My first TV segment of the year was an especially exciting one, as I was lucky enough to pop by The Good Stuff with Mary Berg studio and cook up a few recipes inspired by the wildly popular hockey romance series Heated Rivalry. While the series is full of emotional tension, rivalry, and undeniable chemistry between its main and supporting characters, as I wrote about recently, a variety of dishes have memorable moments too.
Being able to cook up some dishes tied to iconic scenes from the show on national television? As a gay guy? The dream!
Pop-culture phenomenon smitten-ness aside, I still made sure the recipes I brought into the studio leaned into a practical, “OK, yeah, I would definitely cook this at home” approach. With a tuna melt being one of the standout dishes in Heated Rivalry, it felt like the perfect recipe to demo for this playful segment theme.
Whether you do yours open-faced or closed, a tuna melt is not flashy nor fussy…or at least I don’t think it ever should be. Just golden, crisp, slightly creamy, appropriately cheesy perfection. And honestly, that’s exactly why it works on TV—whether inspired by Heated Rivalry or made in The Good Stuff with Mary Berg studio—and in real life.
If you want to make the exact version I cooked on air, you can find my full recipe for Sheet-Pan Tuna Melts here.
The Heated Rivalry and tuna melt connection
Cooking from Heated Rivalry was such a fun intersection of food and pop culture. Hockey stories are filled with travel, late nights, road stops, and high physical exertion and emotion—environments where comfort food thrives. A tuna melt feels like exactly the kind of thing you’d crave after a brutal game, on a long road trip, or during a late-night heart-to-heart (or next-morning heart-to-heart) that signals a relationship shift.
If you want to dig deeper into the real-life food culture that surrounds the hockey world and the settings tied to the Crave production that's taken the world by storm, I explored that in more detail in my piece Why Food Matters in Heated Rivalry Season 1.
My game-changing method for making tuna melts involves a sheet pan
Most people make tuna melts the stovetop way, frying sandwiches in batches. It absolutely (and obviously) works, but if you're making more than one sandwich (likely), my sheet-pan method allows for an easier cooking process and ensures all tuna melts are perfectly cooked and ready to eat at exactly the same time. No myriad of pans cluttering your stovetop required.
You assemble the sandwiches, brush the outsides of the bread with mayo (trust me here because the mayo helps the bread brown beautifully), then bake them pressed between two sheet pans. That gentle pressure works its magic for a while, and once you remove the top pan for the final few minutes, it allows the sandwiches to reach that ideal golden-brown finish.
This is the exact technique I use in my Sheet-Pan Tuna Melts. You should probably try it sometime!
How I like to make the filling for a tuna melt
(Above photo courtesy of Bell Media.)
The filling matters too. This isn’t just tuna and mayo slapped together. No, no, no. The filling I make leans into texture from diced celery and diced pickles—always pickles—richness from a little egg yolk and grated Parmesan, and brightness from yellow mustard and pickle brine.
It’s still recognizable and comforting, but just elevated enough to feel intentional and “grown up.” That’s kind of my whole food philosophy in a nutshell: take something people already love and give it a thoughtful nudge forward (even if, yes, sometimes that just means adding pickles).
As much as I love writing about cutting-edge restaurants and big “what’s next” culinary trends, moments like this are a reminder that simple food, executed well, is what sticks with people. A tuna melt might not have been on anyone’s 2026 food trend list, but never underestimate the power of pop culture… and nostalgia.
Ready to make it? Here’s the full Sheet-Pan Tuna Melt recipe.
