Christian Gill runs Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey in Union, Kentucky, which is a restaurant that has both a point of view and a very specific understanding of bread. A bánh mì competition is, among other things, a bread competition — the Vietnamese baguette is the frame, and if the frame is wrong the whole thing collapses. Gill, who goes by foodbrushninja on Instagram, knew where to start.
He sourced a Vietnamese-style baguette — thin, crisp exterior, cottony interior — and toasted it specifically to retain that interior while adding crust resistance, about ninety seconds in a 400°F oven. The pork used a five-spice and fish-sauce marinade built on a two-hour window rather than overnight, so the fish sauce hadn't denatured the surface proteins. His fast-fermented daikon and carrot ran thirty minutes in a 2:1 vinegar-to-sugar solution at 1.5% salt.
Bobby Flay is a sandwich cook of genuine skill. He is not, historically, a bánh mì cook. Christian Gill is, which matters when the bread is right.
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