All That Glitters is Cold: Sandwiches and Songs in Benny Blanco’s Kitchen
Words Josh Jones
Photography Matt Adam
Hair and Make-up Chelsey Pickthorn
Food Styling Brett Long
When you walk into super producer and gourmand Benny Blanco’s Hollywood home, the first thing that you notice as you take your shoes off is the striking contemporary art that surrounds you. But your attention is then immediately taken by his kitchen. It. Is. Enormous. The kind of thing that looks like it should belong to a professional chef. It’s no secret that the man behind some of the greatest pop songs of this century has a huge interest in food – when he’s not producing incredible albums, or appearing in smash-hit comedy show Dave, he’s most likely cooking big dinners for his friends, with produce grown in his garden. He’s also co-host of both Stupid F*cking Cooking Show and Matt & Benny Eat out America on YouTube.
We spent the morning in that mag-nificent kitchen with him, slapping ice cream between cookies, talking about where his passion for food came from, the relationship between music and food, feeding everyone he works with, and how his songs are layered like a sandwich. Then we watched him fill up on a worrying amount of (edible) glitter with the glorious three-tiered ice cream sandwich for our cover shoot.
The ice cream sandwich was supposedly invented in Pittsburgh at Forbes Field in 1945, and is such a classic American staple. Why do you think Americans like it so much?
Why do we like ice cream sandwiches? I’m going to break it to you, America doesn’t have many great foods. So it’s like, “What can we do? We can have cookies and cream and put it all together – and it tastes delicious.” Why do I like an ice cream sandwich? I like anything you can eat with your hands. All my favourite foods you can eat with your hands. I also eat foods that you’re not meant to with your hands. Like steak, why not? I want to eat almost everything with my hands. It makes food taste better, I feel you have a closer connection to it. Imagine trying to eat Ethiopian food with a fork! Are you crazy!? Ice cream sandwiches are just so good.
Were they a big thing in your life, growing up in Virginia?
When I was a kid, it was all about the ice cream man. You’d hear him coming and it always seemed to be when you were at the pool, that’s all I remember. We’d all go running – slick – full speed to the ice cream man. And you’d get to him but the first thing you’d buy wouldn’t be ice cream. It would be those little fake cigarettes, that were a little too real, and, for some reason, we’d always get a bag of Funyuns. Then what I would do was get an ice cream cone and get that crazy strawberry shortcake one and I’d break it up and stuff it into the ice cream cone like a psycho. You know when you’re a kid and you just don’t realise that things are bad for you? For four years of my life I just ate bread and cheese. Every day when I got home I’d eat two full bagels of cream cheese, every single day. When you’re a kid you don’t think about anything. I always pray that one day we’re going to wake up and be like: ice cream – good for you; fried chicken – good for you... but no. But we’re all going to be dead in a second anyway. Can’t AI make ice cream sandwiches for us? Why am I even doing this?
You know scientists have found that eating ice cream fires the same dopamine receptors as when you experience joy and listen to your favourite music?
I believe in eating all sorts of things. I think everything’s about moderation and I think that if something brings you joy you should do it. But just maybe don’t eat an ice cream sandwich every day. I get the same feeling when I eat this [takes a big bite of the ice cream sandwich he’s making] as I do when I’m listening to Charles Mingus or The Goldberg Variations, or like [takes another bite] mmmm this one’s Marvin Gaye, right there. This ice cream is good!
It’s dairy free.
If this was real ice cream, I’d be diarrhoea-ing everywhere. If I’m going to have real ice cream I have to figure out my night, I have to know exactly where the toilet is. I have an iron stomach but it’s just that – I didn’t grow up eating a ton of ice cream, I wasn’t allowed to have a lot of sweets growing up. And where I grew up it was like a melting pot of all different types of food and culture. We were just eating such yummy things but my mom wouldn’t let me have ice cream, I’d have to sneak it when I went to other friends’ houses.
In the video of ‘Unlearn’ – the song you did with Gracie Abrams off your Friends Keep Secrets 2 album, she sits on a massive pile of ice cream tubs with your face on. Where did that come from?
Me and my friend, the director Jake Schreier were trying to come up with an idea. And a lot of times people eat ice cream when they’re sad, to make themselves happ–I just realised that I ate a full tub of ice cream last night. I was in the studio and I was bringing them out to people to taste. A FULL TUB! Each of us! And they weren’t even good. I think once you put a spoon in a tub and you turn on Sex and the City, you are eating the entire thing, no questions asked. Every important woman in my life I have watched the entire series’ of Sex And The City. My mom used to make me watch every single one of them with her, as they came out. We watched them in bed.
Which character are you?
