# Why does hot food cause Condensation?

I'm familiar with why water condenses on cool surfaces.

However, why does hot/warm food cause surfaces to sweat/condensate?

For example, if you put a warm (such as panini pressed) sandwich on a plate, then place the plate on the table that is cooler than the sandwich, water will collect in a liquid form under the plate/on the table.

What causes water to become liquid or to collect here? I would think that the heat would cause the water to evaporate...

Edit: Another way to perform this experiment yourself is with toasted bread or Pop-tarts. I have found the most success with a paper plate when using objects with a low specific heat. If you use food stuffs containing more water (with a higher specific heat) like lasagna and other pastas, the same effect can be achieved with stone, ceramic and glass plates.

As for why droplets form under the plate, I suspect this is due to the energy cost of forming a droplet. In forming a droplet, you gain energy from being in the favorable phase, this scales with $r^3$. However you lose energy at the surface, which scales with $r^2$. Hence for small droplets, $r\rightarrow 0$, the energy cost scales with $1/r$.