Jason Barratt knows his way around a sandwich.

Among all the other notches on his CV – senior chef de partie at Attica, sous chef at Melbourne’s Stokehouse, head chef at Raes on Wategos, executive chef at Paper Daisy, and now executive chef at Supernormal and Bar Miette – it’s easy to forget Barratt helped create Hector’s Deli.

Yeah, that Hector’s Deli. The sandwich shop in Melbourne’s Richmond (and then Fitzroy, South Melbourne and CBD) that murders every lunchtime, with queues snaking out the door. It was a major player in turning a nascent Australian interest in fancy sangers into a full-blown national craze.

It perhaps wasn’t a surprise, then, when sandwiches and variations thereof started showing up on the menu at Bar Miette. There’s a milk bun mortadella stack that comes with salted butter and smoked maple syrup. It’s perennial. And then there’s a bunch of toasties and fresh sandwiches that Barratt updates semi-frequently.

The star of the show, though, is his take on a classic muffuletta sandwich.

But, wait, first let’s talk about the Godmother

The muffuletta sandwich is one of New Orleans’ most iconic eats – a dead-simple combo of house-made olive salad combined with layers of Italian cold cuts that, when made properly, adds up to something much greater than the sum of its parts.

But Barratt’s inspiration for his muffuletta actually comes from Los Angeles. Specifically, the Godmother sandwich from Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery in Santa Monica.

“I’ve always remembered it,” Barratt says. “Back in the Hector’s days we were R&Ding through the roof, and out of all the sandwiches that we tried, that one really stuck with me.”

The Godmother is a bunch of Italian meats (Genoa salami, mortadella, capicola, ham and prosciutto) slapped together with provolone, onion, pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickled peppers, mustard and a house-made Italian dressing, served between two slices of crusty bread that Bay Cities bakes continuously throughout the day.

Bar Miette’s muffuletta sandwich

Bar Miette doesn’t have the capacity to make its bread in-house but Barratt has the next best thing: a ciabatta loaf delivered daily from Agnes Bakery (Agnes also makes those luscious-looking pastries you’ll find at the end of the Bar Miette counter).

It’s arguably what lifts this sanger from tasty curio into something truly memorable. We’ve eaten the muffuletta several times since it first appeared on the Bar Miette menu in November, and it keeps getting better. You suspect it’s because Barratt has finally found a bread with which he’s truly chuffed.

“For me, sandwiches are always about the bread first,” he says. “Going back to Hector’s, you can use any ingredients you like, but if the bread’s shit it’s not going to work. It’s the right bread that really makes the sandwich.”

If nothing else, a robust, crunchy bread can stand up to a key step in preparing a traditional muffuletta: the wrap. Barratt wraps his in brown sandwich paper – “nice and tight”, he says – for 40 minutes before slicing it into portions for service.

So, what else is Barratt stuffing in there before he wraps the thing? Mortadella, and hot and mild salami cotto from LP’s Quality Meats, chopped Byron Bay Co Sicilian olives, red onion, whatever ruddy Australian tomatoes that might be in season, and provolone cheese.

The other clever touch Barratt has borrowed from the Godmother: stacking the ingredients equally top and bottom around the onion and tomato so you can simply peel it open and share it with a dining partner, along with another sandwich, or something else from the Bar Miette menu.

You might be losing a bit of decadence eating it this way but the filling is so generous you’ll hardly care. To eat, it’s a thing of simple beauty: Agnes’ ciabatta is robust and crunchy, and has been given a thick smear of salted butter on both sides to help protect it during the wrapping process.

The combination of the umami-packed salami and mortadella, the briny tang of the olives and the sweetness of the tomato, all brought together by the wrapping process, make it a joy to eat – particularly on a warmer day sitting on Bar Miette’s fabulous terrace with its eye-popping views of the Story Bridge.

“Sandwiches get overlooked. Everyone thinks they’re really simple because you can grab them on every corner,” Barratt says. “But you’re creating something with premium ingredients, so you need to treat those ingredients with respect to create something special. I’m really happy with how it’s come together.”

Where can you get it

Bar Miette’s muffuletta sandwich is $21. You can get one at 443 Queen Street, Brisbane, barmiette.com.