Transcript / LoLT: Sandwich Designer of the Year and Two New Books — 15 November 2024

This is a transcription of LoLT: Sandwich Designer of the Year and Two New Books — 15 November 2024

[cheerful music]

Melissa: Coming up, a super-soapy, super-smutty retro romp in the British countryside.

David: The Big Book of Bread!

Melissa: Plus, our distraction of the week. I’m Mel.

David: I’m Dave. This is the library of lost time.

David: Hello! We wrapped up the sixth season of Strong Sense of Place last week. We also started a survey to find out how we can improve. We are always looking for ways to improve the show. We would love to hear from you! If you have thoughts about what would be better for you, or how we could get the word out about the show, or even if you just want to stop by and say hello! It is all welcome.

David: You can find that survey at strongsenseofplace.com/survey or by clicking the link in the podcast description. Mel and I read every word you write. Thank you to everyone who has already responded. If you need just a little bit of motivation to respond, that survey has a few details about a top-secret project we’re putting together. So, please, come by and say hello. That’s strongsenseofplace.com/survey or the link in your podcast description.

David: What’s your book?

Melissa: As I’ve said many times before — maybe too many — I’m a David Tennant superfan. So I was pretty excited to watch the Disney+ series ‘Rivals,’ starring DT as a villain. The show is set in the Cotswolds in the 1980s. It uses the cutthroat world of TV production as an excuse for a handful of characters to flirt, fight, attend posh parties, and fall into each other’s beds. It’s wildly inappropriate and very over-the-top. Subtlety has no place in this show. For example, David Tennant’s naughty character is named Lord Anthony Baddingham, and the county where all the rich people live is called Rutshire. I loved every minute of it.

Melissa: The show is based on a 1988 novel by Dame Jilly Cooper. Before watching the show, I wasn’t familiar with her, but she’s like the British Danielle Steele. Cooper has written 44 books that sold more than 11 million copies in the UK alone. The 11 books of her Rutshire Chronicles are her most famous.

Melissa: After watching the Rivals series, I thought it would be fun to try the book. Then I learned that Georgia Tennant, David Tennant’s wife, narrated a new version of the audiobook, and I was sold. As the story goes, when DT was offered a part in Rivals, his wife Georgia said, ‘You’re doing it’ before they’d even read the script. Apparently, she read the books as a teenager, and they grabbed her at just the right time. I totally get that!

Melissa: The book opens with a flight on Concorde from London to New York City. What could be more ’80s than that?! There’s non-stop champagne, every woman is beautiful, every man is virile, and every conversation is rife with sexual innuendo or ultra-polite insults. That opening sets the tone for the entirety of the 700-page story, and it continues as it begins with verbal sparring, love affairs, backstabbing, and scheming. It. is. glorious.

Melissa: Here are some of the things I love about the audiobook: Georgia Tennant’s reading voice is very alluring. Her British accent is nice and buttery, and she’s very good at making the American characters sound super American.

Melissa: The audiobook is almost 25 hours long. I love that these characters will be keeping me company on my morning walks for a long time. It’s wildly entertaining. This is the soapiest of soap operas, and it’s the perfect escapism for this cold, gray November. I also love that the language is pretty raunchy. Cursing is the only vice I have left, and I love a good expletive. I know spicy language isn’t for everyone, so keep that in mind if you’re considering this book.

Melissa: Finally, it’s pretty smutty, but in a sort of hilarious way. Because it was written in the ’80s, the sexual hijinks feel innocent somehow — even though people are committing adultery and shagging all over the place.

Melissa: If you’re looking for pure entertainment with no redeeming moral qualities, this book is a very good time. But definitely get the audio for maximum experience. It’s Rivals by Jilly Cooper, read by Georgia Tennant.

David: When we lived in Vermont, we were just down the road from the King Arthur Baking Company. That organization is primarily known for its baking flour, which is available all over the world. But they are also bakers. And they were wonderful neighbors. They kept the whole valley supplied with bread and muffins and baked goods. They’ve got a charming building in Norwich that has a restaurant, a store, and a baking school. There are some picnic tables there. You can get a bag of hot rolls and a coffee, sit outside, and enjoy Vermont. 13 out of 10, would recommend.

David: That company is also 100 percent employee-owned. Everyone gets a say in what corporate does, because they’re all a part of it. King Arthur is demonstrating that collaboration and making money are not mutually exclusive.

David: I bring all of this up because they’ve recently released a book. It’s called, ‘The King Arthur Baking Company Big Book of Bread: 125+ Recipes for Every Baker.’ And it is lovely.

David: First, it clearly describes all of the issues around baking a nice loaf of bread. They start with the basics – mixing, kneading, folding, and all of that. You can scan QR codes to see videos of the different techniques. And then they get into the world of baked goods. They’ve got flatbreads, load breads, hearth breads, buns, bagels, and what they call ‘fancy’ breads. They’ll show you how to braid a challah. They get into the weeds with sourdough. They’ve got a recipe for a toast broad.

David: We need to talk about toast bread. I had never heard of toast bread until we moved to Europe. It’s what it sounds like: it’s a bread explicitly made to be toasted. And if you’re like me, you’re thinking, ‘How much difference could there possibly be?’ Friends! If you enjoy toast, you need to try some toast bread. It makes a perfect toast: crunch on the outside, still some chewy on the inside. Life-changer. The sky is bluer after you have the toast bread.

David: But back to the book.

