- Apart from being a diminutive for the name “Pepe”, the word “pepito” is defined as “a sandwich containing a steak” in the Spanish dictionary. This is thanks to a certain Mr Pepito, a usual customer of a café in Madrid during the early 20th century. This customer requested to be served a beef steak inside a piece of bread, a combination that impressed other customers, who started asking for a sandwich “just like Pepito’s”, giving the dish its particular name.
- Through large volumes of people moving there from afar, Venezuelan people have learnt to adapt foreign flavours and made them their own — having their own unique versions of dishes such as hamburgers, hot dogs… and pepitos, thanks to Spanish immigrants.
“A proper pepito must have ‘Canilla’ bread, a shorter version of a French baguette…”
- It was then when this dish started developing a personality of its own — making the pepito a king of Venezuelan fast food, to the point where people accept it as a regional dish.
- A proper pepito must have “Canilla” bread, a shorter version of a French baguette, and excessive quantities of sauces such as corn, garlic, barbeque, cheddar or blue cheese, mustard, tartare or even bacon — all of them in their own small bottle.