Emeril's Kicked-Up Sandwiches: Stacked with Flavor – A Mouthwatering Recipe Collection by America's Favorite Chef

by Emeril Lagasse

“Emeril Lagasse’s books are so dependable, filled with accessible recipes that yield excellent results.”
— Chicago Tribune From Emeril Lagasse, one of America’s favorite chefs, comes a mouthwatering collection of more than 100 simple, flavorful recipes for the ultimate sandwiches. Stacked with flavor, whether it’s Smoked Salmon on a Bagel with Mascarpone Spread, a classic Reuben, or Grilled Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey, Emeril’s Kicked-Up Sandwiches is all you’ve ever hungered for between two slices of bread…on-the-go, gourmet, and everything in between.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2012

About the author

Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as "kick it up a notch" and "BAM!" He is a 1978 graduate of Johnson & Wales University's College of Culinary Arts. The "Emeril Empire" of media, products and restaurants generates an estimated USD$150 million annually in revenue.

Reviews

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about sandwiches. All recipes included have a mix of of complex flavors but they are not difficult to make. He considers tacos, samosas, Chinese pancakes, and other to be other types of "sandwiches" and that's perfectly fine with me. He also includes recipes for homemade sauces, remodulades, vinaigrettes, pestos, and breads.

My only complaint is that in cookbooks pictures are extremely important, and would have loved to see a picture for every recipe instead of about one picture every three recipes or so.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sandwiches. My biggest weakness. There are so many choices here all I could do while reading was salivate. Homemade bread, homemade condiments, sauces, homemade toppings. Mmmmmm. And I've never seen so many people bitch about sandwiches. Dude. If you don't want to make your bread go buy some. I know this will be in my rotation frequently, especially during this stressful season and all I will think about is coming home to a cold beer and a delicious sandwich.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I'm surprised, but I am. The title clearly says "Emeril's Kicked-Up Sandwiches", which in my book means this is not your mother's or even your grandmother's grilled cheese, reuben, etc.

Still, the recipes contained in this book or intimidating and I think they will be to anyone who is not a gourmet chef or cook. For example, one of the recipes that interested me was for something called "The Rachel", which is a reuben with turkey instead of corned beef. Here in NE Ohio, we just call it a Turkey Reuben. Anyways, 5 basic ingredients -- no biggie, right? Wrong!

Two of the ingredients -- Russian Dressing & Jicama Coleslaw have recipes of their own and both of these refer you to a homemade mayo recipe, although Emeril does say you can use store-bought, but when you're going out of your way to create this fantastic sounding sandwich, going with Helman's just doesn't seem good enough.

Many of the other recipes that I looked at had 10-20 ingredients, with many referring you to other pages for recipes for bread, dressings, mayo, etc.

My other issue with this book is that there is not a picture for each recipe. I know some chefs / cooks say that's because they want you to be creative in your own right, but I'm not buying this. I need a jumping off point to know whether or not I'm even close. And, you, yourself may say, but it's just a sandwich. These are not JUST sandwiches. They are creative masterpieces -- at least the ones that had pictures are.

Nope, this one did not work for me at all.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly enough, the bits of this book I enjoyed the most were not actual sandwiches. I'm not a fan of sandwich-centric cookbooks in general- sandwiches should not be so complicated that one needs a recipe to construct one. It's bread and fillings, essentially. Nevertheless, I often enjoy the condiments and dressings featured in sandwich-themed books. Emeril offers plenty of ideas for such sandwich toppings (and many of them can be adapted for other purposes, such as dips. We're given an entire section of mayonnaises and aiolis, spreads, pestos, mustards, salsas, and other condiments like raita and tzatziki. This was the section of the book I most enjoyed, and really in my opinion these are the only "recipes" one needs for sandwiches. I also enjoyed some of the dessert recipes, which were of course sandwich-themed (think whoopie pies and the like.) This is not Emeril's strongest cookbook, but considering the book is so strongly focused on one very specific kind of food, I think it's fine.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of recipes in here, not a lot that appeal to me but I am picky. Like the back sections with the dressings, mayos,etc.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

SOOOOO GREAT!!! I want to eat every sandwich in this book! Also, the majority of these sandwiches looked totally do-able. Taaasty pictures!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have all of Emeril's cookbooks and I'm never disappointed. I'm especially looking forward to trying all of the homemade breads that make up the last chapter.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow soon.