New York City restaurant Serendipity 3, which celebrates 60 years in business this year, received a Guinness World Record for the most expensive sandwich in the world, The Quintessential Grilled Cheese Sandwich, which sells for a whopping $214.
Serendipity premiered the sandwich Nov. 3 on national television for Wendy Williams, on her popular show, The Wendy Williams Show.
Owner and founde Stephen Bruce can now add this record to his wall filled with Guinness Records for menu items such as the Most Expensive Ice Cream Sundae and the Most Expensive Burger, for many of which profits are donated to local charities. This time, it's a grilled cheese.
"Grilled cheese is the ultimate comfort food and this grilled cheese is the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich," Bruce says, explaining the sandwich created by Chef Joe Calderone.
It starts with two thick slices of French Pullman Champagne Bread that are made with Dom Perignon champagne and 24k edible gold flakes and buttered with thick layers of grass-fed white truffle butter.
Slices of rare Caciocavallo Podolico cheese are added next. The cheese is made in southern Italy from the milk of the Podolica cow, which graze free-range, feeding on strongly aromatic grasses such as fennel, licorice, juniper, laurel bay, and wild strawberries and infusing the milk with sweet perfumes. There are only about 25,000 of these special cows and they only lactate during May and June, making this cheese one of the finest and rarest in the world.
The sandwich is then toasted in a panini maker until golden crisp and cut into triangles. The edges of the sandwich are gilded in 24-karat edible gold. The sandwich is served on a Baccarat crystal plate with a Baccarat glass filled with South African Lobster Tomato Bisque as a dipping sauce, swirled with crème fraiche and truffle oil. This bisque is made with San Marzano tomatoes from Italy and South African Lobster Tails from seafood purveyors M. Slavin & Sons.
Forty-eight-hour advance notice is required to order.
