What does the city of Charlottesville, VA and Sir John Montagu, First Lord of the Admiralty, Great Britain have in common? They are both celebrating a momentous anniversary, 250 years! http://celebrate250.com/Would it help if I gave you a hint? The Earl is from the town of Kent in Sandwich…and he was a bit of louche, playing cards until all hours of the night. Legend has it that just when the Brit’s table manners were becoming more refined, The Earl asked to be served a piece of meat between two slices of bread. According to food critic Sam Bompus, “What you have with the sandwich is the shock of informality. He was a daring man to eat in such a way coming from his social background.” Little did he know that in his haste, he was ushering in our fast food generation.
Cut to today, and of course the blow out Diamond Jubilee celebrations for HRH Queen Elizabeth II, I had to ask myself, what is her favorite sandwich? An ex-Royal Chef enlightened me this morning on BBC. It seems Her Majesty was ahead of her time, only requesting local foods that were in season; in fact, Chef McGrady said that if he were to serve strawberries in January she’d probably have his head! Well I’m not sure I could belly up to one of these, but here is the Celebration Sandwich – venison, pate of guinea fowl with sour cream and flora (lettuce?), Stilton cheese, gin and Dubonnet (Her Majesty’s favorite cocktail, not quite sure how it is incorporated into the sandwich – http://cocktails.about.com/od/atozcocktailrecipes/r/dbunt_cktl.htm), beet root and apple juice from Sandringham. YUM! God save our Cupcake Queen.
From a daring Earl, to a beloved Queen, and back to our little Dominion; I was catching up on my beach reading the other day, sans beach, and imagine my surprise. There in the midst of May’s O magazine, in an article titled “How to Change Your Life at Any Age,” was my new friend’s daughter-in-law’s name, Kath Younger. I’d mentioned Kath Eats Real Food (KERF) before as a favorite local blogger,http://www.katheats.com/ but little did I know how truly famous she is! The feature was about two young girls, teens from Oregon, who ran out of peanut butter one day and decided to make their own, thereby launching Wild Squirrel Nut Butter. Jiffy this is not, it comes in tantalizing flavors like curious cocoa-nut and pretzel pizazz. Well, they credit sending a sample to Kath for sparking their business breakthrough. Her review – “SO blew my socks off!” And this is how business models and marketing are changing.
I’d call it daring to think you can improve on a lunchtime sandwich staple. I’d call it even more daring to believe you could make a living blogging about food. And I’d call an 18 year old future Queen of England, who insisted on becoming a truck driver and auto mechanic during World War II in part because she feared “…carrying about an inferiority complex for life,” very daring indeed! Happy Diamond Jubilee Your Majesty!
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