What does a grilled cheese look like around the world? Epicurious brings together 10 chefs from 10 different countries to share their take on this classic comfort food. From a French Croque Monsieur to Japanese pizza toast, explore how each culture reinvents grilled cheese sandwiches in their own mouthwatering way.
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00:00You are about to see 10 different chefs, from 10 different countries, make the grilled cheese.
00:12What makes a perfect grilled cheese is the bread, the cheese, the pull, the melt, the butter,
00:18the time, the temperature. Let's make it. The flame is medium heat. While the pan's getting hot,
00:23I'm going to assemble the grilled cheese. A little bit of cheddar, a little bit of Swiss,
00:28maybe a little more cheddar, a little white cheddar, which is a little sharper. I like it
00:33because regular cheddar is nice color, the sharp white cheddar is really nice flavor, and the Swiss
00:39really melts beautifully. What makes the cheese melt really well is the fat content. Cheddar is
00:44good, but it doesn't melt as well as the Swiss. Then I'm going to add some clarified butter here,
00:50which has no milk solids in it. It's basically the butter flavor without the milk, so it's not going
00:55to burn. We're just going to go low and slow, and at the halfway point, we're going to add some
01:00whole butter. It's going to give it a nice nuttiness because the milk solids in the bread is going to
01:05give it a little more dark color. It's going to give it a little more flavor, so it's really time
01:10and temperature. If you try and rush this, you're going to get burnt bread, not melted cheese, or
01:17melted cheese and overcooked bread. See all the pull in there? All the cheese is melted in the middle.
01:22That's the thing of beauty. Now I'm going to take these off. I'm going to let them rest for a minute,
01:27and I want the cheese to go all over the place and burn me. I like the yellow. I like the Swiss, the
01:32way it pulls, and I also like the amount of cheese in here. I don't want it so cheesy. I just want the
01:38right balance of it, and the sharp white cheddar, when it melts, it's really good. You're going to get a
01:43real nice tang at the end. That's really good, and I've got to have a little bite of pickle. Perfecto.
01:53So a grilled cheese in France, as you may know, it's called a croque monsieur. There are many
01:59versions of it, but the classic is bechamel, cheese, ham, and white bread. This white bread is very nice.
02:06You can find it everywhere in the supermarket. I'm going to spray the bechamel. This will avoid to have
02:12the bread getting dry. You don't want to have your bechamel too liquid. If it's too liquid, as it
02:18warm up, it's going to run away from the sandwich. We're going to add some cheese. It's a 15-year-old
02:23Conte. More older, more taste. It's just like wine, you know. It gets all better, it is. And the trick is,
02:30if you shred it, it melts faster. The goal is to have everything cooking at the same time. So I put
02:36some cheese on both sides, and now I'm going to add two slices of ham. If you can find the French
02:42ham called madrange, madrange is the best. For the croque monsieur, we have our first sandwich. So we're
02:49going to make four because I'm hungry. Medium meat. I'm going to add some butter. You want to cook
02:56everything at once. So for that, you need to go slowly, otherwise your bread is going to burn
03:01and it's going to be cold inside. I'm using a clarified butter. It's a butter that I melted
03:06in a pan to take away the white milk. White milk is milk solid in English. When you warm up this white
03:14milk, it burns. So we take it away. You can take it to any temperature. It won't burn. To avoid to burn
03:21the bread before it gets hot in the middle. I'm going to flip it a couple of times. If you do a
03:27cocktail party, you curl in small pieces. Toothpick for the super bowl is fantastic. I'm going for
03:34this color. Perfect brown. I press down to warm up the cheese and the ham in the middle. And also to
03:41have a nice thin sandwich. I don't want something that is too big for my mouth. This one is perfect.
03:47I'm going to remove the crust first. It looks prettier that way. You can hear how crispy the
03:53bread is. And then here we have a perfect croque monsieur. Perfect. Delicious. Everything is hot.
04:05Everything is melted. It's crispy, not burnt. It tastes fantastic. Bon appétit.
04:12Japanese grilled cheese is pizza toast. As a kid, when you get the pizza toast in the morning,
04:17or lunchtime, you're going to be so happy. Each household makes pizza sauce different ways.
