How to Feed a Dictator

Zusatztext Winner, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards A very accomplished piece of historical journalism and brilliant story-telling . . . Just an outright pleasure to read. Bill Buford, bestselling author of Heat and Dirt Fascinating . . . Moving . . . Reveal[s] the complicated web of feelings (and morals) involved in cooking for a despot . . . A chilling read. The Washington Post Lively . . . Szablowski . . . devoted three years to tracking down and personally interviewing the cooks . . . [and] provide[s] historical context for the worlds in which these tyrants operated and makes sure we remember how evil they were, even as we read about their fondness for grilled cheese with honey or refusal to eat dried elephant meat. The Wall Street Journal I loved the book because it hit my personal sweet spotfood and history. . . . I kept turning the pages . . . with the same gape-mouthed shock I got from reading The Orphan Master's Son . Joel Stein, Air Mail Anecdotal and easy-going . . . Throughout, the chefs are rendered as compelling and complex characters. Szablowski's skill is to hang back from judgment . . . Like his compatriot, the literary non-fictioneer Kapuscinski . . . Szablowski lets his subjects speak for themselves . . . [offering] behind-the-scenes glimpses of hypocrisies, capriciousness and bullying . . . [and] posing . . . universal questions about collusion and responsibility. . . . Szablowski is a limpid and gently brilliant storyteller. Financial Times A fascinating journey through four continents . . . Szablowski paints a gripping picture of the autocracy seen through the eyes of tyrants' personal chefs. It's delicious and devastating at the same time. Karolina Wiercigroch, quoted in National Geographic A piquant food travelogue with dimensions that are both comic and Faulknerian, with court intrigue and betrayal so sudden that the book may as well have been titled In the Kitchen With Machiavelli . . . [The] moral ambiguity . . . is both the fascination and the horror of the book. . . . Chilling. Bloomberg Fascinating. Minneapolis Star Tribune Riveting, and utterly convincing . . . Viscerally transports us to an alien time, an alien place . . . The dictators are reanimated, transformed from creatures of mythology back into flesh and blood. . . . Exceptionally juicy. The Sunday Telegraph Winning . . . Szablowski's dogged pursuit across continents was rewarded. . . . This book tells all that we know about the power of good suppers, whoever they are fed to. The Spectator Fascinating . . . A beguiling mix of the dark and the comic, combining fancy cuisine with torture and genocide. Its tone is reminiscent of Armando Iannucci's recent movie The Death of Stalin , in which the absurd and the monstrous, the funny and the horrifying are so entwined as to be indivisible. The Mail on Sunday A very special book . . . We need a new word to describe the uncomfortable hunger one feels reading this book. Maclean's These are the tales from Hell's Kitchenthe real kitchens, in presidential palaces and retreats, where food was prepared for men so evil they seemed to be the Devil in human form. Al Bawaba Food and history buffs will find these firsthand accounts irresistible. . . . Throughout, Szablowski entertains with disturbing rumors, such as [Idi] Amin eating human flesh (whatever the case, his chef never cooked it for him), and strange obsessions ([Fidel] Castro preferred the milk from a single cow named Ubre Blanca, or white udder). . . . These are the kinds of stories only a chef could know. Publishers Weekly Its originality and top...

Winner, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

“A very accomplished piece of historical journalism and brilliant story-telling . . . Just an outright pleasure to read.” —Bill Buford, bestselling author of Heat and Dirt

“Fascinating . . . Moving . . . Reveal[s] the complicated web of feelings (and morals) involved in cooking for a despot . . . A chilling read.” —The Washington Post

“Lively . . . Szabłowski . . . devoted three years to tracking down and personally interviewing the cooks . . . [and] provide[s] historical context for the worlds in which these tyrants operated and makes sure we remember how evil they were, even as we read about their fondness for grilled cheese with honey or refusal to eat dried elephant meat.” —The Wall Street Journal

“I loved the book because it hit my personal sweet spot—food and history. . . . I kept turning the pages . . . with the same gape-mouthed shock I got from reading The Orphan Master’s Son.” —Joel Stein, Air Mail

“Anecdotal and easy-going . . . Throughout, the chefs are rendered as compelling and complex characters. Szabłowski’s skill is to hang back from judgment . . . Like his compatriot, the literary non-fictioneer Kapuściński . . . Szabłowski lets his subjects speak for themselves . . . [offering] behind-the-scenes glimpses of hypocrisies, capriciousness and bullying . . . [and] posing . . . universal questions about collusion and responsibility. . . . Szabłowski is a limpid and gently brilliant storyteller.” —Financial Times

“A fascinating journey through four continents . . . Szabłowski paints a gripping picture of the autocracy seen through the eyes of tyrants’ personal chefs. It’s delicious and devastating at the same time.” —Karolina Wiercigroch, quoted in National Geographic

“A piquant food travelogue with dimensions that are both comic and Faulknerian, with court intrigue and betrayal so sudden that the book may as well have been titled In the Kitchen With Machiavelli . . . [The] moral ambiguity . . . is both the fascination and the horror of the book. . . . Chilling.” —Bloomberg

“Fascinating.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Riveting, and utterly convincing . . . Viscerally transports us to an alien time, an alien place . . . The dictators are reanimated, transformed from creatures of mythology back into flesh and blood. . . . Exceptionally juicy.” —The Sunday Telegraph

“Winning . . . Szabłowski’s dogged pursuit across continents was rewarded. . . . This book tells all that we know about the power of good suppers, whoever they are fed to.” —The Spectator

“Fascinating . . . A beguiling mix of the dark and the comic, combining fancy cuisine with torture and genocide. Its tone is reminiscent of Armando Iannucci’s recent movie The Death of Stalin, in which the absurd and the monstrous, the funny and the horrifying are so entwined as to be indivisible.” —The Mail on Sunday

“A very special book . . . We need a new word to describe the uncomfortable hunger one feels reading this book.” —Maclean’s

“These are the tales from Hell’s Kitchen—the real kitchens, in presidential palaces and retreats, where food was prepared for men so evil they seemed to be the Devil in human form.” —Al Bawaba

“Food and history buffs will find these firsthand accounts irresistible. . . . Throughout, Szabłowski entertains with disturbing rumors, such as [Idi] Amin eating human flesh (whatever the case, his chef never cooked it for him), and strange obsessions ([Fidel] Castro preferred the milk from a single cow named Ubre Blanca, or “white udder”). . . . These are the kinds of stories only a chef could know.” —Publishers Weekly

“Its originality and topicality in a world increasingly governed by political strongmen [are] intriguing. . . . The author shares intimate historical insig…