The Course of History
Ten Meals That Changed the World
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3.7 • 6 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
An entertaining seat at the table of ten power meals that shaped history—including the menus and recreated recipes!
Some of the most consequential decisions in history were decided at the dinner table, accompanied—and perhaps influenced—by copious amounts of food and drink. This fascinating book explores ten of those pivotal meals, presenting the contexts, key participants, table talk, and outcomes of each. It offers unique insight into the minds and appetites of some of history’s most famous and notorious characters, including Bonnie Prince Charlie, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Richard Nixon.
Feasting on leg of lamb, Bonnie Prince Charlie doomed the Jacobite Army at Culloden. A uniquely American menu served with French wine lubricated the conversation between rivals Jefferson and Hamilton that led to the founding of the US financial system and the location of the nation’s capital in Washington. After schweinwürst and sauerkraut with Adolf Hitler at his Berghof residence, Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg agreed to the complete integration of Austria into the Third Reich. Celebrity chef Tony Singh has researched the menus and recipes for all ten dinners down to the last detail and recreates them here. The book contains fifty-five recipes from soup to desert and lists the spirits as well.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Stevenson (Stalin's Legacy) entertains as he shows how food and wine served on momentous occasions shaped history. The book details 10 significant meals shared by world leaders over a 200-year span, along with the "epoch-changing decisions" made at those tables. In 1746 Scotland, a carousing dinner contributed to Bonnie Prince Charlie's misguided decision to drive an exhausted Jacobite army into the unwinnable Battle of Culloden; at Adolf Hitler's estate in Bavaria, a meager repast of barley broth and sausages contributed to the atmosphere of desperation that led Austrian Chancellor Kurt Von Schuschnigg to capitulate to Nazi forces in 1938; while a 1943 summit that started with "gigantic personality clashes" between FDR, Stalin, and Churchill (and featured a dinner a dinner of Persian barley soup, salmon with caviar, and Bloody Marys) ended with "clinking glasses" and a pact to end World War II. Stevenson masterfully connects political moments to their culinary backdrops, yet readers may tire of the male-centric stories. Recipes created by Scottish chef Tony Singh accompany each historic fete, and offerings such as Baked Alaska, (served in 1790 at Thomas Jefferson's residence when Washington, D.C., was named the capital) and Hundred-Year-Old Eggs (preserved duck eggs enjoyed by Nixon and Zhou Enlai during diplomacy talks in Beijing) make for educational, if sometimes ambitious, dinner party fare. History buffs will enjoy Stevenson's meticulous look at pivotal events through a culinary lens.
