10 Chefs From 10 Countries Make Grilled Cheese

[upbeat music]

You're about to see

10 different chefs

from 10 different countries

[All] make a grilled cheese.

[upbeat music continues]

What makes a perfect grilled cheese is the bread,

the cheese, the pull, the melt, the butter,

the time, the temperature.

Let's make it.

The flame is medium heat.

While the pan's getting hot,

I'm gonna assemble the grilled cheese,

a little bit of cheddar, a little bit of Swiss,

maybe a little more cheddar, a little white cheddar,

which is a little sharper.

I like it because regular cheddar is nice color,

the sharp white cheddar is really nice flavor,

and the Swiss really melts beautifully.

What makes the cheese melt really well is the fat content.

Cheddar is good, but it doesn't melt as well as the Swiss,

and then I'm gonna add some clarified butter here,

which has no milk solids in it.

It's basically the butter flavor without the milk,

so it's not gonna burn.

We're just gonna go low and slow, and at the halfway point,

we're gonna add some whole butter.

It's gonna give it a nice nuttiness,

'cause the milk solids in the bread

is gonna give it a little more dark color.

It's gonna give it a little more flavor,

so it's really time and temperature.

If you try and rush this, you're gonna get burnt bread,

not melted cheese or melted cheese and overcooked bread.

See all the pull in there,

all the cheese is melted in the middle?

That's a thing of beauty. Now, I'm gonna take these off.

I'm gonna let 'em rest for a minute,

and I want the cheese to go all over the place and burn me.

I like the yellow, I like the Swiss, the way it pulls,

and I also like the amount of cheese in here,

and I don't want it so cheesy,

I just want the right balance of it,

and the sharp white cheddar, when it melts,

it's really good.

You're gonna get a real nice tang at the end.

[sandwich crunching]

That's really good,

and I'm gotta have a little bite of pickle.

It's perfecto.

So a grilled cheese in France,

as you may know, it's called a croque monsieur.

There is many version of it,

but the classic is bechamel, cheese, ham, and white bread.

This white bread is very nice.

You can find it everywhere in the supermarket.

I'm gonna spray the bechamel.

This will avoid to have the bread getting dry.

You don't want to have your bechamel too liquid.

If it's too liquid, as it warm up,

it's gonna run away from the sandwich.

We're gonna add some cheese. It's a 15-year-old Comte.

More older, more taste. It's just like wine, you know?

It gets old, better it is,

and the trick is, if you shred it, it melt faster.

The goal is to have everything cooking at the same time.

So I put some cheese on both side,

and now, I'm gonna add two slice of ham.

If you can find the French ham called Madrange,

Madrange is the best for the croque monsieur.

We have our first sandwich,

so we're gonna make four, because I'm hungry.

Medium meat, I'm gonna add some butter.

You want to cook everything at once.

Before that, you need to go slowly.

Otherwise, your bread is gonna burn,

and it's gonna be cold inside.

I'm using a clarified butter,

so butter that I melted in a pan

to take away the white milk.

White milk is milk solid in English.

When you warm up this white milk, it burns,

so we take it away.

You can take it to any temperature you won't burn.

To avoid to burn the bread before it gets hot in the middle,

I'm gonna flip it couple of times.

If you do a cocktail party, you get in small pieces.

Toothpick for the Super Bowl is fantastic.

I'm going for this color, perfect brown.

I press down to warm up the cheese and the ham in the middle

and also to have a nice, thin sandwich.

I don't want something that's too big for my mouth.

This one is perfect.

I'm gonna remove the crust first.

It looks prettier that way.

You can hear how crispy the bread is,

and then here, we have our perfect croque monsieur.

[sandwich crunching]

Mm. Perfect, delicious.

Everything is hot, everything is melted,

it's crispy, no burn, tastes fantastic.

Bon appetit.

Japanese grilled cheese is pizza toast.

As a kid, when you get the pizza toast in the morning

or lunchtime, you're gonna be so happy.

Each household makes pizza toast different ways,

so this bread is very classic Japanese milk bread.

