Customer Reviews

Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book: The Best Sandwiches Ever--from Thursday Nights at Campanile

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love cooking, in a real serious aficionado kind of way. A few months ago, I became obsessed with sandwiches and I bought this book . At first when I got it, I started reading it and became a little "are you out of your mind" but then decided to give it a chance. I made the Fried oyster sandwiches, the monte cristo, the remoulade sauce and bagna cauda (relatively easy recipes) and WOW, I was hooked. I guess my problem at first was that I supposed I was buying a Subway or Quizons do it at home book but was I wrong. These sandwiches are top of the notch gourmet food for a refined and balanced eating experience. Atention to detail is essential and most of the recipes require a lot of pre preparation beforehand for the final assembly (culprit to my initial drawback). The desserts are dazzling (I tried the Not Nutterbutter cookies and the Blums Crunch cake) and I hold this book now amongst my most treasured ones. If you love fine food, don't mind slaving a little for a worth while dazzling finale, buy this book, it will change your outlook on sandwiches forever.........

While many of the recipes in this book are just too elaborate for me to try, I still enjoyed reading them. And the photos were works of art in themselves. As the book description says, these are recipes for gourmet meals that just happen to be served on bread!

The author divides the sandwich recipes into open-faced, closed face, sort-of sandwiches, tea sandwiches, and several other categories.

I am especially interested in trying the Pan Bagna, the Peppered Beef with Sauteed Greens and Caper Onion Mayonnaise, and the sandwich made with asparagus, poached eggs, prosciutto and fontina cheese.

The Grilled Autostrada sandwich was yummy (four cured meats, peppers and provolone) as were several of the grilled sandwiches.

The book also contains interesting food background information and some useful tips for adapting the recipes.

I have been going to Thursday Nights at Campanile for as long as Nancy has been behind the bar cooking up her delicious sandwiches. It is the same dedication that forces her to show up and grill after just stepping off a plane from Bangkok that makes this book so wonderful. The recipes are magnificently constructed with a clock-makers precision and a bakers intuition. Not only would I recommend this book to every cook, but I would buy it for every friend.

I don't think I'll ever make a "white bread" sandwich ever again! These recipes are time-consuming, but easy. They are also not your average ingredients that one may just pluck out of the cupboard or the fridge. This is a great book, but if you're going to make one of these yummy dishes, you gotta take a list to the supermarket or better yet, the local farm stand. I'm from Long Island, so we don't have all the fresh fruits and veggies that California does, but that doesn't mean you can't make these deliciously. In addition, the author also gives us several oils, spread, etc., that are out of this world. Try the book, and kiss your old PBJ good riddance!

I just got this book today, and I think it is just superb. I didn't get a chance to look through it thoroughly, but I am already excited just by looking at some of the pictures. They all look so scrumptous. I am really looking forward to this one in particular with "Ham & Creamed Spinach & Leeks". I'm quite inspired by Nancy Silverston's introduction. She explains how she got so into sandwiches when she visited Italy. Just know one thing, this is not a typical sandwich book. I would describe it as high-end, gourmet, and highly likeable by all kind of book. The book is hardcovered, and it seems too pretty for me to bring in my kitchen with me. I am going to try to make at least 1 sandwich every 1-2 weekends. (I'm a busy gal) Great buy for it's price! I suggest you buy if you are interested in investing in a classy, well put together recipe book, not to mention, beautiful pictures. I just love it!!!

I picked up this book because I have baked from Nancy's La Brea Bread Book before and I love her attention to detail. But what sold me was the recipe that the book fell open to:
"Not Nutter Butters". When I read that this was her take on a Girl Scout Cookie that the entire family loves, I just had to check it out.

The cookie was everything I hoped for and even more work than I expected. But worth every hour of it. Now onto "Almost Oreos" for the chocolate lovers in the clan.

Oh, and the sandwiches....simply amazing! Nancy has done it again.

Nancy Silverton belongs to a select group of elite American artisanal bread bakers whose work makes me regret that most of this clan is located in New York or California. Even my local megamart seems to draw a blank when I ask them for brioche.

I believe the quality of this book far exceeds it's ability to provide very good recipes for sandwiches.

First, it will clearly arouse a greater interest in buying or even baking at home the types of high quality breads this book recommends. I'm not suggesting everyone start making Pane Toscana, but, acquiring the skill needed to make a simple country bread on a regular basis will bring with it an enormous joie de vivre. For the simplest Italian technique, see the bread making exercize in the volume `Jamie's Kitchen' by Jamie Oliver. For more elaborate results, you can start with the bread recipes in the back of this volume or in Nancy's `Bread from the La Brea Bakery'. I cite the Jamie Oliver source because Silverton makes no bones about the fact that her recipes are advanced. Simple breads can be very easy. Artisanal breads require a level of commitment to the task far beyond what is required to make cupcakes or cookies.

Second, the book fills in a big hole in the epicure's repertoire. For those of us who have cultivated an interest in food to enrich our lives by avoiding at all possible the overly expensive or overly processed products of American food industries, this provides a means of enjoying all the virtues of sandwiches with the bonus of a new reason to enjoy some of the world's great cheeses and some of the garden's great greens. What is the use of coveting a wedge of Italian Fontina without a preparation in which to fully enjoy it. And, not just any preparation, but one which is reasonably quick and easy to prepare.

Lunch and poker snacks need never again be devoid of character.

The author really gets it right. The trick to a good sandwich isn't a trick at all. When you have a food that has five ingredients, every one of them needs to be very good, and very fresh. The recipes in the book are simple and delicious. I especially like the trick of making the grilled cheese sandwich, then opening it after it is finished cooking and slipping in a cool slice of tomato. Fantastic!

Good pictures, too!

firstly, i want to say that Nancy Silverton is a brillant baker. this book is not for people looking for quick sandwich ideas. i mean, why bother buying a book of sandwich ideas that aren't special? rather, it's a book that attempts to introduce impressive sandwiches to the menu designed to impress, and to inspire the reader to try different flavour combinations in a friendly but tired vehicle like a sandwich.

anyway, i wanted to mention that a review above roasts Ms. Silverton for supposedly not knowing what a croque madame is but the reviewer was grossly misinformed. a croque madame does traditionally include a fried egg, not chicken. in america and the UK, for whatever reasons, the traditional croque madame has transformed in a croque monsieur with chicken instead of ham, but, according to the Larousse Gastronomique, Ms. Silverton was 100% correct. which makes that review incorrect, in addition to being petty and snotty.

As a culinary school student, we are always being encouraged to improve our palates and taste outside of our comfort zones. We also need to start planning where we want to end up cooking. A fine dining establishment, a steakhouse---choices, choices? My goal in reading this book was two-fold: improve my thoughts on the good old sandwich and keep my eye on a future career in a breakfast+lunch establishment. This book accomplished both goals. The sandwich combinations are original and everyone I tried was tasty. The sauces and desserts were also fresh and not a loser among the five I tried out. The only real issue with the book is so very few photos. I know photos add cost to books and I appreciated the lower cost of this cookbook. But, as someone working on her "presentation" skills, descriptions would have been helpful if choosing to have fewer photos. This book will stay in my GIANT cookbook collection.