How To Feed A Dictator
A very interesting book told from the point of view of the cooks of dictators such as Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot. What a different view of these dictators these cooks had. Most of the cooks seemed to have liked their dictator. They even told stories that made them sound like nice guys. How the dictators gave them cars, or how the dictators were always very thankful for the food, etc.
There were lots of stories about the madmen being irradic as well. Apparently Saddam would get into bad moods and would not eat the food. He would say it was cooked wrong and then he would make the cook pay for the food. The next day, when he was in a better mood, he would praise the food and give the cook a bonus...usually the money the cook paid for the 'bad food' from the day before.
The relationships between dictator and cook were very dynamic. If you think about it, these dictators had to have trust in their cooks, since they could easily poison them. On the other hand, these cooks had to know exactly how to make the dictators favourite meal or they could be killed. So, a very extreme situation!
The research into this book was great. Szablowski travelled around the world to get first hand interview with the cooks. He would even talk to others closely associated with the dictator. Which made for a well rounded point of view, good background to put things into perspective, and very interesting stories you would have never heard.
The one thing I found very strange about all of these stories was that the dictators ate very little food. Even when they had a choice of eating whatever they wanted, how much they wanted, they would not eat a whole lot. And them most interesting thing to me was that most of the dictators didn't eat much meat, they were vegetarians or very close. Strange eh?
So, a great book that takes you into a world you would never be a part of.
No comments:
Post a Comment