FAMOUS MEN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2664, 1 September 1937, Page 7

FAMOUS MEN

HOBBIES AND HABITS MANY STRANGE TASTES WINSTON CHURCHILL AS COOK. The former Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, is also a great lover of kippers! They were introduced to him on a former visit to this country as a typical English dish, and have figured on his breakfast table ever since. We do not imagine kings as being high thinkers and simple livers. But some of them are. The day of the gargantuan feasts is past. Our pre-, sent King is. a simple eater, few meals . at the Royal table exceeding three courses. The Duke of Windsor is somewhat Spartan in his eating. But there ■ are two things he cannot do without — tea and cheese. Welsh rarebit is his favourite dish, and he can eat it at any meal. On one occasion during a meeting in Downing street, when most of those present were eyeing the clock and hoping for a break off for a “quick one,” King Edward VIII. confessed to a burning thirst, and to the consternation of all, called for tea ! They had no option but to partake of .. it. The ex-King must have smiled to himself. Winston Churchill loves cooking. He can prepare many excellent savouries and his cutlets are beyond reproach. But his favourite dish consists of ham cut into tiny pieces and served with fresh .figs! No one knows where he acquired a taste for this dish, but those who have sampled it •• pay tribute to his perspicacity. Mr Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, loves bread and butter with caviare. Often when in London he made complete meals of this combination, and apparently enjoyed every morsel. Chaliapine must have his beloved “Palmenez,” wherever he goes, and has more than once bewildered chefs * by his request. If he cannot get it he demands in his great, booming voice to have the freedom of the kitchen, and, turning up his sleeves sets to work. When finished, the dish turns out .to be a fine plate of beef and pork mixed, amply seasoned, and done to a golden brown.

The Marchese Marconi, like most Italians, loved macaroni. His favourite meal was composed of vermacelli soup, roast chicken and mashed potatoes, followed by cheese. But Gabriel d’Annunzio, equally Italian, despises macaroni and cheese, likt a true poet. He cannot stand it at any price, and swears it coarsens the soul. Americans have developed their own eating technique. They are more salad-conscious than we are. President Roosevelt is very British in his tastes, but he has a passion for hot dogs, and would, if Mrs Roosevelt would let him, have them at formal banquets. But so far they have been restricted to the more formal parties at the White House, where Mrs Roosevelt confesses to her guests: “It never seems to be a real party for Franklin unless there is a dish of hot dogs.” “You are what you eat,” Mr Bernard Shaw was alleged to have said in his blunt, controversial manner during an interview. “Look at me. I am a strict vegetarian, and could not have become what I am on roast beef and chops.” ' Most famous people will not agree with Mr Shaw, says a writer in the News Chronicle. Salads do not tend to make one bovine, nor red meat ferocious. Both Hitler and Mussolini are vegetarians, but no one could accuse either of being timid or apathetic. Some celebrities have the oddest tastes possible, and indulge in the queerest meals at all hours. Evelyn Laye, who has often been held up as the typically English girl, seems delicately nurtured —there is nothing coarse about her—yet Mr Shaw’s theory fails when applied to this talented actress, for there is nothing she enjoys more than a really generous helping of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding! Many successful men are excellent cooks,, for nearly all of them had to do a little cooking in their early days. When Epstein was neither so famous nor comfortably off as he is now he used to throw midnight kipper parties, grilling the kippers himself, and if one believes those who attended them he must have been an expert. And he has not lost his touch.

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