04:22So this bread is a very classic Japanese milk bread. It's called chojuku. Very soft. Very yummy.
04:29It's great for grilled cheese because outside gets crispy, but inside is still very fluffy and
04:35you can enjoy the differences in texture. I'm going to spread a butter. So my bread is toasted and I
04:41buttered it and now it's ready for assembling. This is my house-made anchovy butter. Now onions
04:48and cheese. I chose smoked gouda. It gives you a nice amount of smokiness and the cheese is much more
04:55funky. And the cheddar is just a staple for Japanese people to use for anything. It is a processed cheese
05:00and I know people are going to be offended by it, but Japanese people love those. Tastes a bit artificial,
05:06but it tastes very addictive. This cheese will melt really well because it contains emulsifying salt.
05:11Cheese is actually an emulsion of a fat and water. So emulsifying salt keep it together so the protein
05:17doesn't break apart when it melts. Some green pepper. This is a Berkshire pork sausage. And some tomatoes.
05:25I'm going to put back on a toast again. The second toasting is done. I'm going to put the extra cheese on top.
05:32Now the soul of Japanese mayo. And lastly, I'm going to put a little bit of house-made ketchup on top.
05:40Going to the final toast. Just to make sure the mayo and the ketchup is going to be hot. So this is
05:46a pizza toast. Japanese milk bread, some vegetables, Kurobuta, Berkshire pork sausage, mayo,
05:52ketchup, butter, and cheese. Processed. Oishii desu. Taking it right back home.
06:00So instead of a traditional grilled cheese, I'll be making a tlayuda. The outside of the tortilla gets
06:06really crispy and the inside with the quesillo gets melty. That's a grilled cheese. So I'm going to
06:11start putting the refried beans on the tortilla. These fried beans are seasoned with chile de árbol and
06:18avocado leaf. This cheese, it's also from Oaxaca. We call it quesillo. It's also called shrimp cheese.
06:24It's a very fresh cheese. We don't really age very much this type of cheese because it's very moist.
06:31I think this is one of the world's best cheeses for melting. I'm going to put some heirloom tomatoes,
06:38avocados. This is very to taste. Now I'm going to take it to the oven.
06:44Well, now that the cheese is melty and the tortilla is crispy, it's time to cut it and then transfer it
06:49into a plate. So the way you can eat this is even with a knife and fork or just with your hands.
06:56Really good. Tlayuda is very crispy. The cheese is very melty. It's very, very good.
07:03The grilled cheese of Turkey, we call it tost. T-O-S-T. Every Turkish household has one of these
07:10to make tost grilled cheese. When I was 10 and I was alone at home, I would make myself grilled cheese
07:16with this cheese, kashar, which is a kind of bland cow milk cheese. This cheese is very good for melting
07:23and the reason is it's a young cheese and it has a lot of water in it still. The water emulsifies
07:28with the fats and the proteins and it helps the melt. If you really want a oozing grilled cheese,
07:34this is the cheese you want. Don't forget, I'm 10 years old. I need the simplest sandwich bread
07:41that's available and around, which is the packaged white loaf. Because I run a bakery, of course,
07:48I brought a piece of sourdough that we make in my shop. It tastes so much better than the white loaf.
07:55The final thing to do, and as a 10 year old, you don't have to do this, but I'm an adult now,
08:00so I'm going to brush my bread with a little bit of butter.
08:03I see smoke, so let me check. Oh, yes, this is exactly what it would look like. Okay, let's see if this
08:14is as good as it was when I was 10. It's really crunchy on the outside and this cheese is just soft
08:22and really buttery. I think I'm going to eat the whole thing. I haven't had lunch.
08:29So the grilled cheese in Algeria, the name in Algeria would be a galette au fromage.
08:36It's the same typical, like the bread, the cheese, the crispiness of the grilled cheese,
08:40the butter. So it has the whole component, but in a different style. We're going to first
08:45do some butter to start with. So this is related to the croque monsieur, except that we're not using
08:52bechamel but crème de fromage. So I'm going to add regular milk in it. We're going to add some
08:58vachkiri, four of those. This is more like a soft cheese. It's always compared to cream cheese.
