of ADM, Staley (and their unique smells), the Chicago bears and even the DQ Blizzard capital of the world for a bit in during the 80’s?

While studying the culinary arts for many years, never did I find the term cheese toastie in the text of Gastronomique, Le Repertoire de la Cuisine, On Cooking or even James Beard’s many books. I have seen many menus in my career and only a few have listed a cheese toastie outside of Decatur rather grilled cheese seems ubiquitous on kid’s menus around the world.  As a Chef Instructor at the Le Cordon Bleu (CCA) in San Francisco my students would look at me cross eyed when I started lecturing on the finer points of the proper techniques and vernacular. I continue to take great pride when I can serve cheese toasties in fine dining restaurants and love spreading the word of velvety cheese encased in crispy golden brown, squishy bread goodness.

To me there is a stark difference between the “grilled cheese” and the “toastie.” Grilled cheese is usually made in a restaurant that has a high heat flat top grill. Two pieces of bread, usually utilized somewhere else in the menu, are sandwiched between the most kid friendly cheese in house (usually American). A puddle of a butter flavored, temperature stabilized oil is poured onto the griddle and the sandwich placed on top, cooked until brown and flipped into another puddle then smooshed down with a heavy spatula. The result is a semi soft around the edges sandwich with melted cheese in the middle and tasting like the griddle it cooked on. Not something to write home about.

The ethereal cheese toastie in my eyes begins with thinly sliced squishy white bread. Room temperature whole butter is spread in a delicate layer carefully covering every square inch of both sides of the bread before going over the heat. As for the cheese, while American is traditional and my personal favorite, I do love sharp cheddar, chihuahua or something really creamy and gooey like Rouge et Noir’s brie or Yellowbuck  Camembert on the occasion. One of my favorite dishes here at Niche is a smoked tomato - basil bisque with chive studded goat cheese toasties slathered with local artisan butter. A non-stick pan over medium heat sets the stage for gently placing the buttered bread down and allowing it to slowly crisp and become golden brown on the first side without pressing it down. Gently flip it over and season the top with salt and allow the other side to crisp. Medium heat will allow the cheese to melt slowly and bind both sides of the bread. From the pan, place the toastie on a cutting board and with a semi dull knife cut it in half. The semi dull knife will not only cut the bread but will pinch it, keeping the cheese where its supposed to be.

Maybe the cheese “toastie” is a term unique to Decatur like the way we pronounce  our main drag El Dorado or maybe Decatur is the genesis of a movement of warm cheese sandwichs that will spread through borders and time. Whatever label you want to put on it, the flavors and textures of 3 simple ingredients stirs warm memories from our past. Enjoy your “toastie”

Rooting around with wild boars continues with their back door arrival

…Just days earlier, the boar that arrived at Niche were foraging wild in the hill country near Ingram, Texas. Without time on the feed lot, their diet mainly consists of nuts, berries, grasses and tubers as they roam in groups called sounders. Always on the move, their meat is lean and leads to dark meat throughout most of the cuts. The population of wild boar in Texas hovers around 2 million and is regularly thinned out to control populations by licensed trappers. North of San Antonio in the central part of the state, Broken Arrow Ranch prides itself in high quality meats handled and butchered by professionals. A bit to my dismay, due to strict state regulations, I wasn’t allowed many of the parts of the animal that are enjoyed as delicacies by many.

When the usual delivery truck arrived last Friday morning, I carefully lifted the wild boar out of their shipper and watched my regular delivery guys’ eyebrows raise either in sheer curiosity or utter shock. No matter how much research or experience comes flushing back, chefs tend to be most creative when they are able to look at and feel a product much like any other artist and their mediums. Its light rose-colored meat lightly laced in cotton-white fat along with other more graphic in nature yet bright colors showing its freshness, spurned ideas of how we would carefully prepare it. Within moments, ideas of flavors and textures began to run rampant and riddle my brain, but more of that to come later. . .

Rooting around with wild boars cont.

First and foremost, the boars themselves are due respect. The times in my career when whole animals were brought into the kitchen, a sense of reverence settled into the truest of cooks and chefs. Albeit we tend to be a bit more calloused in our humor, we feel a duty to respect and utilize everything we are given to make great food to be shared by many. Along the way, I have learned that to appreciate the “fruit” of the foods we eat, learning about its roots in the cultures and cuisines from around the world leads to true understanding.

Alright, let’s go deeper into the roots and way back when. Wild boar were loaded onto ships and brought to this side of the pond through the early shipping routes taken by the Europeans soon after Columbus. The boars served their purpose on the ships well. Brought aboard early in weight and size, they would eat the remnants, leftovers and any spoilage of the crews “culinary delights.” Their continued growth led to some tasty meat by the time they entered the Caribbean and the shores of Mexico and ultimately changed the diet of the land they soon roamed wild. The usage of boar meat in cooking spans all borders of the world. With a texture very similar to pork and a flavor similar to lean dark meat, it crosses all culinary boundaries and is simply interchanged with pork. Enough with the history lesson, let’s get to the boar that arrived at the back door of Niche.

Rooting Around With Wild Boars

Recently, we were fortunate to procure two wild boars from a ranch in Texas. What follows here is the first in a thread that will unravel the path of these boars from the Texas hill country to the plate here at Niche Restaurant. In the coming days and weeks, you can catch a glimpse of the creative process in the kitchen at Niche through a collection of history, photos, anecdotes, recipes, global methods and techniques. We welcome and encourage you to leave your thoughts and questions below.

…Sipping my coffee with early morning bleary eyes here at Niche last Tuesday morning, I answered a call from Tom at the Broken Arrow Ranch in Ingram, Texas. I chat on the phone with Tom every couple of weeks to keep up with what is coming off the ranch in the Texas hill country. I first began working with Broken Arrow Ranch for the American Bounty Dinner at James Beard’s home last year, where I served their Sika venison loin. After a quick chat with Tom and a little Texas hospitality congratulating me on the new addition to my family, he let me know that he was going to have some fresh whole wild boar ready to be shipped on Thursday if I was interested. With a few hours of thought, I talked to Chris, the creative culinary engine of the kitchen, about the idea of butchering and cooking them in as many ways as we could come up with. I could see the cogs and springs of ideas running through his mind along with a pensive yet budding excitement. Over another few slugs of creamy and sweet coffee the following morning and a bit more of his Texas hospitality, Tom assured me that he had picked out a couple hogs for me that and that they would arrive at my back door the next morning.