The Toastie Takeover's winner from last year: Brooke Moore's 'Surf, Turf & Smoke, Monsieur!' sandwich, from Mount Maunganui's Freeport with Cleaver & Co. Photo:
A great toasted sandwich pushes boundaries, says the head judge of Aotearoa's premier toastie competition.
The Great NZ Toastie Takeover has announced fourteen eateries that are the finalists in this year's competition.
"A good toastie has to be eaten with your hands, it needs to have a toasted top and bottom. It's not a panini, a toastie has a life of its own," head judge Kerry Tyack said.
"You can make a really good ham and cheese toastie, like something that blows your socks off, or you can go out and put something exotic or creative in it. One is not better than the other, it's about how successfully you do that."
Tyack said he was impressed by the variety of entries, ranging from spicy and salty to sweet and sour.
"We started pretty small, it's grown every year and this year we had around 170 entries."
One entry, from past winner Okere Falls Store in Rotorua, contains walnuts, figs, chilli honey and blue cheese on sourdough.
Another, from BEERS Craft Brewery in Christchurch, is topped with a mussel stuffed with bacon.
Tyack said the only required ingredients were cheese and McClure's brand pickles, a sponsor of the event.
He said crafting the perfect toastie was a delicate science.
"If you're using something with high moisture and it soaks through the bottom layer... It's just not satisfying," he said.
"It's what you do with the ingredients and how you layer them. The more ingredients you have the more important your layering is."
Tyack believed the outside was just as important as the inside.
"Not every bread is suitable for toasties," he said. "For example a really thick brioche... The balance is all wrong."
Finalists hailed from Auckland's North Shore down to Queenstown.
"Toasties are different from region to region, so something that might appeal to people in Rangitikei or New Plymouth may not have the same audience in Parnell or Ponsonby [in Auckland]," he said.
"It's the cleverness of the toastie creator to know their audience and how far they can push their audience. A simple food like a toasted sandwich can test all sorts of traditional and contemporary approaches to food."
The finalists:
- Cazador Deli in Mt Eden, Auckland for The Chilango
- Cheese on Toast in Birkenhead, Newmarket, and Three Kings, Auckland for the Spicy Meatball Melt
- Capers Café & Store in Rotorua for Brotha 'Mmmm'
- Okere Falls Store in Rotorua for Figgy In the Middle
- Hayes Common in Hamilton East for Turkish Reubenstein
- Jimmy Coops Lakehouse in Taupo for Smokey Mooloo
- Brew Union in Palmerston North for The Smoked Chicken Ripper
- The Offering in Greytown for the Beefy Melt
- Small Batch Coffee in Petone for Crackle Belly Rosti Tosti
- The Tasting Room in Wellington for Samun Melting Pot
- Street Food on Washington in Nelson for The Pickled Philly
- BEERS Craft Brewery in Christchurch for Surf, Turf and Earth
- Fergbutcher in Arrowtown for The Texas Showdown
- Johnny Crema in Queenstown for Welcome To The Club