I secretly wish I was Samantha – everyone wishes they were Samantha. I don’t know if I’m built to be Samantha. She is who you want to model your life after. She is probably the best one off the screen too. That show is so good, you should watch it. I don’t know if it’s just good because it’s nostalgic for me.
Your interest in food is so much more than a hobby. Your kitchen is incredible. Does that come from growing up in the melting pot of cultures that you mentioned?
I’ll tell you exactly when my interest in food happened. When I was a kid, my friend had a George Foreman grill and we all used to go to his house and get high out of our minds. Then we’d try to make these gourmet sandwiches, putting the craziest things in, like rice vinegar and turkey, it was insane. The sandwiches were disgusting BUT there was that feeling I got when I would pull the sandwiches out, give them to everyone and wait for their response. It’s the same feeling I get when making a great song. When people have that connection to something you made, there’s no better feeling. I’m a people pleaser, I just love to create exper-iences and look at people’s reactions after they eat something really good. I think food is life’s best lubricant. If I lost my taste, I don’t know, I might have to just end it all. So I’d make these sandwiches and I just got really into food, I was never cooking anything complicated but it became more and more of an obsession as I got older. I used to make food for people for a long time and my food was complete shit. It was so bad and all my friends would just have to lie. You know when you like forget the main ingredient? I was cooking from recipes and not from intuition or instincts. But then, over a long period of time, I got much better at it and now I feel like that’s my job and music’s like my side hustle. It makes me happy and the marriage of food and music – there’s nothing better. Well, maybe adding weed to it, too.
You and chef Matty Matheson are great friends – how did you meet and what has he taught you cooking wise?
I met Matty at his restaurant. I was sitting at the chef’s table and imm-ediately, within the first three seconds of meeting him, he put me on top of his shoulders and he made a hamburger while I was up there. I was like, “I like this guy!” One time I was on tour with Ed Sheeran in Toronto and I contacted him to say that Ed really wanted to try one of his burgers, could he bring one to the show? Matty was like, “who’s Ed Sheeran?” I told him and he said he’d bring us a burger and pick us up and we’d go to his friend’s house party. He pulled his pick-up truck up to the back of the arena, Ed came out and people went crazy – we ran to his truck, hopped into the back of his flatbed and we just just lay down. People were trying to hold on to it as we were driving off. We ate the cheeseburger while laying in the back of his truck while Matty was driving and screaming to metal in the front. We get to this party and go into the basement… and the rest probably isn’t good for an interview. But we had the time of our lives. Matty and I were hanging out one time and he said we should do a cooking show and call it ‘Matty & Benny Eat Out America’. I take no responsibility for that name, he literally came up with everything and sent it to me. Somehow people were dumb enough to let us do it and we got to have a lot of fun. He’s one of my best friends. I know a lot of real deal, fancy chefs and they’re just making the food, they’re not making it with love. When you go to a restaurant you want every bite to have love in it. It’s so funny when Matty says he doesn’t want to cook and you start making something. He’ll just take over, he can’t help it – it’s his love language, he speaks through food. He’s taught me so many things about breaking rules, flavour profiles and not being afraid to do things like season really heavily or use certain fats. He has a › very unique approach to food and I think it’s really special. When anyone has their own style and sense of self and it can speak through food, it’s cool. I can taste his food in a line-up.
“I always pray that one day we’re going to wake up and be like: ice cream – good for you; fried chicken; good for you... but no.”
You use food analogies to describe your music a lot. When you moved from production to releasing your own music you said, “it’s like being a line cook who’s just made Caesar salads but wants to try what the pizza chef’s doing” – food really is your go-to descriptor.
Okay, so basically, when a musician comes into the studio you have two hours to not only create a bond with this person but create a bond that’s so intimate that they have to share their deepest, darkest secrets and feelings with you. So my trick is always, “let’s eat something crazy”. I’ll make something and bring it in, we’ll eat it together, we get talking, then you get to know what these people like, so every time they come into the studio you can make something for them. It kind of fucks me over though because now, with someone like SZA, she’d just have a piece of cake when we started working together. Now I have to make like a five-course meal every time she’s coming by.
I like the story that you coaxed her into the studio to work on the album with your lasagne and banana pudding.
Oh my god! She’d have a bed in my studio and everything would be balanced on it – it all looked like it was going to spill but it never did. There’d be a cookie on top of another thing and she’d be leaning into it while singing into a mic. I don’t know, I just think food and music are so connected, it’s so creative. You can make it your own so quickly, I could cook the same dish as you but it’s always going to be a little bit different, even if we’re following a recipe. That’s why I’m a shitty baker because it’s so militant, I’m the kind of person who’ll use a red chilli I’ve grown in the garden instead of a regular Bird’s Eye, or I’ll think a profile could use a little bit more acid. I think it’s interesting, food is like music in that it’s subjective – I take people to places I love and they’re indifferent to it. I think it’s cool that things aren’t absolute. You don’t have to feel weird putting things together with fusion and just doing interesting things.
