10 Celebrity Chefs' Sandwich Orders

Even though many of the world's most respected culinary masters can whip out some pretty impressive techniques in the kitchen, your favorite celebrity chef is just like the rest of us. They each have a go-to sandwich order when they want something quick, convenient, and delicious.

Some chefs stick with childhood favorites that have a touch of nostalgia for them, along with some really fantastic tastes. Others prefer to keep it simple and load up on high-quality ingredients. A few put their own twist of classics to make them a little bit more gourmet. Using the best ingredients is key, so when a celebrity chef tells you that a sandwich is best on fresh, crusty bread, you can be sure that they know their stuff. You can also turn to these experienced culinary experts to recommend tasty swaps to make sandwiches even easier or just to try something new.

Whether they're building a sammie at home or traveling all around the world for a favorite, these celebrity chefs are big fans of some bread, meats, cheeses, and all the fixins. You can copy these recipes at home — just be sure to stack it so the fillings don't fall out. Many of the favorites rely on tasty combinations of ingredients, such as briny pickles paired with creamy cheese. Some are served hot, while others are best open-faced on your plate. 

Martha Stewart said that her family used to eat onion sandwiches during intense game nights. This simple sandwich was a favorite of her father's and the media personality, chef, and home guru still enjoys them today. It remains one of her favorites, whether she's winning in Scrabble or not.

Onion sandwiches are easy to make, which is probably one reason that Stewart's family turned to them for a late night snack. All you need to do is put sliced raw onions between two pieces of buttered bread and voila. Because onions are the star ingredient and they have a really bold taste when served raw, you should make sure to pick the right type of onion for the flavor that you want. Vidalia sweet onions would be a good choice, but you can also switch things up and go with a red onion or a sharper yellow onion. Thin slices are perfect for getting the flavor without taking huge bites of onion without enough of the accompanying butter and bread.

While the flavor is pretty intense, onion sandwiches have been often served as a light tea sandwich. Some people from Stewart's hometown in New Jersey shared that they also grew up eating onion sandwiches and that you can even get them from local restaurants. This is definitely a regional option and one that likely evokes fond memories for Stewart when she makes them.

When in Rome, eat like Bobby Flay and get a porchetta sandwich. It's his go-to order at a small deli, which has plenty of options, and he greets the owner by name. Flay shared a video on social media of him walking down the streets of Rome to go to La Vita é un Mozzico, a small shop serving up some big flavors. You have to get a ticket and wait for your number to be called before you can order. There aren't any seats at the shop — just a case displaying delectable meats and the ingredients needed to make sandwiches.

Bobby Flay's go-to order is a porchetta sandwich that's made with roasted pork. Traditional Italian porchetta is made with pork belly, plus plenty of savory spices, and slow-roasted to get the best savory flavor. The crispy skin of the meat gives it a good texture, and thick slices of cheese add creaminess as well.

It comes on pizza bianca, which is made with pizza dough. It translates to "white pizza" and works as the perfect base for this Italian sandwich. The pizza bianca is sliced open and all of the ingredients are layered inside. Flay also likes the pesto sauce that's added to the stack. The entire thing is sandwiched in the middle of the bread and then pressed on a grill, making it an easy handheld to enjoy as you stroll. 

Giada de Laurentiis is known for her love of Italian cooking, so it's not a surprise that her go-to sandwich order incorporates classic Italian ingredients. The bubbly celebrity chef has a sandwich that she loves so much that she named it after herself. "The Giada Sandwich" has mortadella, pesto, mozzarella, and capers. This combination of ingredients is the perfect balance of rich, herby, creamy, and bright. The key is to incorporate everything together in the right order so that all of the ingredients meld together and nothing falls off the sandwich.

Thick, flavorful pesto is the key to bringing intense herby flavor to this sandwich. Giada puts pesto spread on both interior sides of the sandwich, and then builds the rest from there. You can make your own or go with a store-bought pesto to save even more time. Look for a bright green spread to help add visual interest to your plate as well. The bright green hue typically means that the pesto — which is made from fresh herbs including basil, parsley, and sometimes even mint — will bring some serious flavor. 

