Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

A well-made bánh mì is a thing of beauty: a light roll with a crisp crust and tender, slightly chewy crumb that pulls apart like cotton candy. Smear it with mayo and pâté, stuff it with savory meats, tart and funky pickles, fresh herbs and chiles, and anointed with a couple dashes of Maggi Seasoning, and you’ve got yourself one of the best sandwiches in the world.The amount of technique required to make a decent bánh mì, let alone a good one, is enormous. If you live near a place that makes good bánh mì, then you’re incredibly lucky. For those of you who don’t, we’ve got a solution: Make our bánh mì. It may not be the one bánh mì to rule them all, but it’s an excellent bánh mì, with every element made from scratch. Do you have to make everything from scratch? No! But if you want to make a bánh mì and don’t know of a place where you can get the specific kind of bread (which is called bánh mì!), you’re going to have to at the very least make that. Otherwise, you’ll just be making a bánh mì–inspired sandwich. If you have the bread, you can stuff it with any of the traditional bánh mì fillings: the pickles, of course, and some mayo and/or butter, a little pâté if you like, cold cuts (head cheese, sausage, ham), canned sardines in tomato sauce, grilled chicken or pork, roasted pork, braised pork belly, grilled tofu ... whatever.No matter what you choose to fill it with, though, you have to take care and pay attention. Part of the skill involved in making bánh mì, in addition to the skills necessary to make good bread, delicious charcuterie and pickles, and steam or sear or grill whatever else you’re putting in the sandwich, comes down to good sandwich-making technique. You need the bread to be toasted and refreshed; you need your herbs to be washed, spun, dried, and stored properly, so they don’t wilt; you want your pickles to be as cool as your meat filling is piping hot; you want an even layer of mayo complemented by an even layer of pâté. You want, above all, a balance of flavor—sweet and savory, bitter and tart—and a balance of temperature and texture—crisp and soft, crunchy and gooey, hot and cold.We wanted to map out the method for making the best possible bánh mì with all of our from-scratch recipes for bread, pickles, pâté, and meatballs. But even if you just buy good bánh mì bread at a local bakery and make the rest, or you go entirely store-bought, this “recipe” offers insight and tips for achieving the perfect balance between savory and sweet, meaty and vegetal, funky and fresh, and acidity and bitterness that all of the best bánh mì have.

How to Make the Ultimate Bánh Mì