Deep Dive
The Classic American Grilled Cheese
Fallow starts by making the most consumed version in America: white bread, butter, American cheese, and mayo on the outside. The mayo is key—it helps achieve golden caramelization on the bread. The sandwich delivers exactly what it promises: a strong cheese pull and easy simplicity. But it falls short on depth of flavor. This becomes the baseline. Fallow then discovers the grilled cheese actually originated in 1860s England via Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, which called for brown bread, thin cheese slices, and 10 minutes in a brisk oven. When he recreates it, the result is dry, bland bread with no fat—fine historically, but nothing to build a modern sandwich on. The takeaway: the English invented it but left it plain.
French Elevation: The Croque Monsieur
Fallow travels to Paris to study the Croque Monsieur, the French upgrade that adds béchamel, ham, and Gruyère. The béchamel is the revelation—it mimics the gooey meltiness of American cheese but with actual flavor. He visits Brasserie Constance, which layers the sandwich with multiple cheese and pesto combinations, keeping the bread incredibly soft. The innovation is striking, but Fallow notes it lacks structural integrity and doesn't deliver the satisfying cheese pull. He decides to steal two elements: the béchamel base from the traditional Croque Monsieur and the Gruyère from Constance, which provides both meltiness and those crucial strands for the ultimate cheese pull.
Engineering the Ultimate Sandwich
Fallow constructs his version by starting with a thick red Leicester béchamel base, then folding in grated Gruyère once it cools. He slices closed-tin white bread half-inch thick, toasts the slices at 160°C for 10 minutes to remove surface moisture without adding color, then stacks them with roughly 50g of cheese mix per layer—spreading all the way to the edges to get caramelized cheese on the perimeter. He brushes the outside with mayo and cooks it in clarified butter on low heat to develop a crispy crust, then finishes it in the oven at 160°C for about 8 minutes. The result balances the pillowy softness of the Croque Monsieur, the crispy texture of the American version, and the cheese pull that matters. The final touch: a sprinkle of flaky salt before serving.