A football fan left fellow passengers gobsmacked by grilling a steak sandwich on a moving train using a pair of hair straighteners. Tony Goodman, 52, rustled up the meal he hopes will 'revolutionise train travel forever' while travelling with fellow West Ham supporters to a match.
Unorthodox Cooking Method
The content creator, from St Austell, Cornwall, prepared the dish aboard the 10.19am Great Western Railway service to Paddington. He plugged a pair of hair straighteners into the train's socket and utilised them as a makeshift grill for the marinated steak. Describing the feat, in which he butters slices of sourdough in preparation for the freshly cooked meat, he declared it was 'the greatest triumph of train cooking you've ever seen'.
A Step-by-Step Sandwich Assembly
The footage captures Tony assembling the sandwich at a table seat. He slices open Lidl sourdough rolls and layers them with mayo and grated mozzarella. He plugs the hair straighteners into the socket beneath the seat before inserting strips of marinated steak inside and clamping them shut like a panini press. As the meat sizzles away, fellow passengers were spotted laughing, filming and reacting in disbelief.
Tony explained: 'I realised that a grill is essentially just two hot plates that you cook meat between. It's the same as a pair of hair straighteners. I plugged them in under the seat and I didn't know if it would have the power to work them at first.'
Perfect Medium Rare in 20 Seconds
Despite the unorthodox cooking technique, Tony declared his sandwich a success - with the steak achieving perfect medium rare in approximately 20 seconds. He said: 'It was beautiful. We had half of the steak each. It was spot on.' At one stage during the footage, the straighteners appear to lose power after preparing the initial portions. Tony added: 'I could hear a group of girls giggling behind us and there was a lady who was fascinated by it.'
Previous Culinary Train Feats
This marks the most recent in a series of increasingly ambitious onboard feasts Tony has whipped up for his friends in the Cornish Hammers - a collective of West Ham supporters who frequently travel to London for matches. During previous trips, Tony successfully served runny poached eggs while travelling by pre-cooking them and carrying them in a thermos flask. He then crafted a railway-inspired version of eggs benedict - featuring a homemade potato rosti foundation and hollandaise sauce dispensed from a coffee mug.
Content Creator with Hospitality Background
Tony, who currently operates as a content creator, has grown an online audience following decades in the hospitality sector, where he owned restaurants and managed pubs. He has recently created a new YouTube channel dedicated to Cornwall's food scene and reports one clip has had millions of views. He mentioned that while no train staff seemed to spot the steak escapade, he remains uncertain how they might have reacted had they discovered it. Tony stated: 'I didn't see a single soul. I'm not sure what they would have said if they saw us.'
Safety Warning
While Tony's hair straightener method may seem like a good idea for your next long train journey, it is not recommended to plug anything into train outlets other than phones, laptops and tablets. For safety reasons, train plugs are only designed to support low-power devices, rather than devices like hair straighteners or toasters which require more power.
