Name: Edwin Bayone's Winning Korean Fried Chicken Sandwich
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ¾-inch thickness; 1 cup buttermilk; 2 tbsp gochujang (Korean red chili paste); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 3 tbsp cornstarch; 1½ tsp kosher salt; ½ tsp white pepper; ½ tsp cayenne pepper; 2 tbsp honey; 1 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tbsp gochujang (for glaze); 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 4 brioche buns, lightly toasted; 1 cup shredded green cabbage, dressed with rice vinegar and salt; vegetable oil for frying (about 3 cups); 2 tbsp sesame seeds; 2 scallions, thinly sliced

The Korean fried chicken sandwich was the food trend of 2018 through about 2022. Every American city got one. Most cities got several. The good versions are an interrogation of the form — what fat does the slaw use, what's the bun's structural integrity, how spicy is the gochujang aioli before it starts to drown the meat.

Edwin Bayone is the executive chef at Cavana in San Francisco and was formerly at Um.Ma SF, both of which sit in the Korean-American culinary lineage that San Francisco built across the 2010s. He is the kind of chef who has tasted forty versions of this sandwich before designing his.

Bobby brought a competing sandwich. Per the room, it was a sandwich. Bayone's was a sandwich with a point of view.