I made a grilled cheese with Guy Fieri and it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had

Anneta Konstantinides and Guy Fieri
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  • Guy Fieri taught me how to make his "ultimate" grilled cheese sandwich over Zoom.

  • Fieri's delicious sandwich includes homemade mac and cheese and Italian sausage.

  • Fieri gave me all his sandwich tips, and called it the "most entertaining interview" he's ever done.

  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"This is the greatest interview ever."

Those were the words that Guy Fieri - Food Network star, restaurateur extraordinaire, and fellow Golden State Warriors fan - said to me as I frantically waved a dishrag at the ceiling as my smoke alarm pierced through our Zoom interview.

But let me back up a bit.

Fieri, in partnership with King's Hawaiian, was teaching me how to make his ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. And "ultimate" isn't an exaggeration. Fieri's recipe includes homemade mac and cheese (with four different cheeses) and Italian sausage, all beautifully melded together in a camping sandwich press.

It's one of the most delicious sandwiches I've ever made, and it all went down during one very entertaining interview with the Mayor of Flavortown.

Before my Zoom interview with Guy Fieri began, I got a look at all the ingredients for his ultimate grilled cheese sandwich

Guy Fieri grilled cheese
Some of the ingredients in Guy Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

To make Fieri's grilled cheese for four, you'll need:

  • King's Hawaiian sweet sliced bread

  • Provolone cheese (2 slices per sandwich)

  • 1 lb ground Italian sausage

  • 1 ½ cup mac n cheese

To make the mac and cheese, you'll need:

  • 1 lb elbow macaroni

  • 1 cup American cheese (cubed)

  • ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)

  • ½ cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

  • ½ cup smoked Gouda (shredded)

  • 2 ½ cups half-and-half

Fieri's team instructed me to do some prep before our interview, so I cooked the elbow macaroni until the noodles were al dente and got the half-and-half simmering on the stove.

Then it was time to take a ticket to Flavortown and start cooking with Fieri

Fieri first instructed me to throw the American, Jack, cheddar, and Gouda cheeses into the simmering half-and-half in small handfuls.

"Start sprinkling them into the simmering milk, and stirring them with a whisk as soon as they go in," he said. "And while you do this, I'd like you to sing me a song."

The cheeses in Guy Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich
Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich includes five different types of cheese. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

But before Fieri could hear my incredible rendition of "Stop" by the Spice Girls, he was frantically telling me to grab my whisk.

"Gotta get the whisk in there, otherwise the cheese is going to start to clump up! Come on chef, we're in a hot kitchen right now!" he said. "There you go, whisk, whisk, whisk!"

As I continued to vigorously whisk my cheese, Fieri explained why it was so important to keep the sauce moving.

"If we don't whisk, when we're dropping it in the cheese will fall to the bottom, get super hot, tighten up, and it'll never melt," he said. "You're going to get yourself to where the proteins will tighten up and it won't break down."

While I whisked away, Fieri and I got to know some more important facts about each other.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked me.

"Yellow," I replied, pointing to my shirt.

"Yellow! I have a few yellow cars, I like yellow," Fieri said. "But mine's black."

Once the cheeses had melted, it was time to finish making the mac and cheese

Fieri instructed me to pour the cheese sauce right on top of the pasta.

The mac and cheese for Guy Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich.
The mac and cheese for Guy Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

"We are going to be going over the top here Netter," he said, bequeathing me with a new nickname. "Now stir the cheese and the pasta together. Let that pasta absorb some of that cheese, get that thoroughly mixed."

As I stirred, Fieri dropped a fun fact about his dad.

"My dad said that everyone was born left-handed until they made their first mistake," he said.

"Those are wise words," I replied.

"No, it's because he's left-handed," Fieri added, cracking up.

Then it was time to build the sandwich in the camping sandwich press

Building Guy Fieri's grilled cheese sandwich
I added the Italian sausage right on top of the mac and cheese. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

I should note here that I was already provided with pre-cooked Italian sausage for this step of Fieri's sandwich. If you're re-creating this recipe at home, all you need to do is cook the sausage in a large pan over medium-high heat for about five minutes until it's well-browned (and drain any excess fat before using).

