Dylan Liew head chef of Gotham cafe in Wellington talks us through the making of the New York style grilled cheese, their rendition of the infamous kiwi cheese toastie.

Golden and crispy on the outside, hot and gooey on the inside the humble cheese toastie has been a favourite go-to dish among Kiwis, young and old, for generations.

The simple toastie has served as a quick lunch to those in need of greasy comfort food or a simple dinner for those too lazy to cook anything substantial.

Whether it's cooked in a toastie machine or fried in a pan everyone has their own method and ingredients they swear by to make the perfect cheese toastie.

The humble cheese toastie, loved by many.

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Some consider it sacrilege to add extra condiments to the sacred and pure cheese and bread mix, illegal even to add the smallest scraping of mustard. While others think the old sandwich needs a bit jazzing-up with some extra elements before it can be stomached.

Co-owner of The Dukes of Sandwich and an authority of how to make a truly great sandwich, Laura Sisson, firmly resides in the add-extra-condiments camp.

She said "do always" add onion, red or white, to cut through the richness of the cheese, but don't add tomato, "it just turn into a burning hot, soggy mess".

"Mustard is also really good to give it some tang and balance out the cheese."

When it comes to the cheese why not get fancy? Cheddar, sliced or grated, has always been a strong favourite, but Sisson said there's no reason to stick to just one cheese when you can combine them. "Mozzarella is a fantastic melting cheese and adds that awesome stringy quality, to make it an adult toastie try blue cheese."

Sisson said she wouldn't touch sliced white bread with a ten-foot pole, "I'm not even sure if it's real food". The mobile sandwich truck instead prefers to use chunky sourdough bread.

THE SECRET TO THE PERFECT CHEESE TOASTIE

Laura Sisson said the secret to making a perfect toasted cheese sandwich is the cooking method. Forget the toastie machine and use the American style - frying it in a pan. Using a mixture of equal parts soft butter and oil thoroughly spread each side of the sandwich's outer slices and fry it slowly on a low heat to cook all the way through. Often people just use butter, but that can burn the toast. The oil, butter mix is the key. "The butter gives it the great taste and the oil stops it from burning."



Melt uses a raclette grill, to melt its 3kg blocks of manuka smoked cheddar into a delicious, gooey heap, and then pours it over its sandwichs.

He said the tried and true toastie still holds and place in our culture, despite the rise of gluten free and dairy free diets. "Even though it's not a fashionable, on-trend food, people will always love cheese."

INTERNATIONAL EQUIVALENTS

Variations of the classic cheese toastie have found popularity over the decades in a number of countries, each putting their own signature style on the dish.

From bangers and mash to chips and gravy the English make some mean comfort food, and cheese toastie is no exception. Their version is the Welsh rarebit, and if you love cheese fondue you're going to love a Welsh rarebit.

The cheese is the star of the show in the Welsh rarebit thanks to a cheddar cheese sauce poured over toast.

The sauce is made from a droolworthy combination of butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, egg, beer, crème fraîche, chilli and handfuls of cheese.

Want to make a Welsh rarebit for yourself? Try Jamie Oliver's recipe for a Welsh rarebit with attitude.

Known in America as a grilled cheese sandwich the modern version became popular during the Great Depression as an inexpensive, meatless meal. Today many American recipes favour the use of several layers of pre-sliced, processed cheese between two slices of thickly buttered white bread fried in a pan.

In case that method doesn't sound self explanatory enough here's a video on how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.​