How The Olympics Made Diagonal-Cut Sandwiches A Sensation In Japan – Tasting Table

The Olympic Games carry a lot of sway on the world stage. Televised moments of history make or break an athlete's career, but the games can also affect myriad small businesses feeding overwhelming numbers of visitors from across the globe. That's exactly what happened with a bakery called Furenpan and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, according to the Japanese Food Guide.

Three years prior to the opening games, the owners of Furenpan came up with the idea of cutting their sandwiches diagonally to better display the interior contents. But these weren't just any kind of sandwich; the company specialized in making Japanese fruit sandwiches. Fruits, once a luxury item in Japan, became more accessible in the early 1900s, giving rise to dedicated fruit parlors dishing out delicacies such as fruit shortcakes, parfaits, and, eventually, fruit sandwiches for easy eating at business centers and train stations. As the story goes, Fuhrenpan received a patent for the sandwich design as well as its accompanying wrapping style. But as the Olympics drew closer, they relinquished their patent in order to popularize the diagonal cut with Olympic visitors.

It worked. Long after the Olympic games came and went, diagonally cut fruit sandwiches are a mainstay on menus across Japan. The sandwich typically features large cuts of fresh fruit and sweetened cream between slices ofshokupan, which is a sort ofJapanese milk bread, explains Chopstick Chronicles.

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How The Olympics Made Diagonal-Cut Sandwiches A Sensation In Japan - Tasting Table