First, I grabbed two slices of King's Hawaiian bread and put a slice of Provolone cheese on top of each piece.

"The sliced Provolone is dynamite because it's a little bit salty, and it's nice and creamy," Fieri told me. "It's a really good cheese to put on this because it'll give you some of that stringiness that people like about grilled cheese."

Then Fieri instructed me to cover my camping press with some cooking spray, butter, or olive oil.

"Is that bourbon?" he asked as I lifted my huge bottle of olive oil.

"I wish it was Bourbon," I replied.

"Wouldn't that be nice? Sure would change our interview," Fieri said with a laugh.

After making sure I got olive oil all around the camping press' edges, I took one of my slices of bread and laid it right on top.

Then, per Fieri's instructions, I plopped a big spoonful of the mac and cheese on top of the Provolone, then added some Italian sausage.

Fieri told me that one of the great things about the camping press is the Italian sausage can be at room temperature or even cold. In the past, he's even used the press to make sandwiches from leftover spaghetti and meatballs for his kids.

"Put King's Hawaiian bread, some mozzarella cheese, a little tomato sauce, some leftover pasta, and clamp it shut," he said. "I'm not kidding you, lights out. Spaghetti and meatball sandwich."

Once I closed my camping press, Fieri told me to take a knife and trim off some of the excess bread around the edges so that it wouldn't burn.

Camping press on the stove for Guy Fieri's grilled cheesse
Then I put my camping press directly over the stove burner. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

Then I turned my stove to medium heat and plopped the camping press right on top of the burner, with Fieri promising he'd tell me when to flip it every 45 seconds.

But just as we got to chatting about his favorite pasta recipe, my smoke alarm pierced through our call.

"This is the greatest interview ever, Netter has got the fire alarm going off," Fieri said. "And you jumping over there with a towel and putting it out was priceless."

I thought that would be it. But, just mere seconds later, the fire alarm got going again. And again, and again, and again.

The fire alarm went off about four more times as Fieri tried to explain his favorite carbonara recipe to me.

"It's been a journey, hasn't it," I told Fieri after the fourth interruption, still holding my trusty dish rag in case it went off again.

"I think this has been one of the most entertaining interviews I've ever had," Fieri told me. "Trust me, I will never forget this."

As the grilled cheese finished cooking, Fieri also told me his thoughts on the future of the restaurant industry in a post-pandemic world.

"It's going to change forever," he said. "But I will say this, people are starting to get out more, do more things, and I'll tell you what's going to happen. The restaurant industry will recover. It won't be the same as it was, but there's a good side of it. People have learned how to do delivery, people have learned how to do to-go. And I think people are going to come back appreciating the restaurants even more."

Once the grilled cheese looked nice and brown, I turned off the stove and got ready to plate, using a knife to help get the sandwich out of the press.

It was finally time to try Fieri's ultimate grilled cheese sandwich

"Now, I want you to take that championship bite, I want you to show me how that bite is really done," Fieri said as I took the grilled cheese in my hands.

"Alright, cheers," I told him before digging in.

"That's a good bite!" he said. "There's that cheese working."

Anneta with Guy Fieri's grilled cheese
Fieri's grilled cheese is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. Anneta Konstantinides/Insider

And the cheese was definitely working. Fieri's sandwich is without a doubt one of the creamiest grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever had. The mac and cheese explodes in your mouth, and there's so much depth of flavor thanks to the five different types of cheese all working together with the sausage. There's also a nice hint of sweetness from the bread. Add some hot sauce and the entire thing is perfection.

"That's so good," I told Fieri, going for another bite.

"Do we know how to party or what?" Fieri said. "And to the background of the melodic energy and music of the fire alarm!"

"It's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience," I told him.

And it definitely was. But thankfully, I'll still be able to make Fieri's ultimate grilled cheese sandwich as many times as I want.

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