The big cheese： Grilled sandwich goes from humble to high end (3/3ページ)

When it comes to the cheese, 90 percent of his customers stick with the traditional American, he says, though Sub and Pub offers provolone, Swiss and cheddar, too.

For expert advice on cheese choices for a toasted sandwich, we called on cheesemonger Caroline Hostettler of 55 Degrees Cool Wine and Cheese in San Carlos Park, Fla. She perked up at the question.

"I have suggested to several chefs or caterers, 'Why don't you do real high-end grilled cheese sandwiches?' Hostettler says. "Where I come from in Europe, cheese is melted all the time."

Here are a couple of her suggestions:

- Raclette: a cow's milk cheese from Switzerland that's semi-firm and nutty. "When you melt it, the flavors really come to full bloom. It melts almost with no heat and without the fats separating from the solids."

- Oak-smoked cheddar: "On the palate, it develops butteriness. When it's warm it reminds me of bacon."

Even professional foodies can get wrapped up in the rapture of grilled cheese. Kim O'Donnel, a trained cook, food journalist and cooking instructor, writes a food blog for the Washington Post called A Mighty Appetite. She waxed philosophic about grilled cheese:

"The most simple and humble of hot sandwiches is what makes me feel most at home, when time stands still, when I think of nothing but the alchemy that results from two slices of ordinary bread, a few hunks of cheese and the heat of a skillet.

"It is the grilled cheese that always soothes an aching heart, PMS, a skinned knee."

(c) 2008, USA TODAY International. Distributed by Tribune Media Services International.