When chefs travel, it’s a good bet they’re going to bring back ideas. That’s what happened when Ryan Poli left the celebrated Nashville restaurant Catbird Seat at the end of 2018 and headed across the globe. “I shot over to Asia to get my head straight,” he says.
After stops in Japan, Thailand, Bali, and South Korea, the chef returned with an idea inspired by a Korean street snack that moves garlic bread into another dimension. “I haven’t seen it in America,” he says. “It’s a little sweet and a little savory, which is the American palate. We love sweet and savory and sugary and salty. This one hits all those notes.”
Poli tucked the dish away for a few years while he waited out the pandemic and pondered his next move. When he began designing the menu for Iggy’s, the modern Italian restaurant he opened in Nashville last spring with his brother Matthew, the bread seemed a perfect fit. The recipe requires a leap of faith on the part of cooks who can’t imagine mixing something sweet with a heavy dose of garlic. But the result is a master class in how to turn a simple starter like garlic bread into a surprisingly delicious showstopper.
Poli begins with brioche rolls baked at the restaurant, but any good store-bought Italian or other soft roll will also do. He slices each roll into sixths, making sure not to slice all the way through. Next, he pipes a cream cheese mixture that essentially tastes like carrot cake frosting in between the slices. The whole roll then gets dipped into a garlicky batter made with butter, eggs, milk, and Parmesan; sprinkled with the crunch of Maldon salt; and popped into the oven for about fifteen minutes. The roll that emerges tastes both slightly crispy and slightly moist, with the deep bass note of the garlic tempering the creamy sweetness.
“I think we are doing a disservice calling it garlic bread,” Poli says. Customers, especially older ones expecting a traditional version, are sometimes taken aback. Indeed, the rolls would work equally well at brunch or an evening meal. He encourages the skeptical to take a chance. “The more you eat it,” he says, “the better it gets.”
