This chef created 7-Eleven's viral snack from Japan that's in Vancouver stores next month
The last time executive chef Benny Cheng was in Japan, he ate two
sandwiches. Every day.
The total of 14 sandwiches consumed over his seven-day trip was to ensure his tastebuds had perfectly memorized the elements of the convenience store’s tamago sando, or egg salad sandwich.
“My son and my wife were looking at me funny,” he says of the repetitive selection. “But I wanted the muscle memory. I wanted to remember exactly what it tasted like. The texture and the feel of it.”
The egg salad sandwich — which is so good that even the late, great chef Anthony Bourdain reportedly called the sandwiches a “vice” and “pillows of love” — is one of several viral IYKYK (If you know, you know) food options available at 7-Eleven outposts in Japan.
The executive chef at the Surrey-headquartered 7-Eleven Canada for 12 years, Cheng’s mission is to improve the food offerings that can be found in its 550 locations across the country.
That includes bringing his own version of the tamago sando to Canadian locations on March 4. The sandwich will be priced around $5.
The process of perfecting the sandwich took two years after Cheng’s first visit to Japan in 2023. Aware of how popular the convenience store’s foodstuff was among Canadians, he set about trying the items for himself in order to see if there was one he could recreate at home.
“What is the best sandwich?” he asked himself at the time. “My favourite was the egg salad sandwich. And I came to find out that, in 7-Eleven Japan, that is the No. 1-selling sandwich.”
By the timing of his most recent visit to Japan, in December, Cheng already had a solid dupe recipe for the tamago sando in hand that he’d developed after countless trials and tests here in Vancouver.
“I came back and made a little twist to that,” he says of the final recipe. “Basically, pumped up the umami flavour of the eggs. And that was it.”
The biggest challenge to bringing the viral egg salad sandwich to Canada, he came to find out, was getting the right ingredients.
“It took over a year to source out all of the ingredients,” Cheng says. “There are a couple key elements, including the milk bread that they use in Japan.”
It took Cheng more than 12 months to find a bakery that could make the exact, pillowy-textured white bread — while also being able to produce at the scale of what a company the size of 7-Eleven would need.
“We use about 3,000 loaves a day,” Cheng says. “And we anticipate even more.”
Cheng reached out to bakery contacts in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to have them each submit their own versions of the perfect milk bread. He finally settled on a bakery partner in Vancouver that remains anonymous, for now.
“Is it secret?” Cheng said with a laugh when asked to disclose the source of the slices. “I don’t know.”
Settling on the local bakery partner, Cheng had the hardest part secured. But finding authentic Kewpie mayo — “not Kewpie-style mayo,” he stresses — was another hurdle to overcome.
The secret of Kewpie mayonnaise lies with the eggs. The authentic version uses only egg yolks, not the whole eggs used in North American mayonnaise, to deliver a richer flavour with a deeper umami taste.
“They already existed in Canada, but we needed the … format for a mass product,” Cheng says. “So that took a bit of time to acquire.”
And the eggs used in the sandwiches come from cage-free birds, so “happy chickens,” Cheng adds.
At Japanese 7-Elevens, the food is restocked twice or even three times a day for maximum freshness. “Here, we make it fresh every day,” Cheng says.
“We have commissaries across Canada that produce our products using the recipes developed by me.”
Freshness, he notes, is something 7-Eleven stores offer, even though people might think more about frozen Slurpees, candy cups and hotdogs.
“We’re really focused on our fresh food program,” he says. “I’m basically responsible for developing several products … in the cold case, so all the sandwiches, fruit cups, bubble tea, all the way to a fried chicken program at some stores.
“Those are all developed by me, when it comes to flavour profile, along with all the roller grill, all the hot food, and then all the pastries.”
According to the
Japanese National Tourism Office of Toronto
, a record number of Canadians visited Japan last year. Tourism numbers made available by the organization show the number of visitors coming from Canada increased 18 per cent to 688,000 visitors in 2025 from 580,000 in 2024.
That tourism boom has led to more Canadians falling in love with foods abroad, including at convenience stores.
“We have heard loud and clear from Canadians that they want more of the products that make 7-Eleven Japan a tourist destination,” Marc Goodman, vice-President and general manager of 7-Eleven Canada, said in a news release.
Cheng said more internationally inspired menu additions are in the works to meet the demand.
“People are more into being a quote-unquote foodie. They understand food. So, it’s driven by that shift, compared to 10 years ago,” Cheng says of the food evolution. “This is a continuous development. There’s a lot on my program and there’s a lot more to come.”
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Source: vancouversun.com