Chef Juliette
Smelt (Éperlans)
Tiny éperlans, lightly floured and fried until their tails stand crisp, arrive in a generous heap on a napkin with fried parsley and grooved lemon, a weeknight lesson in heat and restraint.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
City Toast
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 320, City Toast, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Toast de Ville makes geometry delicious: crisp bread, thick Gruyère-Parmesan butter, and equal halves of Lyon sausage and cheese, flashed under the broiler until the edges gleam.
Appetizers & Snacks
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
25 min
Active Time
10 min cook•45 min total
Yield6 appetizer toasts (4 to 6 servings)
Toast de Ville (City Toast) teaches that precision can be generous. The one true thing to know before you touch the pan is this: the sausage half-disc and the Gruyère half-disc must have the same diameter and thickness, so they close into one neat round over the toast. This isn't plating theater. It lets both toppings warm at the same pace while the cheese butter beneath bubbles into the bread.
The source assumed a brigade cutting identical pieces for service and a salamander fierce enough to finish them without slowly warming the bread. A round cutter and a thoroughly heated home broiler do the same work. The beurre composé (compound butter) formula is halved exactly for six toasts, keeping its 2:1:1 ratio of butter, Gruyère, and Parmesan by weight. The topping amounts follow the source's geometry because it specifies size rather than weight. Bulk cutting is scaffolding and can go; the thick coating and paired half-discs are the dish, and they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The finished Toast de Ville should be crisp underneath, lush through the middle, and glossy on top, with the sausage occupying one half and softened Gruyère the other. Cut the paired half-discs before mixing the butter, and make them truly equal. That is the step that decides the dish.
Toast de Ville belongs to the cosmopolitan hot-canapé repertory of French dining rooms rather than to one rural province. Its precise regional note is saucisson de Lyon, a broad, firm sausage from Lyon's charcuterie table; Gruyère brings the Alpine cheese trade, while Parmesan shows how comfortably the classical pantry used imported hard cheese. Though often grouped beside crostini and bruschetta, its thick beurre composé, symmetrical topping, and salamander finish make it a French composed toast, not an Italian one.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
firm pain de mie
Quantity
6 slices (about 5 oz / 140 g total)
cut about ⅜ inch (1 cm) thick
fresh unsalted butter
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 57 g)
softened but still cool
Gruyère for the beurre composé
Quantity
¼ cup loosely packed (60 ml / 28 g)
finely grated
Parmesan
Quantity
⅓ cup loosely packed (80 ml / 28 g)
finely grated
heavy cream
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g)
fine salt
Quantity
⅟₁₆ teaspoon (0.3 ml / 0.4 g), or only as needed
cayenne
Quantity
1 pinch, about ⅟₃₂ teaspoon (0.15 ml / 0.05 g)
saucisson de Lyon (Lyons sausage)
Quantity
3 thin rounds (about 1 oz / 28 g total)
ready to eat; cut ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick, then halved
Gruyère for the topping
Quantity
3 thin rounds (about 1 oz / 28 g total)
cut to match the sausage rounds in diameter and thickness, then halved
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| firm pain de miecut about ⅜ inch (1 cm) thick | 6 slices (about 5 oz / 140 g total) |
| fresh unsalted buttersoftened but still cool | ¼ cup (60 ml / 57 g) |
| Gruyère for the beurre composéfinely grated | ¼ cup loosely packed (60 ml / 28 g) |
| Parmesanfinely grated | ⅓ cup loosely packed (80 ml / 28 g) |
| heavy cream | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 5 g) |
| fine salt | ⅟₁₆ teaspoon (0.3 ml / 0.4 g), or only as needed |
| cayenne | 1 pinch, about ⅟₃₂ teaspoon (0.15 ml / 0.05 g) |
| saucisson de Lyon (Lyons sausage)ready to eat; cut ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick, then halved | 3 thin rounds (about 1 oz / 28 g total) |
| Gruyère for the toppingcut to match the sausage rounds in diameter and thickness, then halved | 3 thin rounds (about 1 oz / 28 g total) |
Equipment Needed
- •2 to 2½-inch (5 to 6 cm) round cutter
- •Broiler-safe metal sheet pan
- •Wire cooling rack
- •Small flexible or offset spatula
Instructions
- 1
Cut matching rounds
Set an oven rack about 5 inches (13 cm) below the broiler and preheat it for a full 10 minutes. Choose a round cutter that matches the diameter of the saucisson de Lyon, usually 2 to 2½ inches (5 to 6 cm), and cut six bread rounds. Stamp three rounds from the thin Gruyère sheets, then halve both the cheese and sausage rounds cleanly. Lay one sausage half beside one cheese half to check the fit: their straight edges should meet and their curved edges should form a complete circle. Equal thickness is part of the cooking, not decoration.
