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Food has played a starring role in the lives of so many famous or infamous people. Diplomatic agreements have been negotiated over elaborate feasts, novels have been fueled by strong coffee, and marriages have ended over a meal gone bad.

In What the Great Ate, brothers Matthew and Mark Jacob have cooked up a bountiful sampling of the peculiar culinary likes, dislikes, habits, and attitudes of famous — and often notorious — figures throughout history.

In this photo from the 1920s, First Lady Grace Coolidge samples a cookie that was made by a Girl Scout troop in New York State.  President Calvin Coolidge made derisive comments about his wife's kitchen skills.

Rube Waddell was one of baseball's outstanding pitchers during the early 1900s.  But he had a habit that greatly aggravated his catcher and roommate — eating animal crackers in bed.  The team's owner got Waddell to sign a contract in which the pitcher agreed to cease this annoying habit.

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:

  • "... a smorgasbord of amusing tidbits on the favorite foods of prominent artists, scientists, sports stars and, yes, politicos."
  • The Washington Post

  • "... many fascinating facts" CBS News' Health Blog

  • An "amusing grab-bag of food-related anecdotes"
  • The Wall Street Journal

  • "... an impressive catalogue of food-related tales about the world's most famous people." New York Daily News

  • "Brims with fun-filled anecdotes ..." Andrew W. Smith, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink

  • "This is a fascinating read." Jeff Houck, The Tampa Tribune

  • "... a good helping of the book's pleasure comes from the cognitive dissonance of the 'great' eating, well, the small. Does it trivialize the president to learn that Ronald Reagan was a lover of jelly beans?" The New Yorker

  • "... one of the most enjoyable, enlightening, informative and, frankly, simply fun books." Rick Kogan, Chicago's WGN radio

  • One of "17 Food-Themed Books You'll Want to Eat Up"
  • More magazine

  • The Jacob brothers "must've mucked through skyscraper-size piles of research materials to put together this book."  Philadelphia City Paper

  • Named one of 13 "Books on Foodies' Beach Blankets" for the summer. 
  • Publishers Weekly

  • "This is one book I had a hard time putting down."
  • Food editor, Winston-Salem (NC) Journal

  • "... it was with gusto that I devoured [this] book ..."
  • The Montreal Gazette

  • The book is "one that I'm certain you will enjoy sharing with your friends and family."  Around the Horn, a baseball blog

  • "It's a book to nibble on, not consume all at once, but will provide plenty of curiosities with which you can fascinate friends."
  • Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union

  • "There are enough interesting stories in here to spark many good dinner party conversations."
  • The Calgary Herald

  • "This book has a massive collection of amusing food trivia ..."
  • ifood, a web portal

  • "... on our list of must reads"
  • "Let's Just Talk," WQRT radio in Cincinnati

  • "... a book that's full of fun food facts, trivia and other tidbits ..."
  • The Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN)

  • "This looks like an interesting book." ExploreMusic.com

  • A "delicious book"
  • Francophilia Gazette

Enter a State of Foodphoria
Foodphoria is the Weblog written by co-author Matthew Jacob. Foodphoria offers Matthew's irreverent, no-nonsense commentary on eating, drinking and dining. Click here to visit the blog.
10 Things You Might Not Know...
... about beer, France and lots of other things. Click here to read samples of the Chicago Tribune's "10 Things You Might Not Know ..." series, which is written by co-author Mark Jacob.
Sunday
Feb192012

A Delicious Idea

DateSunday, February 19, 2012 at 04:53PM

If you saw a jar of Nutella — the chocolate-hazelnut spread — on your kitchen table, you might be tempted to reach for it, open it and wipe some on a roll to eat.  But one day when André Briend spied a jar of Nutella in his kitchen, something else happened.

The French pediatrician got an idea: develop a sweet, high-calorie, peanut-based spread that is fortified with vitamins and minerals, and then use it to alleviate starvation in Africa. Briend called his spread Plumpy'nut, and it was credited for saving 1.9 million lives.

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Sunday
Feb122012

"Drop the Cupcake, Governor"

DateSunday, February 12, 2012 at 08:48PM

On this day in 1999, the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton concluded with a vote by the U.S. Senate that acquitted him of both charges. But there was one thing that Clinton was undisputedly guilty of during his presidency: eating plentiful portions of high-fat foods.

Yet this was a habit he brought from his home state of Arkansas.  As governor of the state, Clinton's giant-sized appetite was so well known among the state's press corps that journalists would crack jokes such as: “Is the forklift with the governor’s lunch here yet?"

The governor’s staffers went to surprising lengths to try to curb their boss’ eating. During one meeting, a Clinton staffer literally snatched a cupcake out of the governor’s hand.

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Wednesday
Feb012012

Getting Jay to Eat Some Veggies

DateWednesday, February 1, 2012 at 10:19PM

Jay Leno, host of TV's "The Tonight Show," had once told a magazine that he hadn't eaten vegetables since 1969. But that changed this week when Leno had First Lady Michelle Obama on his show. The first lady has stressed the need for Americans to embrace physical activity and healthy eating

During her appearance on the show, Mrs. Obama convinced the TV icon to snack on an apple and sweet potato fries and then she presented him with a whole wheat-crust pizza. "That does smell very good," Leno said, eyeing the pizza. "I assume this is sausage-pepperoni." But it was not. This pizza was topped with a healthy assortment of veggies: eggplant, green peppers and zucchini. Leno took a bite.

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Saturday
Jan212012

A Passion for Pigs' Feet?

DateSaturday, January 21, 2012 at 08:35AM

On this day in 1793, King Louis XVI was executed in Paris. The year before, he had been arrested by revolutionaries in the town of Varennes.  But a leader of the uprising spread the false tale that the king had been captured in the Sainte-Menehould because Louis wanted to eat pigs' feet, a dish for which this village was renowned.  However, the story was believable because of the monarch's gluttonous appetite.

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Tuesday
Jan172012

Gilmore's Departing Dinner

DateTuesday, January 17, 2012 at 07:05AM

On this day in 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was shot by a firing squad in Utah, becoming the first person executed in the U.S. after a Supreme Court ruling that upheld death penalty statutes. Gilmore gained notoriety by insisting that his death sentence be carried out with no delay.  The night before he was executed, Gilmore was served his final meal: a steak, potatoes, milk, coffee and a six-pack of beer.  He reportedly consumed only the milk and coffee.

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