After serving vast amounts of holiday snacks, gay men everywhere are left with piles of leftovers, and much of what gets stuffed into your fridge will inevitably end up in sandwiches. While you might think that having a mini-deli selection at your disposal will lead to endless days of amazing lunches, that’s not necessarily true. Making a good sandwich is a craft that must be learned. But what if you could split various sandwiches down the middle and examine each delicious layer like the pages of an anatomy textbook? That’s exactly what Jon Chonko has done, first in his Scanwiches blog and now in a book of the same name. The results, which have made him a Manhattan foodie legend, are mouthwatering.

Max MacDonald: What was the inspiration for this book?

Jon Chonko: The Soho district in Manhattan has great sandwich shops. At my office we used to routinely order sandwiches for lunch. Then someone out of the blue accidentally called them scanwiches, and it got me thinking. So I retrieved my girlfriend’s old scanner, took a sandwich and scanned it. I’ve designed the blog and website to make people hungry.

That’s hilarious, but isn’t it a messy affair?

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and yes, there was a learning curve. I think I mastered it thanks to a lot of paper towels and some patience.

What type of sandwiches scan the best?

I find that crunchy or very fresh sandwiches hold up well. Sometimes there are ones that take a bit of manoeuvring, but to me, scanning and eating sandwiches are the same. There are people who open their sandwiches to see what they are eating, and that’s what I’ve done — but with a scanner.

With the popularity of your blog and book, do you find that restaurants and delis are desperate to get their sandwiches on your scanner?

It’s funny — I get two types of reactions. I get fans of particular restaurants’ sandwiches telling me to check out a specific sandwich. They will sometimes include a personal story to go along with it. I also get thank-you emails from delis and sandwich shops after people read my blog then go out and try their sandwiches. I find it very satisfying that people enjoy my work. I’ve now had to make myself somewhat less accessible because of it.

What is your favourite scanned delight?

I usually say the one I’m about to eat. Believe it or not, I was not an adventurous eater until I started this project. However, one day I had a bánh mì, which is a Vietnamese sandwich. It was fantastic and changed my life. Nowadays I have intense bánh mì cravings.

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