Cheesed up

Playing off the never-waning popularity of comfort foods, restaurant chains are elevating a tried-and-true ingredient to Big Lure status this month: Cheese.

Not that the uses are routine. Denny’s, for instance, is currently touting mac & cheese, but as a sandwich topping, not a side or entrée. The result is the Mac ‘n Cheese Big Daddy Patty Melt, a burger dressed not only with the comfort favorite, but also additional cheddar cheese and a mayonnaise-y sauce.

The limited-time selection, a cornerstone of the chain’s new Let’s Get Cheesy menu, is the latest in the chain’s tribute to cheesy excess. Last year it showcased the Fried Cheese Melt, essentially four fried mozzarella sticks inserted inside a more traditional grilled-cheese sandwich.

It packed nearly 900 calories. But that could’ve been a diet selection compared with the Big Daddy. Denny’s hasn’t posted the new sandwich’s calorie count, but a regular patty melt is listed as having 1,040 calories, and other authorities have estimated the count at just about 1,700 calories.

The Big Daddy is one of six new cheese selections. Most of the others consist of familiar items, like a country-fried steak with eggs, garnished with cheese. As part of the promotion, cheese can be added to any menu item for an extra charge of 69 cents.

Denny’s isn’t the only chain on a quest to keep cows at full employment. The Qdoba burrito chain is calling attention to one of its signature ingredients with the launch of the Queso Quest truck in Chicago. A comedian is driving the truck around the Windy City to get locals to try the chain’s three-cheese queso as a topping on popular local foods.

It wasn’t crystal clear, to me at least, how queso on a deep-dish pizza is going to drive more people to Qdoba, and I’m a fan of the chain.

Then there’s the sizzle surrounding The Melt, the grilled-cheese sandwich concept that hit the pan this week in San Francisco.

Intended to serve as a chain prototype, the new outlet probably would have gone unnoticed for some time if it hadn’t been for two things: It’s the brainchild of Jonathan Kaplan, the inventor of The Flip inexpensive video recorder; and it uses what may be the most technologically advanced system in the industry for ordering a sandwich.Patrons use their smart phones to select what cheese, bread and other elements they want in their sandwich. The order is translated into a QR code that’s read at the store, so the order is automatically channeled back to the kitchen.

Cheesy? The initial reports from citizen reviewers have been very positive.

But not all the recent news has been good for cheese lovers. It slipped past the business press, but the industry lost one of its gods last week, and one who owed his notoriety largely to cheese.

Yes, Joey Vento, a.k.a. the founder of south Philly’s Geno’s (cheese) Steaks, died at age 71. Pat’s might be better known, but Geno’s could go onion to onion with its arch-rival, which was situated virtually across the street.

All we can say is, “Whiz, with, Joey. Whiz with.”

My day at the Fancy Food Show

I’ve just come from the Fancy Food Show in New York, or the closest an adult can come to being locked overnight in a candy store. Next time I’ll know to bring my own toothpick, so I can move more quickly from booth to booth, spearing whatever sample is being featured. The choices fill a huge swath of the city’s main convention hall, the Jacob Javits Center.

Cheese was by far the most common product featured. But I tried everything from a Pisco Sour to velvet cake to a juice-infused gummy candy, wholewheat pancakes, all kinds of cured meats, and, perhaps best of all, real licorice.

The trends that were evident:

--Healthful snacks were definitely in abundance. What made them healthful varied widely. There was a ginger snap, touted as a hangover aid because it had triple the usual amount of ginger; any number of teas ascribed with healthful qualities or ingredients, like a mangosteen additive; confections loaded with nuts; plain old nuts; dairy-based drinks, like kefirs, marketed as snack options; and new types of yogurts, like the more-pudding-like Greek variety. Other examples were familiar products, like vegetable chips, packaged in what were hailed as “smart portions.”

--A number of cheese purveyors tried to put some fruit into their products. I tried a cranberry-studded mild cheese, and I could’ve had any number of selections that were recommended to be served with fruit jams, as they are in Italy. I also saw cheeses that were topped with fruit compotes or stewed fruits, sort of like cheesecakes.

--Aggressively showcased were teas, teas, and more teas. Sold loose-leafed, in tea bags, in cans, in bottles, in concentrates.

--There were probably a half-dozen small-batch soft drink specialists, featuring drinks in traditional (cola, orange) and unusual (espresso, pomegranite, carbonated lemonade) flavors.

--Consistent with the recent surge in foodservice licensing, several restaurants were on hand to promote products they hope to sell through supermarkets or other eateries. Included were Peanut, Butter & Jelly, the New York restaurant that features nothing but variations on the PBJ, touting its peanut butter; Patsy’s, the New York landmark that can boast of being Frank Sinatra’s favorite restaurant, promoting its pastas and sauces; Rao’s, doing the same; and Sarabeth’s, the bakery institution, looking to sell more baked goods through alternative channels.

--At least two booths featured speck, from regions a long plane ride from Italy. One purveyor cured the pork-leg meat in Iowa. The other hailed from Asia.

Almost as telling was the lack of attention to products that were in the spotlight just a year or two ago: Coffees, unusual breads, craft beers, and alternative proteins, like ostrich or beefalo. There was some of each, but not as much as a sharp-eyed shopper might encounter at the National Restaurant Association show.

Okay, time to work off everything I ate during my three hours on the show floor. A 12-mile run should do it. Maybe.