Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book full of tempting combinations

For many of us, a sandwich – consisting of a too-moist filling between slices of soggy, spongy bread – is what we eat for lunch when we don’t have time for a “proper” meal.

Not all cultures disdain sandwiches, of course: in Scandinavian countries, people make an art of open-faced sandwiches, which can be beautiful as well as delicious. Vietnamese sandwiches, of which there are many permutations, are so good I’d be happy to make a meal out of them on a regular basis, if only they were easier to find in Hong Kong.

Rarely do top chefs allow their fine-dining restaurants to be turned into “sandwicheries” (if there is such a word). But that’s exactly what American chef Nancy Silverton did with her then husband, Mark Peel, at their (now closed) restaurant, Campanile, in Los Angeles.

Silverton reminisces about a food trip to Tuscany, Italy, where she ate so much that she never wanted to eat again. Her palate was revived after visiting a crostini bar in Florence.