Growing up in the Northern California town of Burlingame, if Mom and I were shopping downtown when hunger struck, we’d head to our favorite little cafe on the corner of Primrose and Burlingame Avenue and order the Towle’s Grilled Special. This was an unlikely combination of diced tomato, sliced black olives and chopped onion, bound together with a bit of mayonnaise and partnered up with cheddar cheese between two slices of white bread. Not so impressive on paper, you say. Yet, when that humble sandwich was heated on the griddle until the cheese was melted and mingling with its co-ingredients, and the bread had developed a rich and toasty exterior, it suddenly transformed into a startlingly delectable repast.

Such grilled sandwich experiences placed me on an enlightened path early in life, and I’ve been seeking out equivalent culinary experiences ever since.

Of course, having the right equipment helps. While it’s true that a generously stacked grilled sandwich can be produced on a single cooking surface, with the help of a foil-wrapped brick teetering on the upper side of the sandwich, bringing steady weight from above to the project, it’s a tedious and imperfect maneuver. Which is where the electric panini press comes in.

But my complaint with the average panini press or two-sided electric griddle is that the cooking surface is too small. Most are designed to handle only two sandwiches at a time. So if you are trying to feed family and friends, grilled sandwiches come to the table in batches, producing multiple “oh-don’t-wait-for-us” moments.

Enter Cuisinart’s Griddler Elite. By panini press standards, its cooking surface is extravagantly large, practically commercial kitchen-appliance size, without the horrific price tag to go with it. The Griddler Elite can cook four full-size sandwiches at a time. With that feature alone, I would be sold on this appliance.

But one of its snazziest features is the dual temperature controls, meaning the upper and lower plates heat independently of each other from warm to 450 degrees. If you want a greater blast of heat coming from the top plate, with only moderate or low heat emanating from the lower plate, just set each dial accordingly. I also love that the nonstick (and removable and dishwasher safe!) grill plates have two cooking surfaces to choose from: one side is a flat griddle surface, the other side is a classic grill surface, which produces lovely grill marks on sandwiches, meats and vegetables. Plus, those two-sided plates can be changed in one swift and simple motion (just don’t forget to let them cool down first).

The other main feature I love is how this appliance understands that sometimes sandwich construction just gets out of hand. The top cover is designed to be fully adjustable, maintaining a level cooking surface over my loftiest creations. And if I don’t want the full weight of the upper plate relentlessly squishing the fillings out of my sandwiches, one little side adjustment addresses that issue. You can actually set the gap between the two plates while keeping them perfectly parallel to each other. You can even keep the top plate above the sandwiches altogether. So, for example, if you want to melt a piece of cheese or brown a Bechamel sauce atop your open-faced sandwiches, just set the upper plate to a hover position over but not touching the food.

Revisiting the cooking surface size again, I’m proud to say that at one party my Griddler Elite and I were able to produce eight of my famous Cuban sliders at a time. And because the darn thing is so easy to work with, I turned the slider production over to novice panini-makers who were willing to keep feeding assembled sandwiches into the Griddler after a previous batch was removed. What an awesome way to entertain!

Another feature — and one that helps justify the real estate it is using up on your kitchen counter if that’s where you choose to park it — is that it will open up completely, providing two flat cooking surfaces. And since those surfaces heat independently from each other, you can cook bacon or sausage on one side and eggs or pancakes or French toast on the other.

Both plates also have a sear function, which heats to 500 degrees for two minutes — perfect for cooking steaks or chops or chicken breasts. Plus, if you are cooking with such juicy foods, be reassured that the grease really does drain into the integrated removable drip tray for easy cleanup. And those grill plates easily detach for a trip through the dishwasher.

Now, all this convenience and quality is reflected in its suggested retail price of $199.95. But it’s well worth it if your budget will allow such an extravagance and you have the counter or storage space to keep it accessible for frequent use.

— Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis food writer, artist and author of “Oregon Hazelnut Country, the Food, the Drink, the Spirit” and four other cookbooks. Readers can contact her by email at janrd@proaxis.com or obtain additional recipes and food tips on her blog at www.janrd.com.