Max Halley is proprietor of Max’s Sandwich Shop, North London, and author of ‘Max’s Sandwich Book: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Perfection Between Two Slices of Bread.’
Sandwich: What makes for the perfect sandwich?
Max Halley: The perfect sandwich is all about execution. I have six rules for making sandwiches. Each one needs to contain something that’s hot, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy, soft. A properly made sandwich should be made in layers so every bite contains each one of those elements. Without sounding too much like a tosser, I’m making sandwiches at the gastronomic end of the scale. When you’re a chef making plates of food, you may well think about putting something hot, something cold, something sweet, something sour, etc on the plate. But you aren’t able to control how a person eats it. So you might be eating all the crunchy stuff, then all the cold stuff, then all the sour stuff. Whereas in a sandwich, you have those six elements, and you are consuming every one of those six things in every single bite you take. And when you take hot, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy, soft together, you have the secret of deliciousness. It ticks every box that your body and brain is looking for. It’s a sandwich mantra.
Can you divulge your personal sandwich creation process?
When we’re coming up with sandwich ideas at The Sandwich Shop, we remake the sandwich over and over again, each time placing the elements in a different order. Generally speaking, we’ll eat one and talk about it. Then we’ll eat another then talk about it. When it’s right, you just know. When any of us eat the best of something we’ve ever had, we know it immediately. That’s the best steak I’ve ever had. That’s the best cheese I’ve ever had. That’s the best glass of wine I’ve ever had. We all just know. Firstly, I don’t think about a sandwich, I think about a delicious plate of food. And then once I’ve done that, I figure out how to turn that into a sandwich.
Tell us about any sandwich innovations you’ve discovered.
Two main questions we ask at The Sandwich Shop when it comes to putting new sandwiches together is: what will happen if we put that in the deep fat fryer?; and, can you mix that into mayonnaise? If you leave it in the blender long enough, you can actually mix anything into mayonnaise. I think the perfect sandwich is not about individual ingredients. For me, my perfect sandwich is made with the right approach, not necessarily with specific things. The perfect sandwich is different for everyone. It’s about different days too.
So right this moment, what is your perfect sandwich?
If we’re talking now, this minute, my own personal favorite sandwich, then it’s one we make at the shop called the ‘Et tu, Brute? Murdering the Caesar’. Which has roast chicken, tarragon salsa, pickled grapes, anchovy mayonnaise, baby gem lettuce, chicory, parsley and croutons. It’s a caesar salad in a sandwich. And people said you couldn’t put bread inside a sandwich, but they didn’t think about deep frying it. When the croutons come out of the fat, we sprinkle them with that garlic powder which, for me, is such a 1970s flavor. I know the caesar salad is not from the 1970s, it was invented in Mexico. But there’s also something so ’70s about grapes. We found that the flavor of the chicken gets on well with the tarragon salsa. The salsa is made from grated up dill pickles, onion, mustard, olive oil and loads of tarragon. Then we separately pickle grapes and mix them into the salsa. You want the hot meat next to the cold salsa. Then we have the freshness of the chicory and baby gem and parsley right in the middle. And then the croutons on top of that. And the—plonk—put the lid on covered in mayonnaise. You want a condiment on bread as it’s the best way to get an even spread. And then you want the meat next to the bottom piece of bread, so the juices can soak into it. That’s why we only use focaccia because crust everywhere is one of the secrets. None of this sourdough where mayo comes up through the air holes and the bread rips and everything falls out. A sandwich should not give in when you go for it. I love a slice of sourdough with pate spread on it, but over my dead body would I make a sandwich with it.
