Smith - 300 sandwiches: a multilayered love story ... with recipes

300 Sandwiches is a work of nonfiction. Some names and identifying details, along with some chronology, have been changed. Any resulting resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

Copyright 2015 by 300 Sandwiches LLC

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Zinc Ink, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

B ALLANTINE and the H OUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Z INC I NK is a trademark of David Zinczenko.

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING IN P UBLICATION D ATA
Smith, Stephanie
300 sandwiches : a multilayered love story with recipes/Stephanie Smith.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-553-39160-2 (hardback)ISBN 978-0-553-39161-9 (ebook)
1. Sandwiches. 2. Smith, Stephanie, 1978Friends and associates. 3. JournalistsUnited StatesBiography.
I. Title. II. Title: Three-hundred Sandwiches.
TX818.S628 2015
641.81dc23
2014046306

www.ballantinebooks.com

246897531

v3.1_r1

You know your relationship has gone viral when Matt Lauer calls to ask about it.

Okay, it was somebody who works with Matt Lauer. But he wanted us on the Today show the very next day to discuss 300 Sandwiches, my blog about a bet I made with E, my boyfriend: Id make him the food, hed supply a wedding ringa mutually beneficial deal.

At 4:00 A.M ., E and I packed up a coolers worth of groceries and hopped in a car to Rockefeller Center. The Today show is located half a block from my offices at the New York Post , where I work as a gossip columnist. I walk by the set every day on the way to work but had never gone through the guest entrance until now.

We stepped into the elevator and were escorted to Today s prep kitchen, where I went to work assembling my first sandwich with an entire staff of food stylists who would help me make it look more like art than lunch. I was so nervous that I accidentally tossed the on-set pepper and paprika from the kitchen shelves into the bag of food Id brought. I stole the Today shows pepper! Does Giada de Laurentiis do that when shes on the show?

The lights were blinding above me. I started to sweat. I caught Es eye. Can I do this? I thought.

He jumped in and grabbed the knife from my hands, which were shaking as I sliced tomatoes. You can do this. That was all I needed to hear.

At 8:00 A.M ., I sat in the makeup chair and watched as a reporter from NBCs local newscast gave a teaser about my segment coming up in the next half hour. Can three hundred sandwiches make a man propose? Meet a woman whos doing just that, on the next hour of Today .

I took my place on the stage. As I walked out, I saw that photos of sandwiches from my blog had been blown up and displayed on large screens behind the table displaying my creations. The producers miked me, and I looked over at E and smiled excitedly. Can you believe this? I mouthed to him.

Then a flurry of peopleproducers, runners, pages, publicistscame to introduce themselves. And, as soon as we went to commercial break, the shows hosts, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales, and MATT LAUER (!) ran over to me. Hugging, kissing, Hello! How are you? These sandwiches look good!-ing.

I felt like I was watching all this on camera, outside myself. This couldnt be real. I wondered what my mother was thinking. And what was Es mother thinking?

We were live. Savannah introduced me as a reporter for the New York Post and the author of 300 Sandwiches. The segment started, and they walked through each of my sandwich offerings, carefully displayed for the camera by the shows stylist. Are you really making sandwiches in pursuit of an engagement ring? Savannah asked.

Yes, I said, answering calmly, again, playing the role of the confident female chef I was most definitely not. And then Matt went for the kill: Some people said this young lady is setting women back fifty years; shes becoming a Stepford wife. How do you react?

I told Matt that E does most of the cooking at home, and then hit him with the kicker. If he wasnt the kind of guy that was worth one sandwich, I wouldnt be making three hundred sandwiches.

So lets bring out Eric, here. E came from stage left and joined me on camera. Eric, whats your favorite of all these?

The prime rib. I knew hed say that.

Now, lets get to the real question, Matt said, gearing up for the hardball. I knew it was coming. So did EId warned him about this. When she hits number three hundred, will you get down on one knee and will you propose?

In that split second, I thought back to all the sandwiches I had made so far174it seemed like an astronomical number, and I still had so many more to go. Id accepted this challenge on a whim, an inside joke between my boyfriend and me while we progressed in our relationship from casual to committed. But was an engagement ring really worth all the outrage that was looming just past the Today studios? Were five minutes of fame worth being a whipping post for every feminist rant the Internet had to offer, and having the man I love reviled on an international level? Was it worth all those sandwiches, and what they represented?

I was about to find out.

My parents met over sandwiches.

Sporting an Afro and a black pantsuit, the 1975 version of my mother, Jeanette, walked into a White Castle on Main Street in Orange, New Jersey, for some post-clubbing eats. She immediately recognized the guy ahead of her in line. Theyd grown up together, lived on the same block, gone swimming at the local park together. Artthe version who had yet to become my fatherwore Coke-bottle glasses, a bell-bottom suit, and a mustache so thick you could do pull-ups off it.

Art? Art Smith? Wow, its been years!

My father paused. Hmmm, he said, thinking of his smoothest line: I dont know the name, but anyone as fine as you, I should know her name.

Jean, she told him. Jean Brown?

Jean! Oh, wow! How have you been?

As they waited for sliders (before sliders were a thing), they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to go out.

On their first date, my father picked my mother up at her house in a loud, souped-up red Dodge Charger.

It was so loud that when he started the car, you shook in your seat, my mother has said.

Her friends Debbie and Pam were also at the house, and the three of them packed a roadie of Scotch in their purses before they went out.

My father took my mother and her two friends to dinner in Manhattan, double-parking the loud Charger. When they were finished, Dad took the friends home, and he and Jean drove around and talked.

What would you say if I asked you to marry me? Dad said.

Will you give me everything I want? answered my mom.

Ill give you everything in my power.

Sure, why not? Mom said. He pulled up in front of my moms house, dropped her off, and drove home.

I thought he was just joking, or just saying that to get in my pants, Mom told me later. I asked Dad about proposing on the first date. He said, I knew what I wanted.

When I moved to New York, I knew what I wanted: a job.