I’m eager to dive into this new food history/cookbook, Dictators’ Dinners, when it comes out in the US on March 18. (It’s been available in the UK for about four years now).
From the publisher:
What did dictators eat? Sometimes simply obscene amounts of the best their nations could offer, but more often their despots’ humble origins, or embarrassing medical conditions, or simple lack of interest in or time for food meant their tastes were surprisingly unpretentious – ranging from human flesh, to raw garlic salad, to Quality Street…
Dictators Dinners is an investigation into what some of the world’s most notorious 20th century despots have enjoyed most at their dinner table, and with whom. Here we learn of their foibles, their eccentricities and their frequent terror of poisoning – something no number of food tasters was ever able to assuage.
For a selection of 25 former national figureheads across the world, each section includes:
• An outline of the dictator’s history.
• A short essay on their particular eating habits, table manners, digestive systems.
• One or two of their favourite recipes.
RESOURCES AND REVIEWS:
Dictators’ Dinners Cookbook: Reveals Recipes of World’s Most Notorious Dictators, at The Daily Mail
Dictators’ Dinners: From Hitler’s Vegetarianism to Kim Jong Il’s Iranian Caviar, at The Independent
Dictators’ Dinners, at Goodreads
The Favorite Foods and Eccentric Eating Habits of 9 Ruthless Dictators (SF Gate)
Saddam’s Chocolate and Gaddafi’s Camel Milk: Tyrants’ Meals Revealed, at The Guardian
Studying the Food of History’s Most Infamous, at The Dinner Party Download
What Do Dictators Like to Eat?, at BBC News
Shop for Dictators’ Dinners on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, and on eBay.