Ghaya Review: This Queens Bakery Serves Stellar Ham-And-Cheese Sandwiches | Eater NY

"At her self-titled bakery in Long Island City, I found a pastry-driven oasis where Ghaya Oliveira—a James Beard winner who rose to fame in the restaurants of Daniel Boulud—turns high-concept technique into utterly decadent handhelds. The ham-and-cheese sandwich is an edible, elegant monster truck: roughly eleven alternating layers of cured ham (a low-salt jambon de Paris, thickly cut and gently sweet) and emmentaler, stacked on a sliced, toasted croissant that’s brushed with brown butter, topped with an extra slice of crisp, frico-like emmentaler, and finished until everything is gloriously crisp; short strands of ham poke from the edges and are rendered slightly dry like ham jerky. The sandwich arrives with a small side salad, costs $13.25, and I rate it a BUY—rich and unadorned but balanced by the ham’s restraint, the cheese’s neutral ooze, and the croissant’s honeycombed interior, toasted crunch, and brown-butter aroma. Oliveira’s broader menu—bone broth, Tunisian pkaila, multi-colored macarons, a very good chocolate croissant, and a croissant slathered in homemade Nutella that’s very much a knife-and-fork pastry—underscores why her savory creation feels orchestrated with pastry precision and inspired by mille-feuille layering." - Ryan Sutton