Stop Chewing and Throw the Dice. The story of Sandwich.
by Chef Lippe
Hero, Reuben, BLT, Club, Lox and Cream, Burger, Sailor, Croque Monseur. All these names make allusion to meals prepared between loaves of bread, often the humblest item on the menu, the fastes to be served, the fastest to be consumed.
These are the alleged origins of this dish, if we can call it that, and the circumstances in which it was conceived.
Facts point to John Montagu (1718 – 1792). Fourth Earl of the House of Sandwich, Lord of Sandwich, First Admiral of The Crown of The United
John Montagu
Kingdom, Member of the House of Lords and the Royal Society, Superior Administrator of the British Naval Army, Commander General of Expeditions having his name adjudicated to the Sandwich Islands through his subordinate the famous Capitan Cook.
Martha Ray
Plenipotentiary ambassador to Madrid, of demented wife descendant of the House of Windsor, lover of famous actress Martha Ray, pioneer expeditionary of the North Pole. Member of the Brotherhood of the Monks of Medmenham, the infamous Hellfire Club, dedicated to holding orgies that lasted days on end along with his mother and several concubines. Secret society that counted in its membership high profile figures like Benjamin Franklin and a considerable slice of European nobility of the time. Located in the caverns behind the Abbey of Medmenhan in Merlow, Buckinghamshire, founded by friars of the Cistercian Order
Self proclaimed libertine, started a whole gastronomic genre practiced universally today. The start of which allegedly due to his stern dedication to gambling. In the words of Rodger, his official biographer, a passage in
Medmenhan Abbey
Grosley’s Tour of London, a contemporary tourist guide at the time described the following.
“I found by fate or chance and accompanied a Royal Minister for twenty and four consecutive hours, who so engaged in the luck of wedgers did not have larger sustain but a piece of meat in between two morsels of bread and red wine, custom rapidly gaining popularity among London nobility in nights of indulgence””
Once the disease spread, it was hard to control. As Jeremiah Tower remarks in the San Francisco The Examiner in an article published in 2002; Raymond of Le Manor de Quat’Saisons in Oxford used Hog head, har boiled eggs and lobster. The famous Rivierawich by Alain Ducasse, Mediterranean ingredients in a loaf, yet at the Savoy Anton Edelman and his Brie and okra, Ken Horn and his famous mix of ginger hot pepper and basil. The good Lord Sandwich surely would have approved Jose Maria Arzak two hundred years later throwing a freshly grilled tuna steak between two pieces of bread drenched in Spanish olive oil.
Whatever your fancy, I definitely have advice for you. Next time you bite into a sandwich remember you are being part of gastronomic history.
Chef Lippe 