Stacked with fun
Sometimes, not often, a cookbook shows up that you grab immediately, no questions asked, and start to read. The new book by Tyler Kord is one of those. Blame the title, “A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches,” which is hilarious. Also the art on the inside, which is by William Wegman (you should recognize the name: He’s the artist who takes pictures of his Weimaraners in costumes). And it just gets better from there. Kord, who is the chef of the No. 7 Sub shops and restaurant in New York, has written an essay-ish cookbook that reads like a very funny blog — back when blogs were neurotic, first-person diatribes about stuff the author actually knew something about — crossed with a YA book that both you and your teenager enjoy.
So this is a sandwich cookbook (also sausages, potato chips, pickled blueberries) in the more traditional sense, in that it includes lots of recipes for the sandwiches that Kord makes at his shops. Hot roast beef with mozzarella, roast chicken with fried eggplant, fried zucchini with barbecue potato chips, roast chicken with fried squid — so some expected, some very much not. But it’s the narrative that hooks you here: cranky, opinionated commentary on sandwich theory, colonialism, veggie burgers and chicken wings, plus hashtags and Dave Eggers jokes. You will be entertained. You will learn how to make Canadian bacon from scratch. The author got a bachelor’s in English from Oberlin before he worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which in this case turns out to be as good a combo as that broccoli, ricotta salata and lychee sandwich.
“A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches” By Tyler Kord (Clarkson Potter, $22.99)