Fool's Gold Loaf facts for kids
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| Type | Sandwich |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | Denver, Colorado |
| Created by | Colorado Mine Company |
| Main ingredients | Bread, creamy peanut butter, grape jelly, bacon |
| ~1,000 kcal | |
Fool's Gold Loaf is a sandwich made by the Colorado Mine Company, a restaurant in Denver, Colorado. The sandwich consists of a single warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with the contents of one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.
The sandwich's connection to the singer Elvis Presley is the source of its legend and prolonged interest. According to The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley, Presley and his friends took his private jet from Graceland, purchased 30 of the sandwiches, and spent two hours eating them and drinking Perrier and champagne before flying home. The story became legend and the sandwich became the subject of continued media interest and part of numerous cookbooks, typically focused around Presley's love of food.
Contents
Origin
There are two accounts on the origin of Fool's Gold Loaf. According to Graeme Wood, the Fool's Gold Loaf was created by Cindy and Buck Scott, owners of the Colorado Mine Company restaurant. Wood writes that Elvis obtained the recipe from the Scotts, so his personal chef could make it, but noted that "the Fool's Gold Loaf never made a recorded encore".
According to Nick Andurlakis, he helped create the sandwich while he was working at the Colorado Mine Company as a chef and suggested the Fool's Gold Loaf to Elvis. Andurlakis said that he personally delivered the sandwiches to Elvis on the famous night.
The sandwich was named to fit the mining motif of the restaurant. At the time of Elvis's famous outing, the Fool's Gold Loaf cost $49.95 (equivalent to $257 in 2022).
Preparation
The recipe has been repeated by numerous sources, including The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley and Andurlakis, a chef at the Colorado Mine Company.
The Fool's Gold Loaf begins with a loaf of French white bread that is covered in two tablespoons of margarine and baked in the oven at 350 °F (175 °C) until brown. One pound of sliced bacon is fried in oil until crispy and drained. The loaf is sliced lengthwise, hollowed out, and filled with peanut butter, grape jelly and bacon.
According to Andurlakis, he personally served Elvis the Fool's Gold Loaf with bacon, peanut butter, and blueberry preserves on a loaf of French bread. The specific type of preserves was allegedly Dickinson's blueberry preserves.
Elvis connection
David Adler's book contains a detailed account of the event that made the Fool's Gold Loaf sandwich famous. On the night of February 1, 1976, Elvis Presley was at his home at Graceland in Memphis, entertaining Capt. Jerry Kennedy of the Denver, Colorado police force, and Ron Pietrafeso of Colorado's Strike Force Against Crime. The three men began discussing the sandwich, and Presley decided he wanted one right then. Presley had been to the restaurant before, while in Denver.
Kennedy and Pietrafeso were friends of the owners, so they were driven to the Memphis airport and boarded Presley's private jet, the Lisa Marie, and flew the two hours to Denver. When they arrived at Stapleton International Airport at 1:40 AM, the plane taxied to a special hangar where the passengers were greeted by Buck Scott, the owner of the Colorado Mine Company, and his wife Cindy, who had brought 22 fresh Fool's Gold Loaves for the men. They spent two hours in the hangar eating the sandwiches, washing them down with Perrier and champagne. Presley invited the pilots of the plane, Milo High and Elwood Davis, to join them. When they were done, they flew back to Memphis without ever having left the Denver airport.
Coverage
The Fool's Gold Loaf connection to Elvis dominates the media's coverage of the subject. It was widely reported as "legend" by the media; including the NBC's Today, Joplin Globe, and Gloucester Times. Doug Clark, a columnist for The Spokesman Review, recounts the popular story and writes that the Fool's Gold Recipe is "surprisingly tasty" and notes that it contains around 8,000 calories (33,000 kJ). The popular legend and sandwich were also noted by the Smithsonian Magazine.
The Fool's Gold Loaf has been included in numerous publications and cookbooks. The Fool's Gold Loaf was included and generated national interest with David Alder's book The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley. Alder's work would continue with the television documentary The Burger and The King. Another publication by Alder, Eating the Elvis Presley Way, was later released.
The Fool's Gold Loaf has been detailed in Ramble Colorado: The Wanderer's Guide to the Offbeat, Overlooked, and Outrageous. The Peanut Butter and Co. Cookbook refers to the Fool's Gold Loaf legend and ties it to the peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich, also known as the "Elvis sandwich".
In addition, the sandwich and its connection to Elvis Presley is featured in the 2013 romantic comedy The F Word (What If), with The Last Leg showing it off as well, in order to promote the film.
A Fool's Gold Loaf was one of the ingredients used in the 2018 "Grill Masters: Memphis" episode of Chopped.
A 3-pound version of the Fool's Gold Loaf, known as the "Elvis Challenge", was prepared by Kansas City, Missouri restaurant Succotash during a 2019 episode of the Cooking Channel's Man v. Food.
