I did not expect to get this emotional while watching two people make sandwiches.
If you’ve ever stood over the kitchen sink eating a sandwich you made yourself as a kid, this episode of The Great American Sandwich Show might hit you right in the feels. Sometimes it’s the simple things, you know?
The first bite of a truly great sandwich will live on in my memory forever. And that’s basically the whole appeal of The Great American Sandwich Show: Every episode, a celebrity guest heads into comedian Lindsay Ames’s kitchen to make their go-to sandwich, Lindsay whips up her own riff, and then the two trade plates, have a chat, and crown a winner. By the end, you’ve usually learned a lot more about each of them than you expected.
A great sandwich is a work of art and dedication, and crafting one to share with someone else is a true act of love. When I watched this episode of The Great American Sandwich Show, I wanted to reach out, grab both sandwiches, and take a bite. Here’s what happened.
The Guest: Joel Kim Booster
Joel Kim Booster is the kind of multi-hyphenate that makes you feel like you haven’t been using your time wisely. He’s a comedian, actor, writer, producer and voiceover artist. Born in Jeju Island, South Korea, he was adopted as an infant and raised in an evangelical Christian household in Plainfield, Illinois. I’m from the area where he grew up, so I have really loved following his career!
His big breakout came in 2022 when he wrote, produced and starred in Fire Island—a romantic comedy that reimagines Pride and Prejudice with a predominantly gay cast. It earned him a Best First Screenplay nod at the Independent Spirit Awards and a GLAAD Media Award. That same year, his Netflix special landed on Variety’s best-of list and got a Critics Choice Award nomination. These days, you can also catch him alongside Maya Rudolph in Loot on Apple TV+ and in the new Scrubs reboot on Hulu. The man is everywhere, and honestly, so much fun to watch.
The Sandwiches
Joel’s tuna salad sandwich is a latchkey-kid creation through and through, and that’s meant as the highest compliment. It’s basically just canned tuna, mayonnaise and soft white bread. No fuss, no measuring cups: Joel always eyeballs amounts. This is exactly how I make my own tuna salad, so I’m already tipping the scales in his favor.
He add one extra component for a nice textural finish: a layer of potato chips. I am a firm believer in putting potato chips on a sandwich, so I was delighted to see Joel do this, too! The chips add a salty zing and just enough texture to something that might otherwise feel like “mush on mush,” as he says in the episode. It’s simple in the best possible way—the kind of sandwich that tastes like your childhood, which, for Joel, is exactly what it is.
Lindsay takes that same foundation and turns it into the most glamorous tuna melt you’ve ever seen. She grills slices of a pretzel brioche roll in mayo for a nice, even crust, then adds a schmear of—wait for it—chive cream cheese! Joel is vocally skeptical, and I audibly gasped while watching. I couldn’t wait to see if this had a flavor payoff in the final sandwich.
She also added melted Swiss, charred green onions and a dressing she calls “Dorf Sauce.” It’s a garlicky, mustardy, jalapeno-spiked condiment she learned about while working at a bagel shop. The result is a warm and gooey tuna melt packed with elevated ingredients.
At this point, I pulled up my phone and added tuna to my grocery list.
Overheard in the kitchen
“Tuna salad felt like the next step up, because it felt like a recipe. You were assembling, you were experimenting, you were playing, finding the right ratios.” —Joel Kim Booster
Joel mentions that his connection to tuna salad stems from his childhood. He says it was the first sandwich he ever learned to make on his own, and he took pride in that. Even though he sometimes toasts his bread now, he opted to keep it soft and untoasted for this sandwich showdown as a way to honor that childhood memory.
“Some of the best sandwiches leave their mark on your face.” —Joel Kim Booster
When Lindsay is cutting her tuna melt, she calls it a “messy girl,” which doesn’t faze Joel in the slightest. He understands that sometimes a really good sandwich requires napkins—and that’s part of the fun.
