Philadelphia Cheese Steak – A cheese steak sandwich is not really a steak at all – it is a sandwich made with chipped steak, steak that has been frozen and sliced really thin) and cooked on a grill top. Locals think in terms of steak sandwiches with or without cheese. Without cheese, the sandwich is referred to as a steak. With cheese, it is a cheese steak or cheesesteak. Cheeze Whiz is the topping of choice for serious steak connoisseurs. However, you can also use provolone cheese.

The Philadelphia cheese steak is truly one of the most delightful and beloved foods available in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is said by most Philadelphians that if a restaurant offers something called a Philly Cheese Steak then it's not authentic. According to Philadelphians, you simply cannot make an authentic Philadelphia Cheese Steak sandwich without an authentic Philadelphia roll. The rolls must be long and thin, not fluffy or soft, but also not too hard. They also say that if you are more than one hour from South Philly, you cannot make an authentic sandwich.

During the 1930s in the Italian immigrant section of South Philadelphia, Pat Olivieri sold hot dogs and sandwiches. Business was not doing well, so he decided to make lunch for himself. He had a slab of steak that he could not cook on the hot dog grill. So he sliced it thin, then put it on the grill, added some onions for taste, and put it onto a roll. Pat never got a bite because a cab driver drove by, smelled the sandwich, and asked how much? He didn’t know what to charge, so he charged a nickel. The cab driver supposedly said, “Hey . . . forget about those hot dogs, you should sell these.” Thus the Philadelphia Cheese Steak sandwich was born. It was not until 20 years later that cheese was added to the sandwich by a longtime employee, Joe Lorenzo, who was tired of the usual sandwich and added some cheese.