It's called Chojuku. Very soft, very yummy.

It is great for a grilled cheese,

because outside gets crispy,

but inside is still very fluffy,

and you can enjoy the differences in texture.

I'm gonna spread a butter.

So my bread is toasted, and I buttered it,

and now it's ready for assembling.

This is my house-made anchovy butter.

Now, onions and cheese.

I chose smoked gouda.

Gives you a nice amount of smokiness,

and the cheese is much more funky,

and cheddar is just a staple

for Japanese people to use for anything.

It is a processed cheese,

and I know people are gonna be offended by it,

but Japanese people love those.

Taste, a bit artificial, but it tastes very addictive.

This cheese will melt really well

because it contains emulsifying salt.

Cheese is actually a emulsion of a fat and water,

so emulsifying salt keep it together

so the protein doesn't break apart when it melts.

Some green pepper.

This is Berkshire pork sausage and some tomatoes.

I'm gonna put back on a toast again.

The second toasting is done.

I'm gonna put extra cheese on top.

Now, the soul of Japanese, mayo.

Lastly, I'm gonna put a little bit

of cosmetic ketchup on top.

Going to the final toast, just to make sure the mayo

and the ketchup is gonna be hot.

So this is pizza toast, Japanese milk bread,

some vegetables, bit of the Berkshire pork sausage,

mayo, ketchup, butter, and cheese, processed.

[toast crunching]

[speaking Japanese] Taking me right back home.

So instead of a traditional grilled cheese,

I'll be making a flauta.

The outside of the tortilla gets really crispy,

and the inside with the quesillo gets melty.

That's our grilled cheese.

So I'm gonna start putting the refried beans

on the tortilla.

These refried beans are seasoned

with Chile de arbol and avocado leaf.

This cheese, it's also from Oaxaca. We call it quesillo.

It's also called a string cheese. It's a very fresh cheese.

We don't really age very much this type of cheese,

'cause it's very moist.

I think this is one of the world's best cheeses for melting.

I'm gonna put some heirloom tomatoes.

Avocados, this is very to taste.

Now, I'm gonna take it to the oven.

Well, now that the cheese is melty

and the tortilla is crispy, it's time to cut it

and then transfer it to a plate.

So the way you can eat this is even with a knife and fork

or just with your hands.

[flauta crunching]

Really good. Flauta is very crispy.

The cheese is very melty. It's very, very good.

The grilled cheese of Turkey, we call it tost, T-O-S-T.

Every Turkish household has one of these to make tost,

grilled cheese.

When I was 10 and I was alone at home,

I would make myself grilled cheese with this cheese,

kashar, which is a kind of bland cow milk cheese.

This cheese is very good for melting,

and the reason is it's a young cheese

and it has a lot of water in it still.

The water emulsifies with the fats and the proteins,

and it helps the melt.

If you really want a oozing grilled cheese,

this is the cheese you want.

Don't forget, I'm 10 years old.

I need the simplest sandwich bread

that's available and around,

which is the packaged white loaf.

Because I run a bakery, of course,

I brought a piece of sourdough that we make in my shop.

It tastes so much better than the white loaf.

The final thing to do,

and as a 10-year-old, you don't have to do this,

but I'm an adult now,

so I'm gonna brush my bread with a little bit of butter.

I see smoke, so let me check.

Oh.

Yes, this is exactly what it would look like.

Okay, let's see if this is as good as it was when I was 10.

[sandwich crunching]

It's really crunchy on the outside,

and this cheese is just soft and really buttery.

I think I'm gonna eat the whole thing.

I haven't had lunch.

So the grilled cheese in Algeria,

the name in Algeria would be a galette au fromage.

It's the same typical, the bread, the cheese,

the crispiness of the grilled cheese, the butter,

so it's has the whole component, but in a different style.

We are gonna first do some butter to start with,

so this is related to the the croque monseiur,

except that we are not using bechame, but creme du fromage,

so I'm gonna regular milk in it.

We're going to add some vache qui rit for those.

