Latest Foodie Fad Is Toast, Topped With Anything But A Simple Swipe Of Butter

Sliced bread can be toasted in an electric toaster, a toaster oven, on a grill, in an oven broiler, and in a frying pan. But it doesn’t seem to matter how the bread gets singed these days, it’s how it’s topped and served that’s important in this developing trend. Foodies have moved far beyond simple buttered white or wheat toast – traditionally served at breakfast with eggs and bacon – to such delicacies as toasted sunflower rye bread buried in ricotta cheese, figs, roasted hazelnuts and syrup. In a growing number of restaurants toast is not a side dish, it’s a meal. For the home cook, two new books with dozens of recipes should keep foodies riding the gourmet toast wave until the next faad bumps it to the shore.