Gordon Ramsay's Grilled Cheese Has A Major Flaw

Gordon Ramsay's countless hit cooking shows and Michelin-starred restaurants are proof that he knows what he's doing in the kitchen. A chef of his stature who executes the most complex dishes can surely handle a grilled cheese sandwich. In a 2020 episode of "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted" that aired on National Geographic, Ramsay whips up a highly elite grilled cheese using gourmet ingredients and a wood-fired brick oven to cook it. While it looked promising, his grilled cheese's main ingredients were majorly flawed.

Ramsay uses thick slices of locally made asiago and a romano studded with pepperberries to melt over homemade kimchi. While the ingredients on their own are delicious, using them together in a grilled cheese presents a major imbalance of flavors and textures. Both asiago and romano are hard cheeses with very intense flavor palates, not to mention the powerful funk and tang of kimchi. Not only is the flavor profile overpowering, but hard cheeses like romano and asiago don't melt easily. You can even see in the video how the cheese retains its hard form after grilling as Ramsay cuts the sandwich in half.

The sign of a well-executed grilled cheese is twofold: First, you want a well-balanced blend of cheeses, and second, you want a gooey, creamy center to contrast the buttery, crispy toasted bread. Romano and aged asiago are both ultra-salty and piquant cheeses that require more preparation and a creamier meltable cheese pairing. A gooey blend of strong and creamy cheeses would also be better with the addition of kimchi. 

We've created a list of the best cheese to use in a grilled cheese sandwich, containing a variety of soft, semi-hard, and hard cheeses. Asiago and romano don't make the cut, but that doesn't mean they won't taste delicious in a grilled cheese sandwich. But instead of using them together, choose one of them to pair with a quick melting cheese that has a milder profile. A salty and intensely nutty cheese with peppercorns like the romano Ramsay uses would work well with mozzarella, gruyere, or butterkase. All of these cheeses are rich and buttery, complementing a peppery, salty cheese like romano beautifully.

Another key to helping integrate hard cheeses that don't melt easily into a grilled cheese sandwich is in the preparation. Instead of cutting thick slices of hard cheese, grating them with a box grater or even a microplane would create wispy shards that, when exposed to high heat, have a better chance of melting in with the soft cheese you pair them with. Another way to make sure that a hard asiago or romano cheese melts into a gooey center is to mix it with a little bit of mayonnaise. Add grated romano or asiago to a spoonful of mayonnaise, blending to combine. Then spread the cheesy mayonnaise over the slices or shreds of meltable cheese before closing the sandwich and placing it on a hot skillet. You'll see that a mayo and cheese blend is one way to get a perfect melty center.