Feast 2016 kicked off last night with its traditional Sandwich Invitational, a competition to see what chefs can do with two bits of bread and a filling. This year it was at the Rosequarter Commons, which isn’t as intimate as the regular downtown location, but the toilets were nice and it avoided a repeat of last year's demo against people eating sandwiches. I don’t know if there were the same number of competitors, but it felt smaller and there were grumblings it was a bit ‘B list’ without luminaries such as Vitaly Paley and last year’s winner Gregory Gourdet (who was a judge).

There was a lack of ingenuity in some quarters, with way too much toast and pulled pork around the place. Ruby Jewel demonstrated how to do an ice cream biscuit sandwich, and Ryan Fox (Nomad PDX) irreverently offered a filet-o-fish which improved on the McDonald’s original with the use of cod mousseline and kewpie tartar sauce. The stand out (and people’s choice winner) was Troy MacLarty of Bollywood Theater, whose Mumbai Monte Cristo featured a bread pakora stuffed with ham, turkey and mint peas. The judges went for Han Ly Hwang’s Bulgogi Club, which had a great filling but still relied on the club sandwich formula of toasted bread.

Han Ly Hwang’s winning Bulgogi Club Sandwich
Han Ly Hwang’s winning Bulgogi Club Sandwich