The Christmas sandwich arms race has begun, plus: Ramsay vs Marco and Britain's forgotten pies
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Saturday, November 14, 2026
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Britain’s supermarkets have reached the stage of Christmas where apparently even pudding needs to be put between two slices of bread.
From the end of November, Sainsbury’s will sell an apple crumble sandwich: brioche filled with apple, compote, crème fraîche, soft cheese, salted caramel and granola crumble. Tesco has put turkey pastrami and Emmental in a panettone roll, while its recent birthday cake sandwich sold out in 1,000 stores. Last year brought a mince pie wrap. The festive sandwich arms race has entered dangerous territory. I give it 12 months before someone launches a trifle toastie.
Elsewhere, Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White are still arguing about things that happened more than 30 years ago. A new BBC documentary revisits one of British food’s great feuds, in which practically every important detail has two versions. White denies physically attacking his former protégé; Ramsay says he has never forgiven him. Ramsay once blamed White for stealing Aubergine’s reservations book, before later admitting he had orchestrated the disappearance himself. Heston Blumenthal, meanwhile, largely seems to have wandered into the middle of all this while looking for somewhere to experiment on a chip.
Our protein obsession also comes under scrutiny this week. Dr Rupy Aujla points out that 96 per cent of people in the UK aren’t eating enough fibre, while supermarket shelves increasingly resemble a competition to see what else can have “HIGH PROTEIN” printed across it. His prescription is considerably less glamorous: more beans, berries, greens and seeds, added gradually if your digestive system has been surviving largely on chicken breast and whey powder. Expensive probiotic supplements can stay on the shelf.
Calum Franklin is looking backwards for inspiration. The Pie King has been digging through British Library manuscripts to revive forgotten regional pies for The Modern Pie Maker, alongside favourites including balti pie, herb pie and figgy pudding. His wider mission is to remind us that British food amounts to rather more than fish and chips and roast dinners. Quite right too.
For anyone actually cooking, we have seven deceptively easy starters and small plates, from Greek salad dipping oil to goat’s cheese-stuffed dates, plus five ways to make red kale genuinely appealing – satay noodles and spicy quesadillas included. Rosamund Hall also has the wines for staying in with them, including a remarkably respectable £6.39 Rhône red from Aldi.
Restaurant radar
Claude Bosi is returning to Michelin House, Adam Handling is letting diners choose their own four-course lunch and Ivan Orkin is bringing his ramen to Shepherd’s Bush. Dalston has acquired a 20-person bar with no chairs, while a Covent Garden burger restaurant has hidden its dessert bar behind a Coca-Cola machine. Apparently pudding now requires both bread and a secret entrance.
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Hannah Twiggs
Food and Drink Editor
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Apple crumble in a sandwich? Get ready for the ‘dessertwich’
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As pudding becomes the latest thing to be stuffed between two slices of bread, Hannah Twiggs asks: has the Christmas sandwich has finally lost the plot?
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Have you ever looked at an apple crumble and decided its chief failing is that it isn’t wedged between two slices of bread? Someone at Sainsbury’s has.
From 30 November, you can indulge in the supermarket’s latest contribution to the unhinged Christmas food arms race: an apple crumble sandwich for £1.85. That’ll get you brioche filled with fresh apple slices, compote, creme fraiche, soft cheese, salted caramel and granola crumble.
Perhaps someone in R&D accidentally dropped a pudding into a bread bin and decided to sell the evidence.
I don’t recall anyone crying out for more “dessertwiches”. Apple crumble was doing perfectly well on its own. It had a good run – apple pie became crumble during Second World War food rationing – and generally was enjoyable without an intervention from a sandwich development team.
Yet here we are. Approaching Christmas 2026, Britain’s supermarkets are once again engaged in the increasingly bizarre competition to see what can be shoved between two slices of bread and called a festive sandwich. Pudding is the latest casualty.
Read the full article here
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Three non-traditional recipes from Pie King Calum Franklin
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Calum Franklin turns Britain’s pie heritage into a practical modern cookbook, drawing on historic recipes, regional traditions and years of pastry obsession. Across 80 recipes, The Modern Pie Maker ranges from balti pie and Cornish pasties to homity pie and figgy pudding, with clear techniques and plenty of context. A handsome, deeply researched celebration of British baking at its best.
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