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Marks and Spencer can’t get its sandwiches out of the spotlight
There was the patent wrongheadedness of the biryani ‘wrap’; there was the whiff of profiteering around the pride sandwich. Whatever Marks and Spencer’s food product development team have been mindmapping, it’s causing a stir, and now a new poll for a “street food-inspired” sandwich range has gone awry. The ‘kebab shop’ sandwich — because all kebab shops are the same, and also called kebab shops — features lamb doner meat, chilli sauce, salad, and the by-now-familiar habit of large supermarkets cherrypicking elements of cuisines and cultures before mashing them together. It has launched a thousand comments, views ranging through nostalgia-tinged / Brexit-invoking laments for “good old cheese and pickle,” people, amazingly, confused by the idea of doner meat with bread, and this gif.
— Abigails ISA (@IsaAbigails) May 9, 2019
And in other news...
- Gordon Ramsay “WANTS YOU,” for a new primetime BBC show, hosted by Gordon Ramsay.
- Guy Ritchie’s new London pub and restaurant needs to decide whether it’s “Ottolenghi or Mark Hix,” says Fay Maschler.
- Kricket, the “Indian small plates” group which currently has three restaurants in London, could expand to China and India with “International Kricket.” [Propel]
- Leon has announced financial results for 2018 that buck the casual dining downturn, crediting vegetarian dishes for much of its improvement. Sales rose by almost 25 percent. [Big Hospitality]
- Gavin Williamson’s food journey to influencerdom began on Instagram and took in a meal with George Osborne. Now he’s joined the Capitalise Important Words school of captioning in Cornwall. [Instagram]
- Good tweet:
Cafe Terrace Twats (at Night) pic.twitter.com/FBBIV9tgvh
— McFadden's Cold War (@Coldwar_Steve) May 12, 2019