I grew up watching people eat eggs with bread. In Mumbai it was anda pao — the egg bhurji stuffed into a pav, eaten standing at a stall. In Chennai it was bread omelette, the version from the small shops near the mall that my friends would drag me to. I don't eat eggs. I would go anyway, stand there, watch them eat, and observe the combination: egg, bread, heat, something crispy happening on the outside.
I filed it away without knowing I was filing it away.
In the IHM bakery kitchen — second or third year — we learned French toast. Egg custard: eggs beaten well, milk, vanilla, sugar. Bread dipped, soaked, grilled on a buttered pan. The technique was simple. The result was something I had never expected from bread and eggs — rich, soft inside, crisp outside, almost a dessert from ingredients that lived in every kitchen. That technique stayed with me for years.
When I opened Seoul Sandwich in Padi, Chennai — a Korean sandwich cloud kitchen on Swiggy and Zomato — I put French toast on the menu as a dessert. Not as an afterthought. As a properly developed dish. Brioche bread, hand cut thick, rested in the fridge until firm. Fresh custard made every morning. The bread soaked for two to three minutes on each side. Then grilled on all four sides in butter until the crust made a sound when you ran a knife across it.
Seoul Sandwich · Padi, Chennai
I closed Seoul Sandwich in January 2025 after fifteen months. The French toast recipe came home with me. I make it for my family occasionally — not often, because it is too rich for regular eating, and because things that appear too often stop being special. When I do make it, nobody complains.
The recipe
- 2 whole eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar (or powdered white sugar)
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- Pinch of sea salt · ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp butter, melted
- 4 thick slices of bread — at least 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Brioche if available.
- Butter for grilling
- Fresh fruit: mango, strawberry, or banana
- Honey · Powdered sugar for dusting
- Crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt
- Rest the bread overnight. The night before: cut bread thick. Place on a plate uncovered in the fridge overnight. This dries the bread slightly so it absorbs the custard without going soggy.
- Make the custard. Beat the eggs alone first until light and slightly fluffy. Add milk, cream, icing sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and melted butter. Whisk until combined. Pour into a shallow dish.
- Soak the bread. Place bread slices in the custard. Leave 2–3 minutes per side. The bread should absorb the custard fully but still hold its shape.
- Grill on all four sides. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add a generous knob of butter. Cook soaked bread 3–4 minutes per side until deep golden. Then stand each slice on its edge and cook all four sides including the crust until golden and crisp all over.
- Finish and serve immediately. Dust generously with powdered sugar. Top with sliced fruit, a drizzle of honey, and crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt on the side.
On things that outlast the place they came from
Seoul Sandwich existed for fifteen months. It was my first solo cloud kitchen — a Korean sandwich concept in Padi, built on Swiggy and Zomato, run from a rented commercial kitchen. We had regulars. We had dishes that sold every day. We closed in January 2025, and that is a story for another page.
What stays from Seoul Sandwich is not the business. It is the recipes. The French toast is one. The custard ratio, the grilling on four sides, the overnight resting — these came from real work, real iteration, real service. They belong on a plate, not in a filing cabinet.
Things that outlast the place they came from are usually the things worth keeping.