Bobby Flay's Throwdown! (23 page)

If it’s griddled and gooey, it must be…grilled cheese. It seems my spatula has some other ideas. Can I keep my team from melting down long enough to take the crown or will a guy named “Stink” be the big cheese of this Throwdown?

Connie and Bill “Stink” Fisher are on a mission to spread their love of great grilled cheese around the world. Their restaurant, The Pop Shop in Collingswood, New Jersey, offers thirty-one varieties of grilled cheese composed from a pantry stocked with eight styles of artisan bread, nine types of cheese, and countless fillings. Toasted bread and luscious melted cheese are the constants, but as the award-winning grilled cheese sandwiches at The Pop Shop prove, it doesn’t have to be ordinary to be delicious!

The Fishers were trying to polish their act for a Food Network special called “All Grown Up.” The concept of the special was one that the Fishers were definitely familiar with: highlighting favorite kids’ menus that have received a grown-up twist. Always happy to share the love, Connie and Stink had invited friends and family to The Pop Shop for a gourmet grilled cheese party featuring “The Calvert,” a grilled cheese of focaccia bread filled with turkey, Monterey Jack, bacon, and balsamic vinegar. Excellent choice—excellent sandwich.

We all grew up eating the classic grilled cheese made with American cheese—which I love to this day—but for this competition, I needed to do something a little more refined. So I was off to the test kitchen to come up with the perfect combination for my grown-up grilled cheese. My first thought was to use an aged cheddar, but while it has great flavor, cheddar doesn’t melt especially well; it tends to get a little grainy. I decided to use a combo of Brie and goat cheese—creamy Brie for its “gooey” factor and aged goat cheese for its great pungent flavor. My cheese choices weren’t winning approval from Stephanie and Miriam, but I worked hard to convince them. We’d have to leave this one up to the judges. In addition to the cheese, I added crispy bacon and tart green tomatoes.

In Collingswood and headed for The Pop Shop…Will Stink be able to smell me coming? He didn’t, but both he and Connie gladly accepted my challenge to a grilled cheese Throwdown. Sensing the crowd was firmly on the Fishers’ side, I had to work extra-hard to win them over. Both sides were flipping grilled cheeses like short-order cooks to get this hungry crew fed. They looked pleased with both offerings, but The Pop Shop’s loyal fan base seemed to lean toward theirs.

Luckily for me, food blogger Arthur Etchells and
Philadelphia City Paper
food editor Drew Lazor—not the crowd—were the ones calling this race. Their judging criteria were taste, texture, and originality. They praised the Fishers’ atypical bread choice with the focaccia, as well as their avocado and bacon. The bacon was a hit in both sandwiches; mine also got high marks for its simple bread, and they loved the Brie and goat cheese combo, calling it a “taste explosion” (take that, Stephanie and Miriam). After quite a bit of back-and-forth discussion, the judges had their winner and…these two came down on my side.

The Fishers and I both had excellent versions of the grilled cheese sandwich, and in my mind, it was a tie; I just got lucky this time. Connie and Stink couldn’t have been more gracious to me and my staff, and the audience of their friends and fans made us feel welcome from the moment we stepped into The Pop Shop.

SERVES 4

1.
Put the bacon in a large skillet or on a griddle and cook, flipping it once, over medium heat until golden brown and crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate. Break each piece in half and set aside.

2.
Heat a cast-iron griddle or cast-iron pan over medium heat.

3.
Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Flip over 4 of the bread slices and layer each with 3 to 4 slices of Brie, 2 green tomato slices, 2 slices of goat cheese, and 4 slices of the bacon. Season with salt and pepper. Place the remaining bread slices on top, butter side up, and cook on the griddle until the bottom is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the sandwich over, cover with a heatproof bowl (to melt the cheese), and continue cooking until the bottom is golden brown and the Brie has melted, 3 to 4 minutes.

SERVES 2

1.
Preheat a griddle to 350°F.

2.
Combine the mayonnaise and vinegar in a small bowl. Spread 1 tablespoon on each cut side of the focaccia.

3.
Add a little oil to the griddle. Place the focaccia, mayonnaise side up, on the griddle. Put 2 slices of cheese on top of each piece of bread, and cover with a heatproof bowl to melt the cheese.

4.
Meanwhile, divide the turkey into 2 portions and put on the griddle to warm. Place the bacon slices in an “X” over each portion, and cover with the avocado and remaining cheese. Once the cheese is melted all around, put a mound of turkey on 2 bottom halves, and top with the remaining bread.

5.
Add a bit more oil to the griddle and press the sandwiches with a cast-iron pan or other heavy thing, turning once, until the bread is crisp on both sides.

Demo version limitation

Name: Lee Ann Whippen
Establishment: Wood Chick’s BBQ
Hometown: Chesapeake, Virginia
Website:
www.woodchicksbbq.com
Phone: (757) 549-9290