“I did not expect it to mess me up in any sort of emotional way. I was like, ‘I’m gonna do this. It is gonna be fun. I’m gonna shop’.” —Joel Kim Booster
One of the most poignant moments in the episode is when Joel opens up about returning to Korea for the first time. He took the trip just a few years ago and was blown away by being surrounded by people who looked like him. He said that it was on that very trip that he proposed to his now husband, and everything about this story made me really emotional in the best way possible. Who knew that a debate about cream cheese on a tuna melt could segue into this kind of convo?
The Winning Sandwich
Lindsay’s tuna melt takes the win, and Joel calls it almost immediately. A tuna melt, he rightly points out, is just going to have a competitive edge with the inclusion of melted cheese. And that cream cheese he was so suspicious of turned out to be exactly the quiet, flavor “whisper” Lindsay promised it would be. Walking into Lindsay’s kitchen means you might have to confront the limiting worldview you have about cream cheese!
That being said, though, Joel’s sandwich deserves real credit. There’s something to be said for a nostalgic sandwich that knows exactly what it is.
After a brief moment of consideration for “Homeschool of Tuna Fish” they eventually settled on “Masters of the Tunaverse,” and it went up on the board. The name is a little goofy and very grand, and it perfectly fits a tuna melt on pretzel brioche with cream cheese and charred green onions. Go big or go home!
(Try the Masters of the Tunaverse sandwich yourself!)
You be the judge
Cream cheese on a tuna melt: genius or a step too far? And are chips on a sandwich the real winner here? Tell us what you think.
The Full Play-by-Play
Check out how it all played out—and hear more about Joel’s trip to Korea—by reading along below.
Joel: Hi, Lindsay!
Lindsay: Hey, Joel Kim Booster ! I’m just counting my salt.
Joel: Oh, is that important?
Lindsay: No, no. Welcome.
Joel: Thank God.
Lindsay: I’m so excited for you to be here and make sandwiches with me.
Joel: I’m so excited to teach you how to make a good tuna salad sandwich for once in your life.
Lindsay: Thank God, because you know what? My whole life, I have been making tuna sandwiches wrong.
Joel: I think you’re about to find out how wrong.
Lindsay: Welcome to my sandwich shop !
Joel: Thanks for having me.
Lindsay: For those who don’t know, Joel is an amazing comedian, writer, actor and voiceover artist.
Joel: Yeah, you really got it all.
Lindsay: A charismatic guy—and also a tuna sandwich specialist.
Joel: Yes.
Lindsay: So today, the whole thing is you’re bringing me your tuna sandwich.
Joel: My tuna salad sandwich from childhood, yeah. This was the first thing I think I learned how to make on my own when I was growing up, because my brother and I were both latchkey homeschool kids whose parents worked. So there was not anyone home really instructing us. We had to fend for ourselves a lot, and sandwiches were obviously the easiest thing to tackle as a kid.
But tuna salad felt like the next step up because it felt like a recipe you were assembling. You were experimenting—you were playing, finding the right ratios. And the best thing about the tuna salad sandwich too, is that, like, I have never once really clocked any specific measurement for anything that I’ve ever done making this sandwich. It’s all eyeballing. It’s all sort of like, going with whatever consistency and texture that day. You know, once you’ve got the tuna in the bowl, it’s pretty straightforward.
I start with the mayonnaise. Not a single time have I ever measured the mayonnaise. And you’ll see recipes that tell you, “Oh, it’s this amount of teaspoons.” Whatever. Whatever! It is absolutely something that you have to feel in your bones. What I always do, too, is because I’m eyeballing it, I go a little bit less than what I think I might need. Mix it in, see what the consistency is, and see if it’s too much. And I think I nailed it.
Lindsay: So I’m going to do a tuna melt version of your sandwich. And I did a layer of Hellmann’s mayo to grill because—do you like grilled cheese and stuff?
Joel: Who doesn’t?
Lindsay: Thank you. Are you a butter guy or a mayo for grilling?
Joel: You know what? I didn’t even find out that people were doing mayo for grilling until quite recently. And I’m into it now. I mean, it’s just like an egg wash.
