Speaker 1: This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast
Speaker 1: more what you hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
Speaker 2: He's a coolinary content producer, social media celebrity Owen Han
Speaker 2: that calls himself a professional eater based out of Los Angeles. Wow,
Speaker 2: what do you got to do to get that gig?
Speaker 2: Because I'd love to apply. His new book is called Stacked,
Speaker 2: and he's here to talk to us about it. Sandwich King,
Speaker 2: Owen Han, Stacked your new cookbook?
Speaker 3: Hi, Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: So you've taken the sandwich to a whole new level.
Speaker 3: Yes, basically, I've just created a book of all my
Speaker 3: favorite recipes, twist on the classics sandwiches for every occasion,
Speaker 3: from breakfast to even dessert. I'm just I'm a big
Speaker 3: fan of sandwiches.
Speaker 2: When did it start for you?
Speaker 3: This started about two and a half three years ago,
Speaker 3: and really it just kind of happened by chance. I
Speaker 3: always eat sandwiches pretty much one a day, and I
Speaker 3: decided to fill my lunch one day, which happened to
Speaker 3: be a chicken bacon avocado sandwich with a little chipotleoli,
Speaker 3: and it just went completely viral on social media and
Speaker 3: just been doing it ever since.
Speaker 2: Do you put together your own ingredients or a lot
Speaker 2: of them store bought?
Speaker 3: It really depends on the type of sandwich. I kind
Speaker 3: of look for a middle ground to where it's not
Speaker 3: all store bought. There's some cooking involved, but definitely look
Speaker 3: for kind of that convenience factor as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the things I do with French dips.
Speaker 2: I like to make my own bread. I keep it
Speaker 2: in the further so I can just toast it nice
Speaker 2: and warm. I cook my own roast beef. I make
Speaker 2: my ownaws you, and when I do, I make lots
Speaker 2: of it so I can keep it in the freezer
Speaker 2: and that way throwing together a French dip is it
Speaker 2: doesn't take that much time. I love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely roast beef I feel like not something a
Speaker 3: lot of people do, but it's really a lot easier
Speaker 3: than what people think. Very impressive on the bread, though,
Speaker 3: I have yet to really master that. Not the best
Speaker 3: baker at all, so.
Speaker 2: That neither am I, but I grew up on. I
Speaker 2: grew up in deep South Louisiana where we had a
Speaker 2: certain type of baguette, and I found a recipe that
Speaker 2: it's not the same, but it's close enough for me.
Speaker 2: And then I figured out I can par bake it,
Speaker 2: freeze it, vacuum seal it, and then it's just a
Speaker 2: matter of toasting it to get it brown when I
Speaker 2: want to use it, and I'll I'll spend a Saturday
Speaker 2: making you know, four eight of those little sandwich sized
Speaker 2: loaves and then freeze them and it's just my lovely Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm gonna need to get that recipe from you.
Speaker 2: Okay, tell us about some of the the recipes that
Speaker 2: in the book. This is aw in Honda Sandwich King
Speaker 2: stacked like the turkey crunch sandwich with frisk was it
Speaker 2: Frisco crisps free codek?
Speaker 3: So basically that's that's a It's a parmesan chip, very
Speaker 3: easy to make. You literally just great parmesan on a
Speaker 3: pan and give it ten seconds per sadon you're left
Speaker 3: with parmesan chips. It's great and for me, the best
Speaker 3: combo ever since being a kid. Chips in a sandwich.
Speaker 3: Cannot go wrong with that, And so I think they're.
Speaker 2: Starting that in Philadelphia. Didn't they putting chips on a sandwich?
Speaker 3: I'm not entirely sure, but yeah, it could be true.
Speaker 3: And then two sauces. We got Pesto collabor and chili
Speaker 3: Mao for a little bit of kick. Obviously layered of turkey,
Speaker 3: the parmesan chips, and then a little bit of banana
Speaker 3: peppers and rod onion to give it a little acidity
Speaker 3: and crunch. And to me, that's my favorite turkey sandwich.
Speaker 2: Is the turkey roasted or is it grilled or anything
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 3: No, just regular storebop turkey. So that's kind of layering
Speaker 3: the convenience of just store about there, but everything else,
Speaker 3: of course you're making from scratch.
Speaker 2: We're talking to Owen Han, he's the sandwich King and
Speaker 2: his new book out is called Stacked. As I mentioned,
Speaker 2: I'm from the Gulf Coast and had a lot of
Speaker 2: Poe boys growing up. You've got a snapper pole boy
Speaker 2: with romolad.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I kind of wanted to do a little
Speaker 3: I feel like when people think of poe Boy that
Speaker 3: they immediately think of shrimp, and so kind of wanted
Speaker 3: to stray away a little bit from that. And so
Speaker 3: it's breaded snapper with corn meal and then remologue lettuce, tomato,
Speaker 3: and that's kind of just a good indication of like
Speaker 3: my twists on kind of the classics. So for instance,
Speaker 3: there's a there's a Cuban in there, but I'm using
Speaker 3: fork loin because it's just a lot easier. Yeah, takes
Speaker 3: a lot less time.