David: This book even has some bread-adjacent recipes like bread pudding and French toast. They’ve got a recipe for something they call, ‘Extremely Cheesy Grilled Cheese.’ This might be a good time to mention that they’ve got photos with every recipe. So you know what you’re getting into. The photo for the ‘Extremely Cheesy Grilled Cheese’ is someone doing a perfect pull on a grilled cheese sandwich. They’re tearing it in half. Yes. Yes to that.

David: Every recipe also comes with a graphic for prep time. So you can see, for instance, that these Dutch Crunch Rolls take three hours, but there’s only about 40 minutes worth of work in that time.

David: The book would make an excellent gift. Do you know what else makes an excellent gift? A nice freshly-baked loaf of bread. You walk in with a fresh batch of rolls or a baguette or a loaf of lemon swirl, you’re making friends. It’s like bringing treats to the dog park.

David: This book is ‘The King Arthur Baking Company Big Book of Bread: 125+ Recipes for Every Baker.’ It is available now.

David: And now, our Distraction of the Week.

Melissa: I would like everyone to join me on a sandwich journey. This is the story of how a 7-year-old article in The Guardian introduced me to, perhaps, the best awards competition on the planet: The Sammies.

Melissa: First, The Guardian. The Guardian is an independent British daily newspaper. It’s owned by the Guardian Media Group — not a billionaire. The Guardian Media Group has one shareholder: The Scott Trust. The Trust is named for the paper’s longest-serving editor. And it ensures that the Guardian has financial and editorial independence in perpetuity. More than half of the paper’s revenue comes directly from its readers. Including me.

Melissa: One of the great features of the Guardian is its long reads. They invest in in-depth reporting, essays, and profiles that dig deeper than a hot take on social media. They cover a wide range of topics from the very serious, like, the new nuclear arms race — but they also sometimes have fun, like a recent profile of a rollercoaster designer.

Melissa: To celebrate 10 years of long reads, The Guardian has invited journalists to record their old articles as podcasts with new intros, and the result is fantastic audio. And that’s how I found myself listening to a 7000-word report from 2017 on how the sandwich consumed Britain. Who knew that an article on the rise of packaged sandwiches could be such a thriller?! It’s obvious that its author Sam Knight was having a blast with this piece. He’s a staff writer for The New Yorker, based in London. His story is populated by colorful characters and sprinkled liberally with fun facts. He writes delightful paragraphs.

Melissa: Exhibit A:

‘If you have been eating a packaged sandwich while reading this, you will have probably finished it by now. One industry estimate says that, on average, they take 3.5 minutes to consume. But no one really knows, because no one pays attention. One of the great strengths of the sandwich over the centuries has been how naturally it grafts on to our lives, enabling us to walk, read, take the bus, work, dream and scan our devices at the same time as feeding ourselves with the aid of a few small rotational gestures of wrist and fingers. The pinch at the corner. The sweep of the crumbs.’

Melissa: The article is a delight from top to bottom. I shared the print piece and the podcast with my best friends the day I read it, and enjoyed it again while getting ready for this show.

Melissa: In addition to a) entertaining me with the history of British take-away sandwiches and b) making me really hungry for a Pret a Manger sandwich, this piece introduced me to the Sandwich & Food To Go Industry Awards… aka, The Sammies.

Melissa: The Sammies are a combination of the Oscars and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show — but for portable food. The formal Sammies honor businesses in categories like the New Food To Go Award, Healthy Eating Award, New Ingredient Award, and Environmental & Sustainability Award. It’s like the technical Oscars.

Melissa: But, perhaps more relevant to our interests, is the competition that names the Sandwich Designer of the Year. The masterminds behind new sandwich combos compete in six categories that use a sponsor’s ingredient as the key element. A winner is chosen in each category, then there’s a sort of Best in Show to pick the overall winner to claim the title ‘Sandwich & Food to Go, Designer of the Year,’ along with a 2000 pound cash prize.

Melissa: Last year, the overall winner was a sandwich called the Smokey Roll. It was created by chef Katarina Broadribb. She’s originally from Bratislava, Slovakia, but now she runs the Lemon and Soul cooking school in Southampton.

Melissa: Her award-winning sandwich is a combination of smoked beef brisket, sautéed mushrooms, Gouda cheese, spicy horseradish, and herb mayo on a toasted roll. I’ll include a link to the recipe in show notes.

Melissa: In ‘keeping it in the family’ news, her husband Simon also won in the feta cheese category for his sandwich called ‘A Mountain of Feta and Merguez Wrap,’ which featured feta cheese and spicy lamb sausage rolled into flat bread and pan-fried until crispy. I would very much like to be invited to a dinner party at their house.

Melissa: This year’s featured ingredients include chicken, gammon ham, a particular brand of bread, raclette cheese, gruyere cheese, and Greek Labneh yogurt spread.

Melissa: Budding sandwich enthusiasts take note: This year’s competition is on RIGHT NOW. Written sandwich recipes and photos are submitted in January, then the cooking heats are held in March. The LIVE final is in May at the Royal Lancaster London Hotel before the black-tie Sammies Awards Dinner.

If you’re listening to this show on the day it’s released, November 15, 2024, today is the deadline to register.

Melissa: Visit strongsenseofplace.com/library for more on the books we talked about today and everything you need to know about the Sandwich Designer of the Year Awards. Please, please do yourself the favor of listening to the Guardian long reads article about sandwiches.

David: Thanks for joining us on the library of last time. Remember to visit your local library and your independent bookstore to lose some time yourself.

Melissa: Stay curious. We’ll talk to you soon.

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Top image courtesy of Davey Gravy/Unsplash.