Priced at an eye-watering $214, Quintessential Grilled Cheese has held the the record for the world’s most expensive commercially-available sandwich for over seven years.

You could say that New York-based restaurant Serendipity 3 is specialized in setting food-related Guinness records. It currently holds world records, most expensive desert, most expensive hamburger, most expensive hot dog, largest wedding cake and largest cup of hot chocolate. But the one we’re interested in today is the records for world’s most expensive sandwich, which happens to be a humble grilled cheese treat. Named Quintessential Grilled Cheese, the sandwich is deceptively simple, as it features some of the world’s most exclusive ingredients.

Photo: Serendipity 3/Facebook

The Quintessential Grilled Cheese is made with two pieces of French Pullman champagne bread, which is prepared with Dom Perignon champagne and edible gold flakes, with white truffle butter and the very rare Caciocavallo Podolico cheese sandwiched between them. The record-setting treat is served with a cup of decadent South African Lobster Tomato Bisque dipping sauce, on a Baccarat Crystal plate.

“We came up with the number through pricing out all of the ingredients- of course, they are the most expensive and exclusive ingredients in the world,” Serendipity 3’s creative chef, Joe Calderon, told Guinness Records. “The sandwich needs to be ordered 48 hours in advance because all of these ingredients are flown in especially for your order. When you take a bite of the sandwich, you taste the crispiness of the bread, the Dom Pérignon champagne that’s baked into the bread, the creaminess of the white truffle butter and then the cheese- it’s superb.”

The Caciocavallo Podolico cheese is the main ingredient of the world’s most expensive sandwich. It’s a rare cheese imported from southern Italy, where it’s made from the very specific milk of just 25,000 cows, which only lactate for two months a year.

Before being served on a Baccarat Crystal plate  alongside a special tomato dip with lobster chunks in it, the sandwich is put in a panini press for four minutes, giving the special cheese time to start bubbling.

 

“It’s like a grilled cheese on steroids,” Joe Calderone said. “It has the best ingredients in the world.”

If you’re more of a burger fan, and don’t mind spending more than a mere $214, you could try The Golden Boy, the world’s most expensive burger, for $6,000. Or you could try the most expensive peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which will set you back $350. It’s technically a whole loaf, though.