The World's Most Expensive Grilled Cheese Is Made Of Gold
In this economy, where even Dollar Tree had to raise its prices for sustainability, you might do a double take when you see how much Serendipity 3 is charging for a grilled cheese sandwich. The popular New York City restaurant holds a Guinness World Record for the world's most expensive sandwich: The Quintessential Grilled Cheese.
Serendipity 3 also holds world records for its obscenely-priced dessert and fries — the $25,000 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate and the $200 Crème de la Crème Pomme Frites – so it wasn't much of a surprise when they announced they would be serving the Quintessential Grilled Cheese with a price tag of $214. If you have money to burn, a fancy grilled cheese sandwich might be the way to go.
The gilded sandwich is made with soft French bread that's been baked with Dom Perignon champagne, which starts at around $185 and can go up to $84,700 depending on the year of production. The bread, which has 24-karat gold leaves that cost around $26 per 10 leaves, is basted with white truffle oil with gold flakes. A generous amount of grass-fed butter with white truffles is slathered on the bread slices. For the cheese, the restaurant uses caciocavallo podolico, which retails for around $13.95 per 100 grams. The sandwich is then melted in a panini press for about four minutes. Once done, the gooey sides are adorned with more gold flakes and served with special African tomato bisque with lobster chunks.
The chefs says its worth it
Serendipity 3's pricey grilled cheese sandwich was created by chef Joe Calderone, and he thinks the price is justified. "It's like a grilled cheese on steroids," he told CNBC. In another video for Guinness World Records, the chef revealed that the owner decided on the price after taking the prices of the ingredients into consideration. "Of course, they are the most expensive and exclusive ingredients in the world," he said.
The sandwich may be an immediate "no, thank you" to most of us for obvious reasons, but there are people who have tried it and liked how it tasted. Fox News tried it and found it to be "pretty delicious." The gold leaves did little to improve the flavor since they are tasteless. "But it's a decadent dish for the holidays or big celebration," the outlet wrote. CNBC's Nicholas Vega thought the cheese was the "star of the show" and the sandwich itself was good. In case you decide you want some fancy grilled cheese, and have the funds to spring for it, the sandwich needs to be ordered 48 hours in advance.