Like some others on our list, it also includes mortadella, but it uses thin slices of cold cured meat. Mozzarella adds a creamier note alongside the salty mortadella. It also has fried capers for some brininess. Overall, this dish is like an antipasti sandwiches on crusty baguette bread.

The late chef and adventurer Anthony Bourdain liked a classic mortadella and provolone sandwich. Mortadella is a high-fat cured meat made with pork and a few spices to give it a specific flavor. Bologna and mortadella are similar, but the later has a more complex flavor. You can experiment with different kinds of cured meats on this sandwich, but Bourdain's fave was mortadella. If you're able to get it sliced to order, ask for thin slices.

Bourdain added provolone cheese, which he melted to get an even richer sandwich. Provolone has a mild flavor and texture, making it a good pairing with salty mortadella. To balance things out, he added a zip of mustard and a little bit of mayo to bring it all together.

What sets this sandwich apart is the texture. Mortadella and melted cheese can be very heavy, but in this case, there's a trick to getting the best flavor out of the ingredients. Bourdain fried up the meat and toasted the bread to keep things crispy. The mortadella, which is thinly sliced, has a little extra caramelization that makes the entire sandwich much better than simple bologna and cheese.

The recipe for Bourdain's mortadella sandwich was published in 2016 in his cookbook, "Appetites." Like many of his dishes, it was inspired by international travel, specifically a sandwich that he enjoyed in Brazil. 

The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, likes the humble tuna melt when she's craving comfort food. However, she calls her version the "Ultimate Tuna Melt," using gourmet tuna salad made from only the best ingredients, plus grated Swiss and microgreens. She recommends making the tuna mixture ahead of time to keep things easy, and then assembling the sandwich and popping it under the broiler to melt the cheese on top. Sprinkle on microgreens at the end to bring in some texture and a little boost of flavor (and nutrients) as well.

Tuna melts can include different cheeses, which is a great way to shake things up when you start to get a little bored with the same ol' sandwich. Garten's version has Swiss, which gives a little bit sharper of a flavor, but cheddar and provolone are both great options as well.

A classic tuna melt is easy to assemble and doesn't require a lot of specialty ingredients. If you want to make this version at home, start by picking out a good canned tuna. High-quality ingredients are even more important when you're making a dish with few flavors. Grating the cheese lets it melt faster and more evenly, getting your sandwich ready to eat in just a few minutes. This is an open-faced sandwich with only one slice of bread, but be sure that it's a good, thick, crusty variety that can hold up.

Wolfgang Puck shared that his favorite of the panini-style hot sandwiches is the Cuban sandwich. The chef penned an article proclaiming his love for this grilled sandwich that's full of multiple meats, plus plenty of cheese and other toppings.

Puck shared a little bit about the history of sandwiches and specifically Cuban sandwiches, which can trace their origins back to South Florida. "Mixto" sandwiches, which had meat and cheese, came over with immigrants from Cuba and evolved into the version of the pressed Cuban sandwich that is a Florida staple today. It has a lot of hearty ingredients, which is one of Puck's favorite parts about these sandwiches. They are so loaded up with sandwich ingredients that you'll need to press down on your panini maker to get them to the right thickness. You can stack cans on top to get the best results, but be sure that they're evenly spaced so that you get the signature flat top of a Cubano.

These sandwiches are traditionally made on long pieces of Cuban bread. They are stacked high with pork and ham, cheese, long pickle slices, and mustard. For this reason, the entire thing is pressed to make it flatter, get the outside nice and crisp, and make it easier to eat. This combination of crisped bread and warm insides, as well as all of the flavors that work so well together, make this a favorite of mine as well.

Because her tuna salad had so many mix-in ingredients, like celery, onion, capers, and more, Julia Child favored bread that had plenty of nooks and crannies for these sandwiches. English muffins were the perfect answer, so that's what the famous chef — who brought French cooking to American audiences — preferred. English muffins are also a bit tougher than standard sandwich bread, so you don't need to worry about sogginess or the bread breaking, even if you load it up with tuna salad. You're also not likely to rip or tear an English muffin, even when you scoop on plenty of tuna salad.

