The Perfect Sandwich #2
Interview by David Jenkins
Illustration by George Wylesol
John Walker has perhaps the greatest job title in the world: Hoagie Master. He oversees a special room at Philadelphia’s Pizza Beddia (recently placing in the top 25 restaurants in America on a recent list by Esquire magazine) where patrons pool their money for an old-school hoagie blow-out of the gourmet variety. He is, without doubt, a hero of the sandwich world.
Sandwich: Hey John, what are you up to right now?
John Walker: I’m making some stuff for my veggie hoagie and just getting ready for things. Do you guys do a lunch service or is it straight into the evening? We go straight into the evening service. I come in about noon and I’m prepping until about 4pm. Sit down and have some food with my co-workers, and then start service at 5.30. And I do two services a night: one at 5.30; and one at 8.30.
How does that all go down in the hoagie room?
I meet my guests at the door and I will accompany them to the hoagie room right here. We have some sliding pocket doors to get in and out, which is kind of a fun theatrical moment. It’s a good way to unveil this fun little room where they’re going to be hanging for a few hours. Then we start out with a glass of wine or a cocktail. Then, off the bat, I’ll send out some small plates. We do a tomato pie, some anchovies, some local cheese, a bit of focaccia, a few Judion beans. It’s a nice little spread of starters. We then usually start talking wine, so we get some of that flowing. We have magnum bottles of wine back here, which is fun thing for a group. Then I’ll send out some salads, and let people get into those. And then, finally...
Then come the hoagies.
I start making hoagies. I serve a veggie hoagie with some accouterments on the side – peppers, pickles and things. Then I do a sardine hoagie, and a tuna and olive oil hoagie, both come with sides. Then we’ll start talking about pizza, as we’ll bring four pizzas into the mix. And then, to cap it off, I’ll serve an Italian hoagie.
What’s that?
So hoagie’s a regional term for a sub sandwich. An Italian hoagie has mortadella and hot ham capicola, which is a product that was invented in the 1950s for the Italian immigrant communities coming over to the US. It’s sort of a cheaper option to actual copa. So there’s some provolone cheese on there as well, some iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced onion, olive oil, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. So you get a little acid, a little fat, some crunch, and it’s sort of a regional comfort food for a lot of people. We bake our own bread so I just try and make the best one I can make.
Do you remember the moment when you realized that sandwiches were your true calling in life?
Sandwiches have always been my thing. They’ve always been one of my favorite things in the world, and now I just have the opportunity to make food for other people. It’s been very cool to have been working with Joe [Beddia].
Is there professional training you can do in the field of sandwiches?
Like making any food, you have the cultural influence that inspires you to do something, and then you have the attention to detail and you bring whatever technical skill you have to it. There isn’t a hoagie school to my knowledge – it’s something that you just develop over time. In terms of education, the thing you have to know about sandwiches is ratios.
What is your perfect sandwich?
It’s a tough call between a cheese steak sandwich and a roast pork sandwich. Neither of which are technically hoagies, but both of which I would consider my favorite sandwiches ever. They are Philadelphia favorites. If I had to go for one it would be a roast pork sandwich, which contains roast pork that’s been ladled with a little bit of jus before serving, and then that would come with sharp provolone, long hot pepper and broccoli rabe with garlic in it. It’s just an awesome sandwich. The sharpness of the cheese and the fattiness of the pork and the bitterness of the green and the spice of the peppers, if you get that on to the right bread then you’re really on to an all-timer. If I had to eat one sandwich for the rest of time, it might be that.
