Synopses & Reviews
A chilling look from within the kitchen at the appetites of five of the 20th century’s most infamous dictators, by the acclaimed author of Dancing Bears
What was Pol Pot eating while two million Cambodians were dying of hunger? Did Idi Amin really eat human flesh? And why was Fidel Castro obsessed with one particular cow?
Traveling across four continents, from the ruins of Iraq to the savannahs of Kenya, Witold Szabłowski tracked down the personal chefs of five dictators known for the oppression and massacre of their own citizens: Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Albania’s Enver Hoxha, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot — and listened to their stories over sweet-and-sour soup, goat-meat pilaf, bottles of rum, and games of gin rummy. Dishy, deliciously readable, and dead serious, How to Feed a Dictator provides a knife’s-edge view of what it was like to be behind the scenes at some of the turning points of the last century.
Review
“A quick read, but tense. I was surprised at how fast my pulse was going when reading.” Victoria Irwin, FangirlNation
Review
“Its originality and topicality in a world increasingly governed by political strongmen [are] intriguing....The author shares intimate historical insights into the meaning of life under dictatorship.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Food and history buffs will find these firsthand accounts irresistible....Throughout, Szabłowski entertains with disturbing rumors...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
About the Author
Witold Szabłowski is an award-winning Polish journalist. At age 25 he became the youngest reporter at the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza’s weekly supplement, Duży Format, where he covered international stories in countries including Cuba, South Africa, and Iceland. His features on the problem of illegal immigrants flocking to the EU won the European Parliament Journalism Prize; his reportage on the 1943 massacre of Poles in Ukraine won the Polish Press Agency’s Ryszard Kapuściński Award; and his book about Turkey, The Assassin From Apricot City, won the Beata Pawlak Award and an English PEN award, and was nominated for the Nike Award, Poland’s most prestigious literary prize. Szabłowski lives in Warsaw.