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The 250-year-old sandwich
The 250th anniversary of the ‘invention’ of the sandwich is to be celebrated in the town of Sandwich in Kent.
John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich allegedly ‘invented’ the bread snack in 1762 when he asked for meat to be served between slices of bread so that he didn’t have to take a lunch break during a gambling game. Before long, his friends were asking to have the ‘same as Sandwich’ and the popular convenience food was born.
The celebrations in Sandwich on 12–13 May will include a Baguette versus Sandwich competition when locals from Sandwich’s ‘twin’ town of Honfleur will take part wearing their traditional French Normandy costume. There will also be a theatrical presentation of the creation of the very first sandwich, a concert of 18th-century music, a food fair and a Sandwich Competition in which visitors can enter their own sandwich creations.
The celebrations take place during British Sandwich Week. It is thought that the actual snack has no direct connection with the Kent town, only with the first Earl of Sandwich, Admiral Sir Edward Montagu, who took the title because the fleet he was commanding in 1660 was lying off Sandwich before it sailed to bring King Charles II back to England.
Captain James Cook also named the Sandwich Isles in what is now Hawaii after the 4th Earl, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty and Cook’s financial sponsor.
The sandwich industry today employs 300,000 people in the UK and has a commercial value of over £6 billion. The Sandwich Celebrations are part of the British Sandwich Week 9–15 May.
Sandwich Celebration 12–13 May, Sandwich, Kent
Website: www.sandwichevents.info
Press contact: Julie Edwards
Tel: +44 1227 812914
Email: Julie.Edwards@visitkent.co.uk
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