The grilled cheese he serves at his restaurant The Majestic Grille is one of my favorites.
The Pan. Use a heavy-duty skillet, like cast iron. Avoid thin, nonstick aluminum pans.
Use Good Cheese. Sure American Cheese or Velveeta may drum up fond memories of your childhood, but for a proper grown-up grilled cheese look to aged cheddar like Patrick uses at The Majestic or other semi-hard cheeses like Fontina, Gouda or whatever your local cheese shop recommends.
Butter. Yep. Butter and then more butter. Patrick uses Kerrygold Irish Butter. Soften the butter before buttering the bread – and butter both sides of each slice. Don’t melt the butter in the pan and add the sandwich, rather butter your bread then put it assembled and buttered into the hot pan. After you flip your sandwich, spread a little more butter to the already toasted side.
Heat your pan. Make sure to heat your pan to Medium-High, not too high. Too hot it gets brown before the cheese melts, too cold and the butter melts and makes the bread greasy.
One last tip. If you’re using other ingredients in your grilled cheese like tomato, bacon or greens, make sure they’re at room temperature before assembling the sandwich. If you add them cold, they won’t warm up and could keep your cheese from melting.
This is Jennifer Chandler with The Weekly Dish. Bon Appetit!
The Majestic Grille is located at 145 S. Main Street in Downtown Memphis. For more information, visit majesticgrille.com.
