La Cuisine

lickypickystickyfree:

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
The dude who invented the sandwich.

The modern sandwich is named after Lord Sandwich. Evidently John Montagu had been a very conversant gambler. He did not have time to have meal during the play, so he would ask his servants to bring him slices of meat between two slices of bread during his long hours play at the card table.

This habit became well known among his gambling friends and thus the ‘sandwich’ was born. Because Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order “the same as Sandwich!” However, the exact circumstances of the invention are still the subject of debate. A rumour in a contemporary travel book called Tour to London (although not confirmed) by Pierre Jean Grosley formed the popular myth that bread and meat sustained Lord Sandwich at the gambling table.

The sober alternative is provided by Sandwich’s biographer, N. A. M. Rodger, who suggests Sandwich’s commitments to the navy, to politics and the arts mean the first sandwich was more likely to have been consumed at his desk.