SANDWICH AU FROMAGE ET À LA MAYONNAISE

Find out how Ryan crafted this beautiful sandwich inspired by the top chefs of the world. We dived deep into his creation process from his favorite ingredients to the presentation and unique style of Ryan’s cooking.

Intro

Hi there! My name is Ryan Thomason-Jones. I currently reside in the United Kingdom and I'm a well respected chef within the West Midlands. My first foray into the culinary space was upon leaving to study Game Art at Staffordshire University. Equipped with a suitcase, kettle and toaster, this would be the foundation of my journey into the world of gastronomy.

One of my most critically acclaimed dishes is the classic ‘Sandwich au fromage et à la mayonnaise’. A beautiful marriage of gluten, lactose and sulfur bound together with love and competence. In this article, I will share with you my best kept secrets, and give a step by step tutorial of how to produce your own; cheese and mayo sandwich.

I was trained by the greats. I was taught the quintessential British fundamentals such as a beef roast by my mum, a ham and cheese toastie by my dad, and a wonderful Steak et frites by my master, and now sous chef at the Ryon de le Restaurant; Luan Vetoreti.

Throughout the article, Luan will be stopping by to help give top tips when preparing the perfect cheese and mayonnaise sandwich. 

Step One: The Supplies.

The key to an eggcellent cheese and mayo sandwich, is to use locally sourced ingredients.To obtain these, I had to drive 25 minutes to my local Aldi, which is the nearest one I could find.

After a long drive, I arrived at the mission objective and was ready to secure the ingredients for our masterpiece.

Make sure when collecting your ingredients to wear a mask when entering the premises. Chances are if you’re wearing an apron and a chef’s hat people are already incredibly suspicious of your actions and so a mask is excellent to blend in with your surroundings.

After obtaining a shopping trolley, your next task is to enter the supermarket or vendor of your choice. Walmart in the US, Aldi in Europe, and Waitrose if you have more money than sense.

I immediately begin to survey the area and plan my attack for collecting the ingredients. Be sure to grab refreshments and raw fish for your camera person so they don’t feel like they’ve wasted their time driving with their sibling to take pictures of you in a chef outfit.

Our first stop is in the cheese isle. This is possibly the most integral part of the recipe and so there is no margin for error here. Make sure to get the cheapest, carcinogenic cheese singles you can. The worse they look for you, the better. Don’t buy the ‘light’ variation, no matter how much your parents insist your diet sucks, because this is where the major flavour profile of the meal comes from.

Cheese secured, it’s time to move on to the mayonnaise.

The mayonnaise is another integral component to the dish. There’s been an awful scandal recently with fake mayo circulating around, so it’s important you make sure to pick up ‘Real Mayonnaise’ which can be identified via the big ‘REAL’ written on the bottle.

As Luan is demonstrating here, any brand is completely fine, as long as it has ‘REAL’ written on the bottle. None of that counterfeit shiz.

Now last but not least, we need the bread.

A classic cheese and mayonnaise sandwich uses the finest Warburton’s Toastie loaf, the bright orange packaging reminiscent of the gorgeous cheese slice that will soon sit upon it.

You could opt for a cheeky Hovis or Aldi’s own, but with Warburtons' you know what you’re getting. Perfection.

It’s time to head home and start assembling the sandwich!

Step 2: The Assembly

Take a singular cheese single, and place it on top of a slice of the bread. We will then use a knife to cut out a square perfectly aligned with said cheese. Be sure not to cut up the cheese, because although it presents a plastic flavour profile, we don’t actually want any plastic in this sandwich.

You may notice I'm using a cheese single from the Co-Operative in this picture. This is simply to create the initial shape without damaging the cheese single we use in the final product, and not because this picture was taken the day before the Aldi trip.

Once we have aligned the edges of our bread to the cheese single, we will need to remove it from it’s plastic enclosure and place it back onto the bread; to prepare for the ‘Icing’ as I like to call it.

There’s a real art to mayonnaise, too much and you turn your cheese and mayo sandwich into a mayo and cheese sandwich, but too little and you’re left with just a cheese sandwich. I’ve practised applying mayonnaise to cheese singles for many years, so I opted for an Experience Points themed design, but if this is your first time following this recipe, I recommend a zig zag for optimal mayonnaise-ness

After artfully placing your design, it’s time to move onto decoration.

There are no boundaries when presenting your cheese and mayo sandwich. Every new sandwich is a new creation and must be treated with equal respect and care. Take whatever green groceries you can find from your fridge, begin to chop it up, and explore new avenues of beauty.

For my rendition, I decided to grab some cress; a quintessential british delicacy, which I find greatly complements the eggyness of the mayonnaise. I arrange the cress always taking into consideration composition, lighting and scale. If there is an imbalance of ingredients this can overpower the cheese which is the last thing we want.

I’m always told that my dishes resemble the same colours over and over, orange white and brown, and so to combat this stigma I decided to add some radish to the presentation of this sandwich. It adds a nice bitterness to the plate and really pops against the monochromatic nature of the mayo. Be sure if adding radish to slice it razor thin, as let's be honest no one actually likes radish.

After receiving some feedback on my work, I decided to add a couple twigs of chives. It really elevated the composition and added an element of height that I was missing on the plate. 

Once you have prepared your adornments, begin placing them on a plate with the cheese and mayo sandwich. Try to strike a balance between form and flavour; the 70/30 rule is key here.

After receiving some feedback on my work, I decided to add a couple twigs of chives. It really elevated the composition and added an element of height that I was missing on the plate.

Step 3: Finito.

And there you have it. If you managed to follow this convoluted recipe regarding the abomination that is a cheese and mayo sandwich, feel free to pop your feet up and indulge in such a delicacy. It takes many years to perfect the dish, and some attempts it may not be palatable. But the key to it all is to just have fun in the kitchen, be inventive and let your creativity blossom. 

I would like to personally thank my sous chef, Luan for coming along to offer his expertise. He’s a great asset in the kitchen, and a fantastic partner. Cheers to Experience Points for giving me this exciting opportunity to share my workflow, and thank you to you for coming along for the ride. Good luck on your journey to becoming a chef, and I hope that the cheese and mayo sandwich is one of many recipes you now hold in your repertoire.

Lots of love,

Ryan Thomason-Jones

3 Star Michelin

https://www.artstation.com/ryanthomasonjones