by Mark Jones

It’s the taste of defeat. Outside in the streets there are a thousand varied, amazing dining experiences. You should go out. But you’re tired. You’ve been travelling all day, maybe all night. So you don’t. You stay in the hotel lobby and order the Club Sandwich and a bottle of beer.

There is ubiquitous hotel food; and there’s the Club Sandwich in an ubiquitous league of its own. It’s such a staple foodstuff of international hospitality that the bookings site hotels.com produces an annual Club Sandwich Index as a reliable way of measuring the cost of visiting different cities. Geneva is top of the CSI with an average cost of £19.96 for your bread/chicken/mayo/bacon/lettuce combo, followed closely by Paris. New Delhi is bottom at £5.97.

In fact, the much-derided CS has quite a distinguished history. As with the Earl of Sandwich’s original brainwave, it was developed to suit the appetites of hungry gamblers. It’s thought to have made its first appearance on the east coast of the USA around 1894 at the Saratoga Club-House gentleman’s club in Saratoga Springs. By 1903 it was well enough established to merit a mention in a Good Housekeeping cookery book. Over the 110 years that followed, there have been passionate debates about the right recipe. Chicken or turkey? Two decks or three? Tomatoes or not? But most international travellers agree: in whatever form it arrives, the CS has become a byword for bland, safe, international, default food.

Well, we can’t have something with our name on it having that reputation. That’s why The Club is launching a search for the Ultimate Club Sandwich.

We’re looking for the world’s best club sandwiches. And you can help. As you crisscross the globe, send us your descriptions and pictures of any really excellent Club Sandwiches you find. By the end of 2014 we hope to unveil The World’s Best Club Sandwich.

But what should you be looking for?

To help us, we got in touch with Theo Randall. Theo is a hotel chef - and one of the best. For ten years his eponymous restaurant at the London InterContinental Park Lane has been one of the city’s best haunts for top-quality, faithfully prepared Italian food. Theo is about to become a global brand, with his first InterContinental restaurant outside London due to open in Bangkok next April.

It’s fair to say that Theo isn’t a natural ally of the CS: ‘boring’ and ‘bland’ were two of the kinder words he used. But after delving into a few cookery books, he changed his mind: “it's actually a very interesting sandwich,” he told us. “You just need to use good ingredients”.

So The Club Sandwich by Theo Randall sticks to some very firm principles. Two decks, not three (“you don't want it falling in your lap”). Free-range chicken, not turkey. Toasted bread, but decent bread - ideally Poilâne sourdough. No eggs. And no tomatoes (“too soggy”), but a spicy green tomato relish instead. Whole Cos leaves, not shreds of any old lettuce.

We defy anyone not to feel a rumbling in the tummy area checking out the recipe below. But if you can find a better Club Sandwich, we NEED to hear about it.

The Club Sandwich by Theo - “simple yet delicious”

2 long slices of thinly cut sourdough bread (lightly toasted)

180g of sliced poached free-range chicken (breast and leg)

4 slices of dry cured smoked streaky bacon (crispy)

2 tbsp. of green tomato chutney

4 crisp leaves of Cos lettuce

2 tbsp. of fresh egg mayonnaise (made with olive oil).

Toast the bread and leave to cool. Spread the green tomato chutney on one side of the toasted bread. Place the chicken slices on top followed by the crispy bacon, then the Cos lettuce. Finish by spreading the mayonnaise on the remaining piece of toasted sourdough. Serve on its own!

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This article has been tagged Food + Drink, Opinion