It takes a bit of culinary magic to turn salami, provolone and baby spinach into an oversized Italian raviolo with a savory foam and black truffle garnish. Or to transform the onions and shredded lettuce usually layered on a Subway sandwich into a sweet onion stir-fried lettuce side for a fancy chicken dish.
But on Tuesday, Paul Fabre, senior VP of culinary and innovation for Miami-based Subway, worked his magic to elevate the ingredients featured on the chain’s everyday sandwich menu into a five-course, five-star dinner. To put it lightly, the media guests and franchisees in attendance were blown away.
That was the point. Subway has been overhauling its menu since the pandemic, introducing top quality ingredients, chef-curated sandwiches, artisan breads and flavorful new sauces and condiments. This was the chance to show them off in a fine-dining-caliber meal.
Before we even stepped into the event space in New York City, we were invited to walk the “bread carpet,”—a hint that this event would be a notch above grabbing a footlong to-go from my neighborhood Subway.
The "bread carpet"
Once inside, we were invited to sample cheeses, meats, sauces and condiments from an expansive charcuterie display highlighting Subway’s sandwich ingredients. At the bar, mixologists were shaking up cocktails based on a “personality quiz” we took as we waited. My cocktail was a “Spice Storm” a “complex and layered” drink made with vodka, dry vermouth, Italian herbs, tomato water and sea salt.
Dinner was served at long, narrow tables and at each place setting, there was an array of small, numbered bottles with droppers. We were instructed to take a sniff from the corresponding vial before each course to immerse our senses.
Scents accompanied each course to awaken the senses.
“Over the last four years, we’ve been transforming the Subway menu, introducing new and high-quality ingredients to make all our subs better eating. Tonight, it’s a chance to highlight those ingredients in a completely different way than we work with them every day,” Fabre said, before introducing the first course.
The dinner led off with Skipjack Tataki, an appetizer that features the same wild-caught fish as Subway’s tuna sub. “Our tuna is sourced from trusted global suppliers in regions like Thailand and the Philippines,” Fabre explained. Here, “it’s beautifully seared on the outside with a rare center, preserving its rich buttery texture. The cucumber salad adds a refreshing crunch and the dish is elevated with banana pepper emulsion and shaved bonito.”
We then moved on to Tomatoes & Olives, a small plate of olives sourced from Spain and Morocco with marinated Roma tomatoes—the same tomatoes that go on all Subway’s sandwiches. Fabre and his team created a tapenade from the olives, along with a roasted tomato dressing. The croutons were crafted from Subway’s artisan multi-grain bread (Fabre’s favorite), which is a hearty mix of rye, wheat, oats, millet, flax and sunflower seeds.
Marinated Roma tomatoes and olive tapenade with roasted tomato dressing and multi-grain croutons.
The third course, a Spinach Raviolo, was similar to one I had eaten in a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant. The giant raviolo was filled with an egg yolk that exploded when you cut into the pasta. It was accompanied with a provolone-salami espuma or foam, celery root puree and black truffle. “Our salami is a blend of pork and beef, fermented for 12 hours then dry-aged for 10 days,” Fabre explained.
For our main entrée, we were served Rotisserie Chicken with orange pepper and pepperoni romesco, sweet onion stir-fried lettuce, and smoked carrots. The chicken, which is cooked sous-vide and then roasted with bold seasonings and mild heat, is the same chicken that goes on the Great Garlic, a rotisserie chicken sub layered with bacon, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes and red onions, then drizzled with creamy Roasted Garlic Aioli. It’s one of the 12 builds in the Subway Series of sandwiches, introduced in July 2022.
Black & White Pot de Crème
And for dessert, there was a Black & White Pot de Crème inspired by Subway’s White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie. The dessert featured dark chocolate custard, white chocolate macadamia crème, browned butter toasted grains (from the aforementioned multi-grain bread), crème fraiche and sea salt.
“We’re always focusing on upgrading our ingredients and sandwiches,” said Fabre, a classically trained French chef who has been with Subway for four years and has steered the menu transformation. Whether or not we’ll see shaved black truffle or a banana pepper emulsion on a sub in the near future remains to be seen.
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