A Toast To The Toast Craze

Can you imagine inviting someone over for dinner and feeding him or her toast? Not as a breakfast side, not as a joke, but legitimately serving a piece of toast as the focal point of the meal. In the plainest of terms, it sounds slightly insane. That is, until you realize the potential that toast actually has.

Toast is on the rise as the next "foodie craze," preceded by other seemingly mundane foods like cupcakes and kale. It now exists on the artisanal plane, thanks largely in part to the Trouble Coffee & Coconut Club's owner Giulietta Carrelli's surprisingly touching entrepreneurial triumph in elevating toast to a new level.

Artisanal toast is slathered in butter, often pan-fried, dressed with enticing and unique accoutrements, and sold in cafés and coffee shops for nearly $3.50 a slice. To be a part of this craze, though, you don't need to shell out that kind of money; you can simply make your own. Not sure how to make toast exceptional? That's OK; there are now toast experts — like Jill Donenfeld, author of Better on Toast: Happiness on a Slice of Bread (available on Amazon) — who can teach you how to dress up those bland toast points into something spectacular.

Donenfeld talks about using fresh, zesty ingredients that complement each other to bring out the unique flavors in each component, employing toast as a worthy vessel. One failsafe way to start making your own artisanal toast is to incorporate buttery spreads.

If you need a little inspiration, try making Donenfeld's simple avocado toast, toasted with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and topped with tasty toasted pumpkin seeds for a savory and salty crunch.

You'll never toast the same again.