09:04So the last cheese I will add is gruyère because gruyère will bring the texture in. I think my
09:10crème de fromage is almost ready. The last touch I will do is I'm going to add the za'atar. Za'atar
09:16is a spice that we make which includes the sesame seed, the caraway, cardamom, and a little cumin.
09:23So medium, low, fire. I will be using the tagine. That's a typical vessel that you could find in
09:29North Africa and Nigeria. It's like a purpose vessel. I'm going to fill the crepe with the crème de fromage.
09:36The bread that I'm using is semem. It's like a phyllo dough with a lot of layers and butter and it's
09:42really delicious. So I'm adding actually some margarine to make it a little bit more crispy.
09:47This is something we do a lot during Ramadan. Also on the street they sell that a lot. So the lid will
09:54help the heat stays into the grilled cheese and it will bring the crispiness of the bottom. It's really
10:01fluffy. It makes me want to eat it now. It's opening up because the semem has layers. So this is ready.
10:07I like to have this with some harissa. We eat everything with our hands so it's so good. I like
10:14the fluffiness, the crème de fromage inside. The crème de fromage is actually leaking right now. So I have to
10:20have another bite. I'm going to be making toast bread. Every Nigerian knows what toast bread is. It's a very,
10:28very popular breakfast or dinner. You can get it from people that actually sell only toast bread.
10:33It might look like an American grey cheese, but there is no cheese inside. But it's actually more
10:39delicious. Forgive me. I have to say that. We don't have cheese culture. We don't do cheese. We do
10:45toast bread. We are lactose intolerant. We never have meat. Forgive me. Most never have meat. So this is how
10:50I make this. I'm going to crack the egg. So two egg is enough. Then I add some tomato. Salt. I mean,
10:59once you taste it, trust me, you'll be hooked. So I'm going to use the butter now. We prefer the bread
11:04from sticking to this. Make it crispy. Then I add flavor to the food. This is street food. You buy this
11:09in the streets. My people are very entrepreneur. Every opportunity to make money legally, they will do it.
11:14So people carry this thing on their head. Anywhere they can use electricity, they will have their own
11:19generator. They will stop and they see a lot of customers and they will serve it. I think it's done.
11:29Amazing. Oh God, I'm good. It's crispy and it has amazing flavor combination. I mean,
11:35you can't go wrong with onions, scotch bunnies and grape tomatoes.
11:39So cheese was not something that we kind of grew up eating. I started working in hotels and I was
11:47introduced to the unique concept of melted cheese. I ate something that is called a chili cheese toast.
11:53A slice of bread with pasteurized cheese. Now, literally every other Indian restaurant has them
12:01on their brunch menus. We toast the bread slightly before. I am using milk bread. It's a super
12:08moist bread. It's super light, super fluffy. It's not going to collapse. Amul butter. Every Indian
12:15swears by it. So I'm going to just pop it in. I'll give it a little color for making the mixture on top
12:21while my bread is toasting. I have a little bit of cheddar and I'm going to put some of this amul
12:26cheese in India. Growing up, this was the only cheese available. Now, of course, there's a rich cheese
12:31industry and there's all kinds of cheeses, but I like to do the chili cheese toast with this. Not very
12:36great quality cheese, but it tastes really good. This is made with buffalo milk. It's richer and has
12:43like higher fat content in comparison to like cow's milk. And I've added some cheddar to give it like a
12:49little bit more of depth and some sharpness. I've added some caramelized onions to this, by the way,
12:55a little bit of cilantro, and I'm going to do some green chilies. It looks really pretty. I will pop it
13:02and let it get golden brown in color. So you'll see this has a like nice little texture to it
13:08and it's holding up really well. Generally, we just cut it in fours. The most important thing is
13:13you need to eat it piping hot. Oh my gosh, so good. Those caramelized onions like grind off the flavor
13:23so well. So much texture to it. And the cilantro and the chili. Yeah, nothing better than cheese, right?
13:29I really like very good cheese, but chili cheese toast without almond cheese? No.
