After Pearl Harbor, Ike Attacked the Kitchen

On December 7, 1941, when General Dwight Eisenhower heard the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, his reaction was to make a batch of vegetable soup. According to Eisenhower’s son, this was a cathartic ritual that “allowed him to pull his thoughts together.”

Mother Kennedy Recommends Granny Smith

One day in 1968, Rose Kennedy wrote a note to her son, U.S. Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy:

Dear Teddy,

Did you ever think of eating an apple at noontime?  . . . They are very good in New England this time of the year, and much more thinning than other desserts.

Mr. Meat

During the 1960s, the area underneath the goal in professional basketball was often called “the butcher shop,” a term that acknowledged the rough, physical play that occurred on that part of the court.  Yet hardly any basketball player did more to keep butchers in business than Wilt Chamberlain.  It wasn’t unusual for the superstar to eat up to six hot dogs at a time.  For Chamberlain’s largest meal of the day, he sometimes ate a two-pound T-bone steak, which was accompanied by a salad, soft-boiled eggs and other foods.

The Chicago Soup Conspiracy

In 1916, an anarchist tried to kill Illinois' governor, a former Chicago mayor, a Roman Catholic archbishop and a host of other VIPs. His weapon? Chicken soup. Read about this and other Chicago-centered food tales in this column that Mark co-wrote with his Chicago Tribune colleague Stephan Benzkofer.

In the Pre-Food Processor Era

Cookbooks have changed a lot through the years.  As Matthew explains in this Huffington Post column, the cooks who prepared meals for the British crown during the 14th century relied on recipes that were less precise and more gruesome.

The Forme of Cury, a collection of recipes for dishes served to King Richard II and his barons, offered crude instructions like these: “Take rabbits and smite them to pieces; seethe them in grease.”