LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE - A sandwich with only three ingredients: cheese, bread, and butter, where all of the ingredients are traditional: white bread, orange cheese, plain ol' butter. It is the standard grilled cheese we have all come to know and love through these many moons. In the past, there has been a slight controversy as well as plenty of confusion over this category.

Standard bread means bread with no extra ingredients or flavorings. In other words, if you’ve got some Rosemary Sourdough you want to make a sammich out of, then enter it in the Missionary Position category. Got a pickle? Enter the Kama Sutra, Dragon! Cinnamon Raisin? Too bad, Charlie, enter it in Honey Pot.

Standard butter means just butter or margarine. The only interpretation we’ll allow here is Mayonnaise. Some people grill with mayonnaise. We’ll allow standard mayonnaise in the Missionary position sammich. No flavored oils or butters in this category. Truffle oil is flavored oil. Garlic Infused oil or butter is Missionary. Garlic Butter is Missionary… you get the picture. Standard cheese means American, Cheddar (mild through sharp, NO FLAVORING — yes, “smoked” is a flavor), or Colby. Wanna grill with Swiss? Enter the Missionary Position. No pepper-jack in this category, jackass. No mean-o Jalapeño either. If you think you’ll be fancy and use more than one cheese, move that party on over to the Kama Sutra.

The Love, American Style grilled cheese sammich is all about the art of grilling simple bread, butter, and cheese together, NOT about what meats or spices you can put in a sammich. There is an art to the simplicity of the grilled cheese sammich and we celebrate that perfect icon of Grilled Cheesiness here in the Love, American Style category. This is, by far, the most difficult category to win. You must have complete mastery over your grille, your cheese and your sammich in order to become a Love, American Style champion.

Still confused? Ask The Authority.