Speaker 2: Free band.
Speaker 3: In fact, there we go Korean Reuben, so that's another
Speaker 3: take on the classic. There's also a cheese steak where
Speaker 3: I kind of put my own twist on it in
Speaker 3: that sandwich, so it's called a not so classic cheese steak.
Speaker 3: And I like to tell people that is like me
Speaker 3: and a sandwich because I put my Chinese influenced Asian
Speaker 3: flair in the beef where I've got kind of marinated
Speaker 3: in soy sauce and little saracha, you had ginger and garlic,
Speaker 3: and then top with mazzarella cheese and then pickled Italian peppers.
Speaker 3: So Chinese and Italian, that's my background, and I like
Speaker 3: to tell people that's me in a sandwich.
Speaker 2: We're with and Han, the Sandwich King. Stacked is his
Speaker 2: new cookbook, To Toast or Not to.
Speaker 3: Toast, Always to toast. I feel like, even if it
Speaker 3: doesn't require it, I'm going to toast it. I'm such
Speaker 3: a big fan of texture and crunch. Yeah, definitely looking
Speaker 3: for the golden brown.
Speaker 2: Do you get into any grilled cheese of any kind,
Speaker 2: because you can take that off in a whole different direction,
Speaker 2: can't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you really can. And that's what's really great about sandwiches.
Speaker 3: You can make them as simple or elevated as you want.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's nothing wrong which is the classic cheese,
Speaker 3: bread butter, but of course there's tons of very variations
Speaker 3: out there. Nearly I'm thinking of kimchi and guanchale, which
Speaker 3: is kind of like bacon and kimchi. It's ultimate salty
Speaker 3: savor you mommy bomb. But yeah, I mean grilled cheese
Speaker 3: that is just an all time.
Speaker 2: Sandwich elevating your sandwich gang game with O and Han.
Speaker 2: The sandwich King in his book is stacked. Do you
Speaker 2: have to keep a lot of these ingredients laying around
Speaker 2: the house?
Speaker 3: Kind of? I talk about my key ingredients, and what's
Speaker 3: great is like a lot of the sandwiches in the
Speaker 3: book can be made through just basically pantry and fridge staples.
Speaker 3: So yes, I keep a lot of them in the house.
Speaker 3: But like it's one of those where if you buy something,
Speaker 3: it's going to last you a long time, and you
Speaker 3: can make a lot of sandwiches. Also, the ingredients you have.
Speaker 2: I usually try to do that, like, Okay, what do
Speaker 2: I got in the fridge? What'll be good? Okay, I
Speaker 2: don't have any lettuce, but they got some spinach that
Speaker 2: would work, and off I go.
Speaker 3: Exactly. It's very easiest substitute. And that's great about the
Speaker 3: recipes too. You don't really have to follow it exactly
Speaker 3: to a tee if you don't have something or want
Speaker 3: to add it, and just go for it. Do whatever
Speaker 3: you want.
Speaker 2: Oh and Hahn the Sandwich King. The book is stacked,
Speaker 2: it's available everywhere you get books. You even did, like
Speaker 2: you mentioned, get into some dessert sandwiches.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so I definitely want to include a dessert chapter,
Speaker 3: which is crazy because I'm not the biggest sweets fan,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to be a little creative and I'm
Speaker 3: convinced that just it's converted me into a sweet guy.
Speaker 3: I've got free strawberry ginger jam, grilled cheese, ease dips,
Speaker 3: oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches, Japanese fruit samdos. So I
Speaker 3: mean there's every type of kind of dessert. We made
Speaker 3: sure to check and wanted to provide something for my
Speaker 3: sweet lovers.
Speaker 2: You sound like you're like me. I mean, I like
Speaker 2: semi sweet. I don't like something that's too sweet. And
Speaker 2: the American, the americanization a lot of dessert cuisine has
Speaker 2: made it too sweet. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: I mean also for me, my one of my favorite
Speaker 3: combos is sweet and davory. Yes, so like on that
Speaker 3: ice cream sandwich. We it's dipped in chocolate and you
Speaker 3: got it. You do a sprinkle of a little bit
Speaker 3: of flaky salt. That's all time.
Speaker 2: And you can if your mouth is watering with all
Speaker 2: these recipes, you can make them yourself by getting all
Speaker 2: in Hans's new books stacked. He's the sandwich King and
Speaker 2: it'll take your sandwiches to a whole new level. I'm
Speaker 2: off to the kitchen, Owen. Thank you for joining us,
Speaker 2: Thanks
Speaker 1: For having me, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
Speaker 1: the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The
Speaker 1: Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia
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