No one seems to agree on the most important ingredient in a BLT, although we all know it's not the lettuce. I asked around the kitchen and the results were 50/50: half said the star of the sandwich is the bacon, the other half said tomato.

Luckily, our BLT story in Food Network Magazine's July/August issue has something for everyone — bacon lovers, tomato lovers and even a little something for you lettuce-loving outliers. The different types of bacon and bacon seasonings are all great, but as an avid tomato lover, I particularly like the ways the recipe developers handled the tomatoes in their dishes. Whether fresh, oven-dried, made into a salsa or broiled, each style of tomato balanced the other components in the dish perfectly.

The tomato-broiling technique I developed for my Asian Bao-Style BLT (pictured above) has become one of my new favorite techniques. It couldn’t be easier: Just baste tomato slices with hoisin, broil them until bubbling, then flip and repeat. They get juicy and the hoisin brings out the sweetness of the tomato. These tomatoes are great on all sorts of sandwiches. I've started putting them on my breakfast egg sandwiches at home. Try it sometime: Slather a toasted English muffin with Sriracha mayonnaise, then top it with a fried egg and a hoisin-broiled tomato. It’s the perfect way to start your day.