We went for breakfast/lunch to a newly opened Southern themed restaurant in Fairfield. Lacking the decisiveness to choose lunch or breakfast I picked a meal from the lunch menu that used French Toast. I ate a Monte Cristo sandwich; turkey, ham, and cheese between two slices of French Toast. It was very tasty, but left me wondering how it gets its name. It is one of two American foods that derives its name from Dumas novels; there is a chocolate bar called 3 musketeers. None of his other novels have titles that seem appropriate for food, but that does not seem a valid reason, after all why Dumas apart from the fact that he is French and the dish uses French Toast. If the inventor wanted a French novel he/she could just as easily have choosen Hugo’s “Bug-Jargal”; doesn’t that sound tasty? Wikipedia merely notes: “The etymological origin of the sandwich’s name is contentious.” There is no detail on the raging arguments that make for this contention. Trying to find an answer to this question merely shows how much of an echo chamber the net can be; the very phrase quoted above is repeated on multiple pages.
Does anyone know have any ideas how this sandwich acquired its name?
