Andrew Gruel May Have Started A New Toast Trend On Twitter
Let's say you're craving avocado toast for breakfast or a late-night snack — but you open the refrigerator to find that someone else has beaten you to the avocado that was just there the day before. It's a problem, sure, but it's not like you're out of options. Maybe there's some artisanal peanut butter in the pantry, or some pesto and feta cheese hiding in a corner of the fridge. Maybe you can track down some hummus and edamame or even a banana somewhere.
All of those, of course, are reasonable — and some may say better — choices than avocado for your toast. Still, you're not Andrew Gruel, TV cooking show personality and executive chef of Slapfish, a California-based seafood restaurant franchise that he began as a single food truck. If you were Gruel, you'd have your own take on avocado toast without avocados, and you would not disappoint your legions of fans.
Recently on Twitter, Gruel posted a photo of what a world-class chef does when he finds himself craving avocado toast while short of an avocado. His solution? A chunk of perfectly cooked steak, almost completely covering the piece of toast atop which it was perched. "I was out of avocados," Gruel captioned the post, "but the steak (dry-brined) cuts like butter."
Chef Gruel's 'avocado' toast gets mixed reviews
Of course, Gruel's post attracted a lot of attention, including an appreciative one-word tweet from Chef Mike Haracz. "Yesss," tweeted Haracz, corporate chef and culinary development lead at Univar Solutions' Foodology, a company (ironically) working on the development of plant-based meats. Plenty of others in the Twitterverse joined the chorus in support of Gruel's reimagined avocado toast. "That's the most beautiful avocado toast I've ever seen," one person tweeted, while another chimed in, "Way better than avocado."
Though steak-substitute avocado toast did have some detractors, the negative-leaning comments did appear to be at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek. One of those denizens, @jajastweets, suggested that Gruel had done nothing more than arrive circuitously at a regular feature on diner menus. "Nice open face sammich," they opined. @Bulldog2026, meanwhile, had a two-word critique: "Needs ketchup."
This steak-covered delight isn't the first time that Gruel has entertained Twitter with his loose interpretations of toast, avocado or otherwise. A post from August depicted an almost normal slice of avocado toast, piled comically high with at least 10 strips of crispy bacon. "Avocado toast," the caption read. Also that month, he deemed his leftover pizza "day old breakfast toast," and he called what appears to be a quadruple-decker grilled cheese sandwich "the perfect toast."
And in case you were wondering, Gruel does take his avocado toast seriously at times. In a Twitter post from February, under the caption, "avocado toast for the team," Gruel showed off his avocado toast layered with egg, lobster, and pickled cabbage — and two pieces of bacon.