Child also liked these sandwiches open-faced. You can make her version of a lunchtime staple at home by mixing tuna, packed in oil, with good mayonnaise. Stir in some chopped celery and Vidalia onions for crunch, plus vinegary cornichon and capers. Child used lemon juice and herbs — often parsley or chives — for some added brightness. A little bit of salt and pepper is the last thing needed to pull all of the ingredients together in the salad.

Sliced tomato, onion, and lettuce gave the sandwich a little bit more, but the tuna salad is really the star ingredient. It's not surprising that with such a hearty salad, a sturdy English muffin became Child's go-to as well.

Ree Drummond first had a grilled cheese on rye sandwich at a restaurant, but has since made it her own. The upgraded grilled cheese still uses rye bread and includes tomato, red onion, green chilis, and two types of cheese. Slice the tomato thick and the onion thin, and then load up with just enough green chilis to give it a little extra heat.

A mixture of Dijon mustard and creamy mayo creates a special sauce for the sandwich as well. The extra zing from the mustard is key, but the mayo helps tone it down so that it doesn't steal the show from the cheese. Cheddar and provolone are Drummond's choices, but you can swap out any cheese that melts well.

Giving new life to a classic recipe is a great way to stick with something that you know and love, but keep things fresh and interesting. Plenty of other chefs have their own secret ingredients for this tasty sandwich. Nutella grilled cheese puts a dessert twist on the dish, while Worcestershire sauce on a grilled cheese sandwich adds more umami flavor. If you're like Ree Drummond, loading it up with sliced veggies is the perfect answer for a perfect grilled cheese.

Another celebrity chef who goes for a hearty Cuban sandwich is Alton Brown, calling it his "favorite of all time." A true Cuban sandwich has multiple meats, typically pork and ham, plus salami in some versions. That being said, Brown is not above swapping out roasted pork for sliced turkey from the deli counter for another delicious option. 

Even though slow-roasted pork and ham are the traditional meats for a Cuban sandwich, that doesn't mean that they are the only options in town. Salty meat is key for the balance of flavors, but you may not always want to roast your meat from scratch or have a convenient option to pick up at the store. In this case, you can consider some simple substitutions that will still get the amazing combination of flavor. Roasted turkey is a good option and it can be thinly sliced for your Cuban. The same is true of roasted chicken or even roast beef. For the best results, have at least two different meats on your sandwich, plus all the other iconic ingredients.

Don't forget the mustard or the pickles, two key ingredients to get the bold flavor in this sandwich. Alton Brown loves the combo so much that he even includes adding pickle juice to homemade mustard as one of his top cooking tips. A true Cubano also has a very specific type of bread, which works well with a panini press and holds everything together.

It's not often that a sandwich gets credited in a movie, but when Adam Sandler needed something for his movie, "Spanglish," the "World's Greatest Sandwich" made its Hollywood debut. Thomas Keller created this sammie for the movie, but ended up loving it off-screen as well. It's a combination of a BLT, grilled cheese, and fried egg sandwich and was so good that Keller says it's now one of his favorite sandwiches. With such iconic inspiration, it's easy to see how this sandwich lives up to its name.

One side of the sandwich has toasted Monterey Jack cheese. The cheese should be gooey and hot, giving it the classic grilled cheese treatment. The other side gets a good layer of mayo, then bacon, lettuce, and tomato, bringing in the flavors of a BLT. In between these two is a fried egg and salt. 

It's like three sandwiches in one, so be sure to use thick bread that won't break apart under the generous amount of ingredients. Depending on how much runny yolk you like in your fried egg, you may need to have plenty of napkins on hand as well.

Thomas Keller is known for his fine dining and two of his restaurants have a coveted three Michelin stars, the highest rating possible. When it comes to a simple sandwich, he is big on flavor and relies on classic combinations to create inventive dishes like the "World's Greatest Sandwich."