Dining with the Rich and Royal

by Fiona Ross

Overview

Dining with the Rich and Royal is a marvelous journey into the gastronomic peccadilloes of the great, the good, and the not-so-good. When the world is at your feet, what is on your table? Dining with the Rich and Royal serves up the glamour of the jet set on a plate, from the silver spoon to the last Kleenex wipe. We follow the food adventures of Hilton, Hefner, and Howard Hughes; the great transatlantic dynasties: Onassis, the Vanderbilts, the Astors and the Rothschilds.Royals watchers and history twitchers will find out the effect of too many fairy feasts on Ludwig of Bavaria; how Hirohito and Ibn Saud tasted East-Meets-West diplomacy. Would you try the cake that killed Rasputin or suck on a suicide sweet with Antony and Cleo? Was it sex or raspberry soufflé that won Mrs. Simpson a king’s heart? It’s all here: a succession of abdications, executions, revolutions, coronations, tales of toothache and posh picnics spiced with the odd military coup or two. Mind your manners now.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442252288
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/17/2016
Series:	Dining with Destiny
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	356
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Fiona Ross, like most of us, leads a double existence: in her ‘normal’ life as a writer of fiction in Bishop’s Stortford, U.K., Fiona keeps company with two bossy chickens and her dog, Parsnip. She spends a lot of time fishing chickens out of her bathtub and Parsnip out of the chicken run. In between, she stares into space a lot looking for inspiration for her stories. Meanwhile, her glamorous and exciting double works as a gastro-detective whose headquarters are the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford; she spends her time there pondering which sandwich filling she would prefer for lunch when she is not hot on the trail of a famous gastronome. The Dining with Destiny series is the result of just such weighty thoughts – oh, and a short-term memory problem which means that Fiona can never recall anything important like the date of a war or how to hoover, but can always be counted upon to remember how much jam Marx liked on his tarts. Time will tell which is the more important.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Glitterati Grub: Menus for Movers, Shakers, and Millionaires 7

It's All Greek to Me: Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas 7

Alligator Love Calls with Howard Hughes 24

It Wasn't All Shoes: Imelda Marcos 35

The Taste of Freedom and Consuelo Vanderbilt 45

Bunny Chow with Hugh Hefner 54

The Astors; or, the Cliveden Set for Dinner 60

Dipsy Dining with Dog Nose: Peggy Guggenheim 75

Those Mad, Marvelous Mitfords 86

Don't Leave a Rothschild Alone in the Kitchen 105

Windy Times with Conrad Hilton (Plus a Side Order of Zsa Zsa Gabor) 117

Chapter 2 The Upper Crust: Royal Roastings and Stately Snacks 127

The Tsars (Plus a Last Supper with Rasputin) 127

"Tum Tum" Bertie: Edward VII 140

Three in a Bed: Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra 151

Taking Tea with HRH Queen Elizabeth II 160

The Aga Khan's Ice Cream 174

The Dragon Emperor, Comrade Pu Yi 190

Dining with Queen Victoria and Her Many Men 197

Hirobito Becomes Mortal 217

Ibn Saud and His Sheep 226

Supper with Edward and Mrs. Simpson 233

One Monte Bianco Too Many: King Farouk of Egypt 249

The Doomed Dinners of Charles and Di 261

Desert Dining: King Hussein of Jordan 273

Philadelphian Scrapple of Homesickness: Grace and Rainier 279

The Invisible Guests of King Ludwig II of Bavaria 291

Food to Die For: Emperors Nero and Varius 300

The Meal That Deposed the Last Shah 308

Food and Duty: George VJ and His Queen, Elizabeth 318

Bibliography 329

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

The superrich have the same needs to feed themselves as do the poorest peasants. But what they eat and in whose company they do it make for very different experiences. Ross has plumbed the depths of the Bodleian Library to document the eating (and mating) habits of luminaries and royals from ancient Rome to the present. Bursting with the juiciest morsels of gossip, Ross recounts meals consumed by famous and notorious characters. Aristotle Onassis’ marriages were to women who had food issues Maria Callas’ compulsive eating and Jackie Kennedy’s hungers for both food and affection. Royals and wannabes, from the Windsors to Grace Kelly to Nicholas II, were prone to the most idiosyncratic eating habits. The kitchens of Hugh Hefner’s renowned Playboy Mansion attracted guests almost as much as his notorious bunnies. In addition to her breezy text, Ross offers many recipes favored by these celebrities. An interesting choice for food microhistory fans.

Booklist

This is food history as gossip, exuberantly written. Read it with one hand in the salt pot.

Paul Levy

Fiona Ross serves as our personal historical guide as we romp through the joyous time when royalty filled their dining tables with culinary delights with no expense spared. Each page jostles a smile as you gain entry into a time when calories, fat and sugar were not the enemy but instead the friend. Indeed; ignorance was bliss!

Sari Edelstein

The superrich have the same needs to feed themselves as do the poorest peasants. But what they eat and in whose company they do it make for very different experiences. Ross has plumbed the depths of the Bodleian Library to document the eating (and mating) habits of luminaries and royals from ancient Rome to the present. Bursting with the juiciest morsels of gossip, Ross recounts meals consumed by famous and notorious characters. Aristotle Onassis’ marriages were to women who had food issues Maria Callas’ compulsive eating and Jackie Kennedy’s hungers for both food and affection. Royals and wannabes, from the Windsors to Grace Kelly to Nicholas II, were prone to the most idiosyncratic eating habits. The kitchens of Hugh Hefner’s renowned Playboy Mansion attracted guests almost as much as his notorious bunnies. In addition to her breezy text, Ross offers many recipes favored by these celebrities. An interesting choice for food microhistory fans.

Booklist