Alumnus and TikTok “Sandwich King” debuts cookbook
Alumni from USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have embarked on a wide array of career paths, from spy to mayor to “Sandwich King,” as alumnus Owen Han ’20 was recently dubbed by the Los Angeles Times.
Han’s videos of sandwich assembly have earned him a huge audience on social media, with over 4 million followers on TikTok alone. His debut cookbook, Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich, hits stores Oct. 15.
Han’s introduction to cooking began offline. Born in Milan to an Italian mother and Chinese father, he spent summers with his grandmother in rural Tuscany, Italy. Without internet for diversion, he watched and learned as his nonna (grandmother) prepared pot roast, carbonara or pizza cooked up in her outdoor oven.
At USC Dornsife, Han majored in economics but also took classes on nutrition, including the popular “Biology of Food” (BISC 115Lxg), taught by Grayson Jaggers, associate professor (teaching) of biology.
After graduation, Han took a job at a Los Angeles hospital delivering meals to patients and also began experimenting with posting his cooking videos to TikTok. He was inspired by his roommate and fellow USC alumnus Hwoo Lee, who has his own robust social media following.
Han’s first viral video demonstrated how to make shrimp toast, based on a recipe from his paternal grandmother’s copy of the Time Life cookbook Recipes: Chinese Cooking. He followed this success with a grilled chicken, bacon, smashed avocado and chipotle mayo sandwich, which broke 1 million views, and then a tomahawk steak sandwich that exceeded 10 million views. It was off to the races for Han from there, with celebrity collaborations, ad deals and now a cookbook.
His heritage still remains influential. Dan frequently produces recipes that blend Italian and Chinese flavors, such as “Dan Dan Bolognese.” In a new YouTube series, dubbed “Nonna Knows,” his grandmother reviews Han’s versions of Italian favorites.
It’s a platform Han is hoping to break into next, one where he can showcase more of his voice — literally. “Right now, I don’t even speak in my [social media] videos, so one, it’s a great way to let the audience kind of see a different side of me, and then also to experiment. And show that I can cook more than just sandwiches,” he says in the Times story.