People often describe your style as being a therapist to the artists you work with, but do you use cooking as a meditation for yourself?
Of course! Are you kidding me? It’s funny when you’re cooking with someone and they offer to chop the onions or something. I’m like “fuck you! That’s my Xanax.” The feeling of doing a mundane thing over and over again; it’s my meditation. I cook multiple meals every day. If I’m on an important call, instead of being nervous and feeling anxious, I think to myself, “why don’t I make an omelette right now?” Food is one of those things in life where you make it, it’s done and you eat it. There’s a sense of accom-plishment, especially if you grow the ingredients. The feeling when you grew something and cut it, sautéed it and put it into your mouth. Things can be all so simple, we’re moving so fast and are so anxious and upset about things – just slow the fuck down. It’s like, “okay, I need to put this thing into my body so I can keep living”. That’s as simple as it gets, we complicate life so much. Also, if I am feeling sad, I’m gonna eat. I’m happy, I’m gonna eat. I’m feeling stressed? I’ll eat, it’s the answer to so many things. You know what’s crazy is when you’re hanging out with someone and they say, “oh man, I totally forgot to eat”. That has NEVER happened to me, I have never forgotten a meal. Ever. If every meal isn’t the greatest meal of my life, I’m depressed. I want every meal to be explosive and I want to share that with people. Everybody has that moment when you tell a friend about an amazing place that no one knows about. It’s all about discovery – just like music. No one wants to be the last person to tell you about a good thing. You want to be the person that found it and show it to someone else. And you want to watch their face when they’re listening to it.
Do you approach making a song like making a sandwich – do you layer it up?
Yeah, of course, making the sandwich is so important because you want to layer it all correctly, the sogginess of a sandwich will make or break it. I work on a song for so long – sometimes my songs come out eight years after I make them. I make the sandwich and I throw it away and then I start it again.It’s a labour of love. Honestly, I work › on songs until I either hate them or hate myself. It’s a process, sometimes you start a song and you just don’t love that music. One time, Rick Rubin said something to me. He said, “if a song is a perfect song you can play it in any key, with any beat, as a country song, as a rap song. If a song is perfect it will work in almost any form.” I always think about that when I’m making a song. Sometimes I’ll make a song and it won’t be in fashion but six years later I’ll pull it out of the vault, and massage it or take a part and treat it as a sample. But yes, there are layers and layers and layers.
What’s the best sandwich you’ve ever had?
You couldn’t have asked me a harder question. I’ve had so many sand-wiches. My friends Turkey and the Wolf, they make this vegetarian sandwich and it’s one of the best I’ve ever had. It’s collard greens and it’s so spicy and tangy and sweet. They do it on this crazy thick bread. This is the stupidest question, there are so many – like a Bánh mì, or is a Trinidadian Double a sandwich? If that’s considered a sandwich then that might be my favourite. Oh my god, there are so many forms of sandwiches! Is a burger a sandwich? What’s your favourite sandwich?
You don’t want to know – it’s horrible... but if I’m on my own it’s cream cheese with peanut butter, cold sausage, lettuce, prawn cocktail crisps, sweetcorn and mayonnaise.
No, you’re sick. You need to go to the hospital. No, no, no… you need to go to jail. That’s crazy. Sweetcorn? Peanut butter and cream cheese? COLD SAUSAGE? What’s wrong with you?! Do you have like Long Covid where you can’t taste anything? That’s crazy. To me, you know what’s so important is the brea–Wait! Maybe the best sandwich ever is a Philly Cheesesteak or a chopped cheese. Or, you know what’s so good, when you get the Italian vegetable sandwich and they char the broccolini and it’s vinegary. I will travel for sandwiches. I’ve seen so many sandwiches I’d like to fuck. Or a chicken parm sandwich. Or just a normal turkey sandwich – the best turkey with like arugula. Or a sprout sandwich with some bomb-ass cheddar. I love it all! Honestly there are not many sandwiches I’ve met that I don’t like. Or you know, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich might be my favourite sandwich of all time. I have it very often. Also I love a sourdough and all that stuff but I also really like Wonder Bread. The thing that sets an ice cream sandwich apart though, is the thought, the preparation, the curation. Look at how pretty this one is [holds up sandwich]. Look at this. I want to eat it but I’m also a little scared because it’s so beautiful… I can’t stop thinking about your sandwich. You’re a psycho.
If you could be remembered as a great music artist or a great host and cook which would it be?
[Exhales] I can’t be a musician that cooks and hosts? I wish my answer was food but it’s not, it’s music. I wish it was food, I wish I could be that confident but it’s music.
“I don’t know, I just think food and music are so connected, it’s so creative.”