This is more like a soft cheese.

It's always compared to cream cheese,

so the last cheese I will add is Gruyere,

because Gruyere will bring the texture,

and I think my creme du fromage is almost ready.

The last touch I will do is I'm going to add the za'atar.

Za'atar is a spice that we make

which include the sesame seed, the caraway, cardamom,

and a little cumin.

So medium low fire. I will be using the taging.

That's a typical vessel that you could find

in North African, Algerian.

It's like an all-purpose vessel.

I'm gonna fill the crib with the creme du fromage.

The bread that I'm using, it's msemmen.

It's like a filo dough with a lot of layers and butter,

and it's really delicious.

So I'm adding, actually, some margarine

to make it a little bit more crispy.

This is something we do a lot during Ramadan.

Also, on the street, they sell that a lot.

So the lid will help the heat stays

into the grilled cheese,

and it will bring the crispiness of the bottom.

It's really fluffy. It makes me wanna eat it now.

It's opening up, because the msemmen has layers,

so this is ready.

I like to have this with some harissa.

We eat everything with our hands, so it's so good.

I like the fluffiness, the creme du fromage inside.

The creme du fromage is actually leaking right now,

so I have to have another bite.

I'm going to be making toast bread.

Every Nigerian know what toast bread is.

It's a very, very popular breakfast or dinner.

You can get it from people

that actually sell only toast bread.

It might look like an American grilled cheese,

but there's no cheese inside,

but it's actually more delicious.

Forgive me, I have to say that.

We don't have cheese culture.

We don't do cheese, we do toast bread.

We are lactose intolerant. We never have milk.

Forgive me, most never have milk.

So this is how I make this.

I'm gonna crack the egg, so two egg is enough.

Then I add some tomato, salt.

I mean, once you taste it, trust me, you'll be hooked.

So I'm going to use the butter now.

You prevent the bread from sticking to this to make crispy,

then I add flavor to the food.

This is street food! You buy this in the streets!

My people are very entrepreneurial.

Every opportunity to make money legally, they'll do it.

So people carry this thing on their head.

Anywhere they can use electricity

or have their own generator, they will stop,

and they see a lot of customer, and they will serve it.

I think it's done.

Mm, amazing. Oh, good, I'm good.

It's crispy, and it has amazing flavor combination.

I mean, you can't go wrong with onions,

Scotch bonnets, and grape tomatoes.

So cheese was not something

that we kind of grew up eating.

I started working in hotels,

and I was introduced to the unique concept of melted cheese.

I ate something that is called a chili cheese toast,

a slice of bread with pasteurized cheese.

Now, literally every other Indian restaurant

has them on their brunch menus.

We toast the bread slightly before.

I am using milk bread. It's a super moist bread.

It's super light, super fluffy.

It's not going to collapse.

Amal butter. Every Indian swears by it.

I'm gonna just pop it in, give it a little color.

For making the mixture on top while my bread is toasting,

I have a little bit of cheddar,

and I'm gonna put some of this Amul cheese.

In India, growing up, this was the only cheese available.

Now, of course, there's a rich cheese industry,

and there's all kinds of cheeses,

but I like to do the chili cheese toast with this.

Not very great quality cheese, but it tastes really good.

This is made with buffalo milk.

It's richer and has higher fat content

in comparison to cow's milk, and I've added some cheddar

to give it a little bit more of depth and some sharpness.

I've added some caramelized onions to this, by the way,

a little bit of cilantro,

and I'm gonna do some green chilies.

It looks really pretty.

I will pop it and let it get golden brown in color.

So you'll see this has a nice little texture to it,

and it's holding up really well.

Generally, we just cut it in fours.

The most important thing is, you need to eat it piping hot.

Oh my gosh, so good.

Just caramelized onions round off the flavor so well.

So much texture to it, and the cilantro and the chili, yeah.

Nothing better than cheese, right?

I really like very good cheese,

but chili cheese toast without Amul cheese, no.

Cheese hasn't really been a traditional part

of most Chinese cuisines, but dairy products

and then milk have been gaining popularities in China.

