VidSF

Poor Taylor didn't get a chance to taste any 'sammiches' this time around. Next year we know to show up a little earlier to get a judge wristband!

Learn more and checkout upcoming invitationals:
www.grilledcheeseinvitational.com

Transcript:

Taylor: I'm Taylor Rogers, we're here in Dolores Park in San Francisco where there is a grilled cheese contest going on behind me. Let's go check it out.

Tim (megaphone): Come on, start your grills! (Crowd cheers.)

Tim: Basically, after a night of drinking, it became some sort of pissing match where [we said], 'I make the best grilled cheese', 'No, I make the best grilled cheese'. So it's like, okay, well let's hold the Grilled Cheese Invitational and figure out who's the best grilled cheese champion here.

So, when we first did it we had 18 competitors and about 80 people showed up. The event was just as crazy as this was but with that many people. And we instantly decided we have to do this again. So we kept doing it. Every year it doubled in capacity, and the event just grew to be a huge phenomenon because everyone loves grilled cheese, you know?

"Brick Man": My grandma does it. She uses the brick wrapped in tin foil for sanitary reasons and it gives it that pressed 'panini-like' to give you a visual image.

Taylor: What kind of cheese you got here?

Brick Man: We've got mozzarella, we've got a sharp white cheddar, a medium yellow cheddar and we've got some bread from Berkeley Bowl.

Taylor: Beautiful, good luck! So how was it?

Female Judge: Awesome, really good. The brick man is the best!

Taylor: The Brick Man?

Female Judge: Right there, over there. The Brick Man.

Male Judge: The Brick Man has passed the brick technology through multiple generations.

Female Volunteer with Grilled Cheese Hat: We serve it to the audience here they eat it, judge it and put it in the ballot box and then those are taken over there and they're tabulated.

Taylor: What's the technique here?

Ball State Chef: The technique here? Well I mean it's, woah, it's getting a little burnt. I'm doing an Uruguayan Fontina on a nine grain whole wheat and I'm smacking it on either side with a little bit of parmesan. So that's what's goin' on.

Taylor: So what cheese do you have?

Hoodie Chef: We're using a five-year aged Quebecois cheddar. And we've got bread from La Boulangerie on Cole Street. It's a slight sweet French pain de companion and we've made our own butter, we didn't find anything that really measured up. So, I think we've got the perfect sandwich coming up here.

Taylor: So you're a runner today. Tell us about that.

Runner: Well, you know, a hard job, someone has to do it. The key here is prepping people to receive the perfection which we're about to bestow. So we need to make sure they understand the quality of the ingredients. You also have to be able to size people up right away, you know, in like five seconds, because they're a bunch of judges, like 500 I think, you have to size the right one to receive, you know, that is worthy and deliver appropriately with the right style and a little flair, supple wrists hold that plate and make sure they get it right.

Runner (to crowd): Who's worthy?

Crowd: I'm worthy! I'm worthy!

Runner: What we have here, let me explain, what we have here is hand churned butter, we have a five year aged...

Taylor: So, who are you looking for? Who do you want to hand a sandwich to?

Runner: Yeah, that's a tricky question. I'm looking for someone between the ages of 22 to 26, you know, a gleam in their eye. They have to be desirous of the grilled cheese, they can't just be some casual observer.

Taylor: And what goes into judging a grilled cheese for you?

Female Judge #2: You have to really savor the grilled cheese. There are several categories, like how it looks, how much cheese is there, is there a 'spaz', is it a weird grilled cheese you didn't expect?

Green Shirt Chef: We're putting together basically a ham and cheese French style. This is a tart I used to do when I was cooking it's like an alsacian tart, which is basically just this really creamy cheese with caramelized onions and bacon basically that's it. So we're just putting that in grilled cheese sandwich form. So we have our yellow onions and bacon here, we've got our griere and brie on brioche which is really rich egg bread from France, it's basically like a heart attack on a plate but the heart attack is worth it, it's good.

Green Shirt Runner: Who doesn't like a heart attack?

Green Shirt Chef: Who doesn't like a heart attack? Come on!

Tim: The way I like to equate it is that not everyone can be a chef but anyone can be a grilled cheese campion. So, it's an opportunity for anyone to really shine and really kick down some tasty sammich!