Ask the cheese counter to slice the topping Gruyère about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Use a sausage round as the cutting template if your cutter is slightly too large. - 2
Toast the bread
Arrange the bread rounds on an unlined, broiler-safe metal sheet. Broil for 45 to 75 seconds per side, watching continuously, until both faces are dry and pale gold but not deeply browned. They will meet the heat again. Transfer the rounds to a rack and cool them completely; warm toast melts the butter before the top has time to color.
- 3
Make the beurre composé
Work the softened butter, grated Gruyère, and Parmesan together with a flexible spatula until evenly combined. Beat in the cream, cayenne, and salt, tasting before all the salt goes in because both cheeses carry their own. Spread one-sixth over each cooled toast in a thick, even layer reaching the edge, about 3⁄16 inch (5 mm) deep. If the mixture turns shiny or begins to slump, the butter is too warm. Don't add more cheese. Chill it for five minutes and work it again. Ça se rattrape.
- 4
Build the split tops
Set one half-disc of saucisson and one half-disc of Gruyère over each coated toast. Bring their straight edges together at the center and align the curved edges with the bread beneath. Press only enough to seat them in the beurre composé; crushing the coating makes it leak. Refrigerate the assembled toasts uncovered for 10 minutes. This brief chill replaces the immediate, fierce finish a salamander once supplied.
- 5
Broil with attention
Return the chilled toasts to the unlined metal sheet and place them under the fully heated broiler. Cook for 1½ to 3 minutes, rotating the sheet once, until the Gruyère half softens and takes a few bronze freckles, the saucisson gleams, and a narrow ring of beurre composé bubbles at the edge. Stay beside the oven. If the butter runs before the top colors, pull the sheet out immediately, nudge any clean pooled mixture back onto the toast, and chill the rounds for five minutes. Move the rack one notch closer, then finish them in short bursts. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Serve at once
Let the Toasts de Ville settle for one minute, just long enough for the topping to hold without losing its gloss. Arrange them on a room-temperature platter and serve while the bread remains crisp and the cheese butter is still soft beneath its split crown. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Use firm, ready-to-eat saucisson de Lyon, not raw fresh sausage. Its broad diameter, close texture, and restrained garlic are what let the half-disc sit neatly on the toast. A French garlic sausage can stand in if necessary, but the Lyonnais character will change.
- •Grate the Parmesan and the Gruyère finely so they disappear into the butter instead of leaving hard strands. Butter, not margarine. The beurre composé must soften, bubble, and soak slightly into the toast, and a substitute won't behave the same way.
- •The bread should be fine-crumbed and firm. Pain de mie cuts cleanly and supports the thick topping; an open-holed baguette lets the butter escape through the bottom.
- •Serve with a young Beaujolais or a dry Alpine white. These are generous little toasts, so plan one per person before dinner and keep the rest within reach.
Advance Preparation
- •The beurre composé can be mixed one day ahead and refrigerated in a covered container. Let it soften until spreadable but still cool before assembling.
- •Cut the saucisson and topping Gruyère into matching half-discs up to one day ahead. Keep them covered and chilled in separate layers so the cheese stays dry.
- •The bread can be cut and toasted up to four hours ahead. Cool it completely before storing it airtight, then assemble the toasts no more than 30 minutes before broiling.
- •Broil only when guests are ready. Once finished, Toast de Ville waits poorly because the crisp bread and soft butter are meant to meet at the same moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 50g)
Calories
210 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
40 mg
Sodium
350 mg
Total Carbohydrates
12 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
8 g
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