There is a treat called crispy fried milk.

I've had grilled cheese before,

American-style grilled cheese,

so it's crispy on the outside,

and then the inside is creamy cheese.

This dish is fried and battered and fried,

so the outside is crispy, but the milk jelly,

it's soft, and it's kinda creamy and milky.

So first of all, we're going to whisk the milk, sugar,

corn starch, and then a little bit vanilla extract,

and whisk until you don't see any lumps.

Turn the pan on.

Wanna make sure the heat is medium low

so it doesn't cook too fast and then get lumpy.

The corn starch is going to thicken this

after you cook them.

You wanna stir until the texture,

a little bit thicker than pancake batter.

Okay, this is almost done, so we can turn off the heat,

and then just stir a couple more minutes.

The remaining heat will cook the batter a little bit more.

Once this is done,

I am going to take a small square container,

and then I'm going to brush a little bit of oil

on the bottom and on the sides.

Add all the milk into the container,

and I'm going to kinda even it out a little bit.

I'm going to cover it up with the saran wrap

and then put it in the refrigerator

for it to get solidified, and then make jellylike.

So this has been in the fridge for a couple of hours,

so I'm going to cut it into 12 strips.

I am going to coat it with a little bit

of breadcrumbs first,

and then I'm going to coat it with some egg wash,

and then back to the breadcrumb, and then repeat.

I'm gonna heat my pan, and then add enough oil

that can cover more than half of the fried milk.

You wanna heat it up to maybe 300 to 400 degrees.

There's a lot of bubbles around the chopsticks.

That means it's ready to fry.

Just a couple minutes on one side.

Once it's golden brown,

we can flip and fry the other side for a minute.

It's very crispy.

Mm, it's so crunchy.

Look at it inside! It's just like a heaven.

It's like a cloudy, but also soft and hot and creamy,

so this is perfect.

This is the comfort food of Ecuador.

Everybody knows llapingacho.

This is as close as we get to a grilled cheese.

Has tons of cheese, and it has sort

of a mashed potato patty that we're gonna create.

We had achiote, and this is what gives it the color

of roasted potatoes.

So now we're gonna go ahead and make a llapingacho.

We're gonna make a patty.

I like to use an ice cream scoop, just to keep it uniform.

We're gonna try to form a hockey puck.

We're gonna start creating a nice little crater

in the center.

We're gonna grab some shredded mozzarella cheese.

In Ecuador, we use queso fresco,

but mozzarella is as close as we get to queso fresco.

It's a cheese that melts very easily,

and this is a llapingacho.

So now that we have the patty filled with cheese,

we're gonna now fry them.

We're gonna do a medium heat in this.

We're gonna add some lard.

Lard in Ecuador is used through our cuisine

in a lot of dishes, because pork is a very popular dish

in Ecuador, so lard is used commonly in our food.

A little bit of oil.

If you use only lard, it's gonna burn.

The oil gives it more resistance.

Low medium heat is because you want the cheese in the center

just to reach the temperature that's gonna melt.

You don't have to move it.

Right now, it's starting to form a nice little crust.

It's about three minutes.

Now, you start to see the edges around turning brown.

Maybe a minute or so, and then we're gonna flip.

Just lower the heat a little bit,

maybe a couple more minutes, and it's ready.

We have a llapingacho, a crispy crust,

a soft, tender, and gooey cheese in the middle.

We have everything.

We have two llapingachos filled with mozzarella cheese.

We have some nice on side eggs.

We have some Ecuadorian chorizo, some sliced avocado.

The secret sauce is peanut butter sauce,

pickled onions with tomatoes,

and oh, a little cilantro would be nice.

Delicious.

You get the crust top, you get the peanut butter sauce,

a little bit of cilantro, the gooey cheese inside.

It's perfect, and there you go.

This is Ecuadorian llapingachos.

Enjoy it.

It's just very perfect.

So delicious.

How beautiful is that?

I put too much cheese. [chuckles]

Nothing better than cheese, right?