Cobra stew. Hallucinogenic root bark. KFC. These were favorite meals of some 20th-century dictators.
In "Dictators' Dinners: A Bad Taste Guide to Entertaining Tyrants," Victoria Clark and Melissa Scott offer astonishing insights into dictators' table manners, food vices, and fears of poisonings. They also include recipes for some of the meals.
We selected several ruthless leaders from the book and highlighted their favorite foods — and some of their horrifying dinnertime eccentricities.
Kim Jong Il loved shark-fin soup and dog-meat soup.
Wikimedia Commons
Foods of choice: Kim Jong Il's favorite foods were reportedly shark-fin soup, salo, and dog-meat soup, which he believed gave him immunity and virility. He was also said to be Hennessy's biggest customer.
He had a team of women make sure all the rice grains served to him were identical.
ap
Kim Jong Il was the supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. Under his rule, North Korea's grossly mismanaged economy sagged and its people suffered a famine.
Dinner etiquette: He reportedly had a sizable team of women make sure every single grain of rice that was served to him was identical in size, shape, and color.
Hitler was a vegetarian and by the end of his life ate only mashed potatoes and broth.
Bundesarchiv
Foods of choice: Hitler's vegetarianism has been attributed to ideological reasons, but it also may have been motivated by his belief that a meatless diet would relieve his chronic flatulence and constipation. By the end of WWII, Hitler ate only mashed potatoes and clear broth.
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