Sizzler secrets revealed: What you never knew about cheese toast
IT’S the one thing everyone thinks of when it comes to Sizzler: Cheese toast. We’ve uncovered secrets about that signature dish.
I’LL be honest, I had completely forgotten about Sizzler.
I thought the restaurants were a thing of the past, like Tazos and happy pants. But during a recent trip to the Gold Coast I saw a Sizzler and the sight, smell and taste of cheese toast immediately came flooding back to me.
As a kid I used to demand that Mum and Dad take me to Sizzler at least once a month purely so I could feast on those lightly-toasted pieces of cheesy heaven.
Mum was adamant though that she could make cheese toast that tasted exactly the same as Sizzler at home.
It turns out Mum was a liar and I suspect she was just being cheap.
Anyway, when I got back from my recent (classy) holiday on the Gold Coast I googled “Sizzler in NSW” and to my surprise and delight, there was one single Sizzler left in the state.
Because I’m a very serious journalist, I pitched a story to my editor about uncovering the secrets of Sizzler’s cheese toast.
She told me it was the best pitch I’d made in weeks, which felt like a compliment at the time but now I’m not so sure.
With a camera man in tow, I made the journey out to Campbelltown where I met Donald Crilly, the Head of Operations for Sizzler Australia, and conducted a hard-hitting interview.
Ladies and gentleman, here’s what I discovered.
I was under the assumption you only got a couple of pieces of cheese toast when you first sat down. Boy was I wrong.
“When it comes to cheese toast, it’s unlimited,” Mr Crilly told me. “It’s complimentary and you can ask for more. You could have just cheese toast if you wanted to.
“I think we had someone write to us once who said that they ate 35 pieces in one sitting.”
The cheese toast is cooked on site, but it’s actually made at a “secret location” and shipped out to the 12 restaurants around Australia.
Desperate to learn more about how to make cheese toast, I snuck into the kitchen with my camera man and we spied on a young cook (it wasn’t as creepy as it sounds) who was preparing a batch of the tasty morsels.
There we discovered the secret behind the toast’s glorious golden colour. We watched in wonder as the cook put a metal lid over the bread when it was on the grill so that it steams.
Mr Crilly caught us in the kitchen and we were promptly escorted out. But once again, because I’m a serious journalist, I kept asking the big questions.
“I don’t suppose you’d tell me what the ingredients are?” I asked.
“It’s really just two main ingredients,” he replied. “It’s margarine and it’s pecorino cheese.”
(Note to my mum: Feel a bit silly for trying to recreate cheese toast at home using Kraft Singles? I hope so.)
Not surprisingly, Mr Crilly said that cheese toast is easily the most popular dish at Sizzler. But the other items near the top of the list were pumpkin soup, seafood salad and T-bone steaks.
I studied the full menu at Sizzler and noticed you can purchase one trip to the salad bar or for a few bucks more, you can pay for endless trips to the salad bar.
I wondered if there are many cheeky buggers who pay for a single trip but end up returning to the salad bar on several occasions.
“There’s always those few people who get the one trip and then stay for a bit longer,” Mr Crilly said. “But here at Sizzler we just let people do what they want,” he laughed.
(Note: If you go to a Sizzler after reading this and pay for endless salad bar trips, you’re a muppet.)
Speaking of the salad bar, there are more than 10 different salads available at the buffet or there are ingredients for you to make your own if you’re feeling creative.
Not all of the salads available over the years have been a hit with customers, Mr Crilly revealed.
“We played around with a quinoa salad. Let’s just say it didn’t last very long. People don’t come to Sizzler for quinoa.” Never a truer word spoken.
There used to be heaps of Sizzlers all over Australia but now there are just 12 left: one in NSW, three in Western Australia and eight in Queensland.
So if this article made you crave cheese toast, go and support your local Sizzler before they decide to shut any more stores. I’ll be taking my mum there for her birthday, whether she likes it or not.
