Owen Han is a social media influencer whose time-lapse sandwich-making demos draw in viewers with rhythmic slicing, cracking, pounding and sizzling sounds and an audible first-bite crunch. Now, with the help of veteran cookbook author Rick Rogers, he’s laid out the full-fledged formulas for those two-fisted masterpieces and the stories behind them in “Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich” (Harvest, $29.99).
Han owes his passion for far-flung flavor combos to his cross-cultural upbringing. He spent his early years helping his Italian grandmother in her Tuscan kitchen and, after immigrating to the U.S., enjoyed Chinese-inspired family feasts prepared by his Shanghai-born father.
After studying nutrition at UCLA, he worked in a hospital to prepare for a dietetics career. Then came COVID-19, claiming his dad’s life. Grief-stricken, Han accepted a job with a restaurant franchise, away from the suffering. Meanwhile, he tried his hand at making recipe videos on TikTok, beginning with one for shrimp toast from his Chinese grandmother’s cookbook, a gift from his father. Its instant viral success led him to produce online culinary content full-time.
Recognizing how translatable utensil-free dishes were to the tiny screen, he focused on sandwiches. In “Stacked,” recipes run the gamut from breakfast through dessert: Breakfast Burrito, Vietnamese Pork Summer Rolls, Chipotle Chicken Philly Beef, S’mores Toasties, and of course, Ma’s Shrimp Toast with Spicy Asian Mayonnaise — the recipe that started it all.
For Shrimp Puttanesca Roll, he suggests sandwiching the classic spicy, olive-flecked Italian seafood sauce typically tossed with pasta in a toasted, garlic-rubbed roll instead. I followed his easy directions, and it was love at first crunch.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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