13:37Cheese hasn't really been a traditional part of most Chinese cuisines, but dairy products and milk
13:44have been gaining popularity in China. There is a treat called crispy fried milk. I've had grilled cheese
13:51before, right? American style grilled cheese. So it's crispy on the outside and then the inside is creamy
13:57cheese. This dish is fried and battered and fried. So the outside is crispy, but the milk jelly, it's
14:06soft and it's kind of creamy and milky. So first of all, we're going to whisk the milk sugar cornstarch
14:13and then a little bit vanilla extract and whisk until you don't see any lumps. Turn the pan on. You want
14:19to make sure the heat is medium low so it doesn't cook too fast and then get lumpy. The cornstarch is
14:27going to thicken this after you cook them. You want to stir until the texture a little bit thicker than
14:34pancake batter. Okay, this is almost done. So we can turn off the heat and then just stir a couple more
14:41minutes. The remaining heat will cook the batter a little bit more. Once this is done, I am going to
14:48take a small square container and then I'm going to brush a little bit of oil on the bottom and on the
14:55sides. Add all the milk into the container and I'm going to kind of even it out a little bit. I am going to
15:03cover it up with a saran wrap and then put it in the refrigerator for it to get solidified and then make
15:11jelly-like. So this has been in the fridge for a couple of hours. So I'm going to cut it into 12
15:17strips. I am going to coat it with a little bit of breadcrumbs first and then I'm going to coat it with
15:25some egg wash and then back to the breadcrumbs and then repeat. I'm going to heat my pan and then add
15:33enough oil that can cover more than half of the fried milk. You want to heat it up to maybe 300 to 400
15:43degrees. There's a lot of bubbles around the chopsticks, right? That means it's ready to fry.
15:49Just a couple minutes on one side. Once it's golden brown, we can flip and fry the other side for a
15:55minute. It's very crispy. It's so crunchy. Look at the inside. It's just like a heaven. It's like a
16:07cloudy but also soft and hot and creamy. So this is perfect. This is the comfort food of Ecuador.
16:14Everybody knows yapingacho. This is as close as we get to our grilled cheese. It has tons of cheese
16:19and it has sort of a mashed potato patty that we're going to create. We had achote and this is what gives it
16:25the color of rusted potatoes. So now we're going to go ahead and make a yapingacho. We're going to
16:28make a patty. I like to use an ice cream scoop just to keep it uniform. We're going to try to form
16:33like a hockey puck. We're going to start to create a nice little crater in the center. We're going to
16:38grab some shredded mozzarella cheese. In Ecuador we use queso fresco but mozzarella is as close as we get
16:45to queso fresco. It's a cheese that melts very easily and this is a yapingacho. So now that we have
16:51the patty filled with cheese we're going to now fry them. We're going to do a medium heat in this.
16:57We're going to add some lard. Lard in Ecuador is used through our cuisine in a lot of dishes because
17:03pork is a very popular dish in Ecuador. So lard is used commonly in our food. A little bit of oil. If
17:10you use only lard it's going to burn. Oil gives it more resistance. Low medium heat is because you want
17:16the cheese in the center just to to reach to the temperature that's going to melt. You don't have to
17:20move it. Right now it's starting to form a nice little crust. It's about three minutes. Now you
17:26start to see the edges around you know turning brown. Maybe a minute or so and then we're going
17:32to we're going to flip. Just lower the heat a little bit. Maybe a couple more minutes and it's ready.
17:36We have a yapingacho with a crispy crust, a soft center and gooey cheese in the middle. We have
17:42everything. We have two yapingachos filled with mozzarella cheese. We have some nice ony side eggs. We have
17:48some Ecuadorian chorizo, some sliced avocado. The secret sauce is peanut butter sauce. Pickled onions
17:54with tomatoes and a little cilantro would be nice. Delicious. You get the crust top, you get the
18:03peanut butter sauce, a little cilantro, the gooey cheese inside. It's perfect. And there you go. This
18:09is Ecuadorian yapingachos. Enjoy. It's just very perfect. So delicious. How beautiful is that?
18:18I put too much cheese. Nothing better than cheese, right?