The booming voice and proper English accent emanate from Andrew Caldwell as he shares trinkets of historical intrigue from his book, “Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals.”
There’s a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips, and it’s immediately evident this is a man who loves the culinary world.
The self-dubbed “History Chef” visited Springfield’s Vino100 on March 12–13 to promote the May 4 release of his book and give patrons a sample of some of its recipes. What was originally designed as a Saturday afternoon book signing morphed into a two-day event, including a Friday night catered dinner with wine pairings.
At first glance, the concept of the book seems rather morbid. The recipes represent, with as much accuracy as is historically plausible, the final meals eaten by the world’s notables who famously (or infamously) died untimely deaths.
“You have to have been a news headline when you died to make the book,” Caldwell says at the book signing, one of 60 stops on a whirlwind 70-day tour.
“Their Last Suppers” features such household names as Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler and Marilyn Monroe. Each of the 20 chapters begins with a pertinent quote from the featured personalities and ends with the full recipe for their last meals.
With a couple of the recipes digging deep into history – the kitchens of Montezuma and Caesar, for instance – Caldwell puts his own twist on them, bringing the ancient fare into modern kitchens. A big believer in cooking over open fires, he emphasizes grilling tips throughout the book.
The classically trained chef was born in Bermuda and worked his way through the ranks of some of the world’s largest resorts. His travels to Egypt, France, South Africa, Spain and other places allowed him to pursue his other passion – history.
The hook Caldwell uses so effectively throughout the book is irony.
“You have to have something quirky and funny,” Caldwell says, referring to the macabre nature of the book’s title. “I tried to find facts that people didn’t know.”
For instance: Gen. Custer refused the services of a Gatling gun battery, saying his 7th Cavalry “could handle anything it met,” and JFK’s staff lowered the bulletproof top of his vehicle in Dallas so the president could “enjoy the weather.”
The food-specific finds in the book say that Hitler’s private chef was Jewish and that a Monroe dish was unsuccessful in wooing back Bobby Kennedy.
“I won’t make the book,” Caldwell jokes. “I won’t be famous enough.”
The book – the first of three volumes – already is a pilot for a TV series on the Discovery Channel, and it is currently being sold at Vino100 franchise locations across the country.
“Their Last Suppers: Legends of History and Their Final Meals”by Andrew Caldwell
224 pages
$19.99
Andrews McMeel Publishers
May 4, 2010
