The Age of The Slider - By Staff Member "Silas Merriweather"

There is a magic to small food. Do not ask me how it works because I don't know. But there is something that happens when you take a regular sized piece of food and make it small.

You've experienced this magic. Ever found yourself inexplicably drawn to the word sliders on a menu. The half pound hamburger, ho hum. But oh how those sliders call to you. They beckon with their tiny little buns and, if you're lucky, that single slice of pickle. It's as though you are being offered nothing but the unencumbered center of the burger. Each bite is going to be perfect; no edges to get cold, no middle to navigate and get your cheeks dirty. White Castle built a small empire on the back of this phenomenon.

Growing up in New York I have fond memories of rolling into White Castle at 3 a.m. excited to order a sack of burgers. But the HGC slider exists in a whole other plane. Our sliders backpacked through Europe before enrolling at Johnson and Wales. I think they're the king of our tiny food.

We like to joke that Hugh is rather fond of the word tiny. In the super secret HGC recipe vault you can count 19 recipes that begin with the word tiny: tiny cupcakes, tiny chocolate cakes, tiny tacos, tiny meringues (those are so good), tiny tarts, tiny pot de cremes, tiny creme brulees. But right above all those tiny's in our alphabetical menu comes "The Ultimate Sliders." I think part of the delight is you can eat a "whole one" without feeling like you did. Or maybe it's because they're just so darn cute.

Whatever the reason now is the time of the ascension of the slider. Of all the tiny food we make here nothing causes such gasps of joy. Nothing causes so many guests to stake out the door to the kitchen keeping a sharp eye for their appearance. And no matter how fancy the party nothing so tiny has ever been met with such delight at two in the morning. Hugh always steals the last tray of sliders and passes them out; soaking up all the love. We all hate him a little bit for that.