The same as Sandwich

For over a year and a half I worked in a high end gourmet restaurant. And through that time I worked my way up the food chain to become what was called in the kitchen a “make shift food prep cook.” I learned how to chop, sauté, bake, you name it I probably cooked it. I cooked anything from pasta’s to deliciously baked breads. One of the requirements of the kitchen was that, when it’s time for lunch, make it yourself. So there I was on my first day and had thousands of ingredients at my disposal to make whatever I wanted, and with so many possibilities the choice was impossible to make; one of my co-workers was making a ham and cheese sandwich, so I decided to make one for myself. But here’s a little bit of truth for you, until then I had never eaten a ham and cheese in my life, so when I first ate it I was surprised I liked it so much because I’m not a huge ham fan. And with that first bite of the ham and cheese I was hooked.


Why such the long story, about a sandwich and for most people would make the list of “the best food they’ve ever eaten.” I think that the sandwich is way underrated. I don’t know any student that doesn’t live off the sandwich in one form or another, from eating Hot Pockets, to buying a readymade sandwich at the market.

But who was the first to make the sandwich, the main source of substance that feeds most college students? Well his name was Rabbi Hillel the Elder (see here for more). Rabbi Hillel lived in the first century B.C. and started mixing chopped nuts, apples, spices and wine between two slices of unleaded bread that are eaten over pass over called the matzos, and so we can concluded that the first recorded sandwich was made. But it wouldn’t be tell John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, ordered the first sandwich at a restaurant, that we would get the name (see here for more). And yes, this is the same guy who sailed with Captain Cook, who named the Hawaiian Islands the Sandwich Islands after Montagu. Apparently the legend has it that John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, was an addicted gambler. One night Montagu was at the gambling table all night and too absorbed in gambling that he didn’t pay attention to his stomach, until finally he ordered his valet to bring him salted meat, cheese, bread, and some liquor. He then stuck the meat and cheese between two slices of bread, so he could continue to play with one hand. The other men at the gambling table began to order “the same as Sandwich.”

What I love about the Sandwich is that we can make it as healthy or as fattening as we want. It’s all up to the mood we're in while making or ordering one.