SANDWICH GENERATION

Fact: the sandwich is the single most popular entrée on a restaurant menu.

WHETHER IT’S FULL-SERVICE, quick-serve or fast-casual, there are more sandwiches on restaurant menus than any other food item. Even as the trend toward healthier eating continues to gather momentum, if you can keep coming up with interesting flavour combinations, there will always be a market for a great sandwich.

A decade ago, the panini press was the musthave appliance when it came to crafting the perfect hot sandwich, but those days may be coming to an end. “Panini presses aren’t the ideal way to heat up a sandwich,” says Mark McEwan, spokesman for Amana Canada. “They take too long and they create bottlenecks in the kitchen.”

Instead, McEwan recommends a high-speed oven, like his company’s Xpress Chef brand that can do so much more than a panini press. “It can toast a sandwich five times faster than a traditional toaster oven, and it’s so easy to use that anyone in your kitchen can grill or bake or sear with a single touch of the screen.” And if you follow some of this year’s top trends, they’ll be able to make the kind of craveable hot sandwiches that will have your customers coming back again and again.

How can you elevate your sandwich creations?

AROUND THE WORLD With the world as your palette, there’s no limit to the flavour combinations you can create between the bread. Start in Asia with steamed buns from China or banh mi from Vietnam. Try a little Latino flair with tortas or cemitas from Mexico or fritas (a burger topped with spicy ketchup and homemade fries) from Cuba. Or season your beef, pork, or lamb with cumin, turmeric, cardamom, or citrus for a taste of the Middle East.

READY TO RAFT You might think of a raft as something you paddle down a rushing river, but the culinary version is equally exciting. Think of it as an open-faced sandwich piled high with tasty toppings. Start with crispy, warm flatbread. Then load it up with beef, poultry, pork, or fish. Give it some crunch with salad greens and grilled vegetables, and top it all off with an egg – sunny side up, naturally.

PULLING OUT THE STOPS You’ve heard of pulled pork and pulled beef brisket. Well, it turns out that’s not all that can be pulled when it comes to making brag worthy sandwiches. Barbecue joints across the U.S. and Canada have been busy thinking up delicious new takes on this slow-cooking phenomenon. How about pulled braised turkey, a mouth-watering alternative to cold sliced turkey breast? Or pulled bacon – smoked, cured, and brined until it’s soft enough to shred by hand?

THE ENDS ARE JUST THE BEGINNING And speaking of barbecue joints, they’re once again serving as inspiration for what is sure to be another top sandwich trend – the ends. Made from the point or deckle of a brisket, burnt ends are every bit as flavourful as ribs, but without the bone and mess. Marinate them in a house-made barbecue sauce and serve them on a brioche bun with melted cheddar and pickled red onion.

Sure, the sandwich may seem like a simplistic offering but it’s all in how you make it! With some exploration, the right ingredients and a high-speed oven, your sandwiches can be the “hot” item that everyone wants to get their hands on.