Los Angeles: Angelina Jolie ate cockroaches as protein snacks in Cambodia, Elvis Presley never cut up his own food, and Ernest Hemingway once consumed a porcupine, according to a new book about the eating habits of the rich and famous.
Other tales about peculiar palates include how the Hollywood star Gary Cooper devoured a can of sauerkraut every morning and Bette Davis was nicknamed Spuds because of her love of potatoes.
Matthew Jacob, and his brother Mark, the authors of What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame, spent two years ploughing through records to find epicurean oddities about actors, singers, and politicians, throughout history.
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The book recounts how Napoleon was one of the first people to enjoy banana fritters, while Alexander the Great banned his soldiers from chewing mint leaves in case they became too sexually excited to fight.
Food pedants
Matthew Jacob said: "As food-obsessed as our culture is, you pick up the typical biography and find very little about the eating habits of a famous person. We knew they were there and wanted to dig. Famous people can be incredibly pedantic about food."
He said his favourite tale of famous people and their food occurred in 1965 when the US astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich into space aboard Gemini 3.
Once in orbit he produced the snack and gave it to fellow astronaut Gus Grissom, to the alarm of technical experts on the ground who feared crumbs would interfere with delicate instruments and cause a catastrophe. Grissom said: "After the flight our superiors at Nasa let us know in no uncertain terms that corned beef sandwiches were out for future space missions."
Odd compliments
Mark Jacob said: "Many of these stories tell us a lot about what kind of people these were.
"There is a story about Paul Newman, the actor, going on a date with Joanne Woodward and he took his salad into the bathroom to wash off the salad dressing — then he came back and made his own. We all know what happened next."
According to the book, Elvis Presley decreed that all his meals be overcooked. When he said "That's burnt," it was considered a compliment to the chef.
Angelina Jolie had some advice for anyone else thinking of eating cockroaches: "There's this very pointy bit on their stomach you just can't eat. You have to kind of pop that off."
When he was 13, Ernest Hemingway shot a porcupine. His father punished him by making him cook and eat it.
Boxer Joe Louis drank blood straight from a slaughterhouse in Chicago to toughen himself up.
President George H. W. Bush banned his least favourite vegetable from the White House, declaring: "I'm President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."
What is your favorite food? What is the most exotic or unusual food you have ever eaten? Where do you draw the line when it comes to delicacies?
