Comments: This, boys and girls, is how they make sandwiches in the big city. Well, this is how they make sandwiches when they have all the foods of a great restaurant kitchen at their disposal. Well, this is how they make sandwiches at 'wichcraft, a growing chain of sandwich restaurants run by the top chefs of New York City's Craft restaurant.

They hope that you will follow in their footsteps. Tom Colicchio (yes, that Tom Colicchio) and his cooking and writing partners want you to realize that just about anything that can be cooked seriously, can be delicious between two slices of bread. Think about a post-Thanksgiving sandwich, they say, made of the leftovers from what was essentially a banquet. That's how sandwiches can be made.

The chapters include breakfast sandwiches, cool sandwiches, warm sandwiches, and sweet sandwiches (mostly cookies). There is additional material on stocking your pantry, the history of the sandwich, buying ingredients, choosing bread, "sandwich architecture," transforming sandwiches into salads, etc., some of which is very useful and interesting, some of which seems like filler.

The great strength of the book is giving you ideas and ways to think of sandwiches that you would almost certainly never have thought of. But the general person is not even going to attempt some of them, if only because of the number of ingredients and accompanying integral recipes they require (sauces/relishes/vinaigrettes/butters/mayonnaises/oils/etc.). [Paying attention to the semicolons is the only way to successfully get through the next sentence]: Stewed Apricots and Fennel with Ricotta, Pistachios, and Black Pepper; Chopped Chickpeas with Roasted Peppers, Black Olives, Lemon Confit, and Parsley; Pan-Fried Eggplant with Buffalo Mozzarella, White Anchovies, and Raisin-Pinenut Relish; and Lobster and Sweet Potato-Fennel Slaw and Tarragon Vinaigrette all look good – all the recipes look good – but are going to be challenging for people to prepare or even assemble the listed ingredients. There are recipes for single sandwiches that involve more than 20 ingredients.

We find if we think of this book in the hors d'oeuvre category – knowing that preparation will take lots of time, involve many ingredients, and be a bit fussy – it makes a lot more sense.

We guarantee (from the pictures alone) that you are going to want to go to one of the 13 'wichcraft restaurants the next time you visit New York, Las Vegas, or San Francisco. Hey! Here's an idea: why not make some of the simpler sandwiches in 'wichcraft at home, and leave the challenging ones to the pros for your next visit to the big city?