Lindsay: You know what? Yes. And it makes a truly superior grill. You really aren’t going to burn; I believe it’s the way to go. So I’m going to do a little pre-grill just to get this thing going. And then I’m going to add chive cream cheese—a little smear of that on there. We’re going to do a twist.
Joel: I’m so dubious about the cream cheese. I like cream cheese on a bagel. And I feel like that’s the only appropriate place for cream cheese. I’m a stickler about where food belongs. I hate fruit on salad, and I hate vegetables on desserts. The thing about my version is, because we’re using this soft white bread—I would frequently toast the bread instead because of textural issues. But I find the chunky tuna adds a nice bite texture to it when there’s a lot of softness. And there’s a secret that I’m going to add at the end to really bring some texture to the sandwich. It is my favorite thing to do.
Lindsay: I used to work at a bagel place, and we had this stuff called ”Dorf Sauce” for our melt. And it’s chopped garlic, a little bit of mustard and a little bit of jalapeño sauce. It’s just a little, and I smeared that on there. I’m melting some Swiss, and I charred some green onion.
Joel: I love Swiss on it.
Lindsay: It’s kind of like, trying to play with it. Give us some flavors and textures. And I’m interested to see if the cream cheese is going to like, wow you, or—
Joel: I’m open. I’m open to new experiences with food, especially.
Lindsay: So, when you were homeschooled…
Joel: Yeah?
Lindsay: What did lunches look like?
Joel: Lunches looked like this. Basically sandwiches. Lunch was such a free-for-all sort of Wild West.
Lindsay: And food in your household—you were raised in an evangelical white household?
Joel: Yeah, very Midwestern. Very “limited restaurant.” The thing about the bread choice here is that I was gesturing towards my childhood. Everything I ate was on a piece of this bread.
Lindsay: The bread that I chose is a pretzel brioche. So it’s got a little bit of both. So it’s got the eggy and the lightness.
Joel: But it’s going to hold up.
Lindsay: I don’t know, I think they both will because I feel like [yours] has got the border.
Joel: It’s going to be slightly more chew because they are so soft. Especially with the tuna salad that I’ve made, it can tend to read a little more mush on mush if you put it on non-toast. You can toast the bread, obviously and put the sandwich on that. But what I would just do growing up is grab a bag of Lay’s and just put it on top of the sandwich. And there’s your texture. It is like the one thing I plan on passing down to my children, no matter what. Like if I can teach them one thing, it’s “put the chips on the sandwich.”
Lindsay: Honestly, I’m excited for your kids. Because that’s proper parenting.
Joel: Thank you.
Lindsay: You know, potentially you could actually teach a course because I think if more parents were thinking like that…
Joel: We’d be in a much better spot in this country.
Lindsay: Yeah, I agree.
Lindsay: We’re now at the most important part of any sandwich odyssey: the cut. OK, this is not a good example. Yours is the perfect example. How do you cut?
Joel: I am a triangle man. I like it straight across. I think it looks just aesthetically—especially with perfectly square bread like this, it is the way to go.
Lindsay: But some sandwiches—like right now for this bad boy— I’m gonna go straight down the middle.
Joel: Yeah, I think you kind of have to.
Lindsay: Mine’s gonna be a messy girl, OK?
Joel: Yes, and listen, some of the best sandwiches leave their mark on your face. You are trying to humiliate me.
Lindsay: I mean, I am. I did, actually. That’s the whole thing. When we reached—
Joel: “I am, I did.”
Lindsay: Because when we reached out to your people, I was like, I need to.
Lindsay: So we are now sitting. We have each other’s sandwiches. We’re going to try them. We’re going to talk about what we like about each other’s sandwiches. Oh, and we’re also going to decide whose sandwich we like more.
Joel: OK.
Lindsay: And who should go up on the board. And then we’re going to name the sandwich. Let’s dig in.
Joel: You already have me beat because it’s melted. Like, a tuna melt is always gonna be superior. The choice of bread…I love the scallions on it.
Lindsay: What about the cream cheese?
Joel: I didn’t even think about the cream cheese going into the bite. And it is so good.
Lindsay: OK, good. Yeah, it’s supposed to just be like a whisper; a nod.
