Dear Humans,

I love sandwiches. I mean, I really love them. Not only do I like eating them and making them, but I also like thinking about them. Because a sandwich isn’t just meat and cheese between two floppy slices of bread. A sandwich is a system.

The story is that John Montagu was playing cards and had the eureka idea to put his roast beef between two slices of bread so he could eat it with one hand. But that’s not really how things are invented. In truth, people have been putting meat and cheese and other foods on bread or wrapped in bread for centuries and centuries.

And like the best things in life, a sandwich can look many different ways. Variation is the rule. As long as it has certain components—bread, of course, and fat and acid and something crunchy and something creamy—then it’s a sandwich in my book.

Sincerely,

Mr. H