How to Feed a Dictator: Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks

(Paperback)

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What is it like to cook for the most dangerous men in the world

In this darkly funny and fascinating book, Witold Szablowski travels across four continents in search of the personal chefs of five dictators. From the savannahs of Kenya to the faded glamour of Havana, and the bombed-out streets of Baghdad, Szablowski finds the men and women who cooked fish soup for Saddam Hussein, roasted goat for Idi Amin and chopped papaya salad for Pol Pot.

He reveals the strangeness of a job where a single culinary mistake could be fatal, but a well-seasoned dish could change your life. And in doing so, he lifts the veil on what life is like at the very heart of power.

Reviews

Mixing bold journalism with bolder allegories, Mr Szablowski teaches us with witty persistence that we must desire freedom rather than simply expect it -- Timothy Snyder, New York Times bestselling author of On Tyranny
This book tells all that we know about the power of good suppers, whoever they are fed to -- Rose Prince * Spectator *
Riveting, and utterly convinces in its thesis that "20th-century history as seen from the kitchen" is worth our attention -- Iona McLaren * Sunday Telegraph *
How To Feed A Dictator offers 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 -- Craig Brown * Daily Mail *

A fascinating collection of essays - part oral history, part reportage - by Polish journalist Witold Szablowski... For some of these chefs, it was hard to see their employers as anything but ordinary human beings, however flawed, until it was too late. Maybe you can't see monstrosity in its full monstrousness when you're making breakfast for it every day

Author Bio

Witold Szablowski is an award-winning Polish journalist and the author of four books including Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny. Szablowski lives in Warsaw.