A torta is not a sandwich. It is a structural problem solved with bread.
Brian Archibald, the Phoenix-based chef who came up through Palo Verde at The Boulders Resort, brought a steak torta in 2016 and walked out with a win that PhoenixBites would profile a week later. The bolillo roll is the engine of the dish — crisp crust, soft crumb, hollowed slightly so the fillings nest rather than slide. The steak gets thin-sliced against the grain, the avocado mashes with lime so it functions as glue, the beans go on hot so they melt into the bread.
Bobby, in this ledger's running theme, treated the bread as packaging. The chefs who beat him treat the bread as a recipe. The judges, in Phoenix or otherwise, can always tell the difference.