Joel: Yeah, it’s not overpowering at all. I know I’m the guest here, but I think that it would be crazy to not put your sandwich on the board.
Lindsay: OK. I’m just going to say, because it is my sandwich shop, it would be crazy not to have my sandwich on the board.
Lindsay: What sandwich would your character Noah [from Fire Island] have brought on to this show?
Joel: Oh, definitely an Italian Stallion from the pantry in the Fire Island Pines. It’s the best Italian hoagie you will ever eat. I get it every single year. It’s the first thing I do when I get to the island.
Lindsay: What sandwich would Nicholas from Loot have brought?
Joel: It would have been a tuna sandwich, but it would have been like a rare tuna steak on, like a lettuce wrap. Just for the protein.
Lindsay: With like a wasabi mayo.
Joel: Yes, yes, yes. That was perfect.
Lindsay: What’s your favorite sandwich in New York?
Joel: A bodega sausage, egg and cheese on a roll. Every time you’re eating it is usually at a time of day where you should not be awake. And it is exactly what you need.
Lindsay: Is a bagel with cream cheese a sandwich?
Joel: I think it is.
Lindsay: I think so, too.
Joel: I think a bagel is technically bread. It’s a sandwich.
Lindsay: Go-to comfort meal?
Joel: It’s definitely fried rice.
Lindsay: Was there a gateway dish that broke the seal on your interest in Korean foods?
Joel: It’s not a dish, necessarily. It’s more of an ingredient. But it was kimchi. I loved kimchi growing up. I felt it was like one of the things that I was like, proud of that was from my heritage and like, I would eat so much kimchi. I learned how to make kimchi. Kimchi was the thing when I was a kid that I was like, oh, this is everything that I love. It’s a pickle. It’s, you know…
Lindsay: Spicy!
Joel: It’s spicy! And it was mine.
Lindsay: When was the first time that you went to Korea?
Joel: Two years ago. I had the courage to go back and the means to go back. And, you know, I did not expect it to mess me up in any sort of emotional way. When I was going, I was like, ”It’s going to be fun. I’m going to shop. I’m going to be with my now- husband.” I proposed to him on that trip. It was definitely one of those things where I don’t think you realize when you are a visually marginalized person in this world, how much weight you carry around thinking about how your actions in public will affect the rest of the community. Like, if I jaywalk in LA and I make eyes with the car that almost hit me in my head, I’m like, Great, now that person thinks that all Asian people jaywalk, you know? That kind of thought is like either unconsciously or consciously happening a lot, and it is a lot to carry around. And then suddenly I was on the train in Korea looking around, and it all fell away because I was like just a face in the crowd. I was like, this is what it feels like to be white! There was never a concern of, I’m going to be representing the rest of the group here, like they are just seeing me as yet another, you know, Korean person. And honestly, I felt more side-eye for being American. Wow, we’re really going in from tuna to this!
Lindsay: So now we have to name it. My pitch would be “Masters of the Tunaverse.”
Joel: This is deserving of that title. I think, like for me, it was going to be something along the lines of ”Homeschool of Fish.” Homeschooling, homeschool… a tuna fish sandwich.
Lindsay: Oh, I like that.
Joel: Because that is the era of my life that this reminds me of.
Lindsay: OK, here we go. We’re putting the name of the sandwich on the board. Wow. That’s beautiful. Look at that style and panache of your placement.
Joel: Well, it was a little bit off. There we go. That’s OK.
Lindsay: Poetry in motion. OK, Joel, why don’t you tell everybody what’s coming up for you. Where they can see you?
Joel: Listen, there’s a lot of stuff that has just happened. You can stream the entirety of Scrubs right now on Hulu. You can stream all three seasons of Loot on Apple TV+. You can check out my special on Netflix, and I am touring intermittently throughout the summer. So if you want to check and see if I’m coming to a city near you, you can go to I Hate Joel Kim on Instagram, and all my dates will be in my bio.
Lindsay: Thanks so much for coming. Also, that special is so funny. Bye-bye. See ya!
