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Naming a food improves it
Before the category
The evidence strongly suggests that John Montagu helped popularize food between bread as a distinct category. Picture a cook with leftover roast beef. Before the category existed, the beef went on some bread and that was that. Once the sandwich was a thing, the same cook asks which bread to use, whether to toast it, how thick to slice the meat, and whether it needs something acidic, crunchy, or creamy to balance it.
How categories drive innovation
A recognized category organizes innovation. People begin improving the food, arguing about it, specializing in it, teaching it, and passing techniques from one generation to the next. A solution for a gambler's table becomes an intentional culinary tradition, and from it come regional sandwiches that reflect different cultures and tastes, and signature sandwiches that vary from family to family and restaurant to restaurant.
The iPhone parallel
Apple offers a parallel. BlackBerry, Palm, and Nokia had been making smartphones for years when the iPhone arrived, and afterward it became the reference point: manufacturers were making alternatives to the iPhone. In the same way, once John Montagu's name attached to food between bread, people were making sandwiches instead of just putting food between bread.
How did banh mi come about?
The French introduced the baguette to Vietnam during the colonial period in the nineteenth century. Vietnamese cooks filled it with local ingredients such as pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro, chili, and pâté or pork. The result became a distinct sandwich with its own traditions. Food historians generally place its modern form in southern Vietnam in the mid-twentieth century.
Why does acid balance a rich sandwich?
Fat coats the tongue and makes food taste heavy. Acid from vinegar or citrus stimulates saliva and cuts through that coating, so each bite tastes fresher. Crunch adds a contrast in texture on top of that. Many classic sandwiches build this in, such as the Reuben's sauerkraut and the banh mi's pickled vegetables.
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