Exploring history through the meals of iconic and controversial figures. Join me on a culinary journey through time, one recipe at a time.
Inspired by Cameroon
Cameroon's national dish — bitter leaves and spinach cooked down in a rich ground peanut and beef broth sauce, loaded with stewing beef and finished with king prawns fried in red palm oil. Served with boiled plantain and dodo.
Inspired by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's real hamburger recipe from the JFK Presidential Library archives, made two ways — the Papa Burger as he typed it, and the Wild West Burger with additions scrawled in the margins by his wife Mary.
Inspired by Guatemala
One of Guatemala's oldest dishes — poached chicken in a rich sauce of toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, charred tomatoes, dried ancho and guajillo chillies, and coriander. A pre-Columbian Maya recipe layered with Spanish colonial additions.
Inspired by El Salvador
El Salvador's iconic national dish — thick handmade masa corn tortillas stuffed with chicharrón or refried beans and cheese, served with tangy pickled curtido slaw and charred salsa roja.
Inspired by Egypt
Egypt's iconic street food — rice, black lentils, vermicelli and elbow macaroni piled together and drowned in spiced tomato sauce, with crispy fried onions, garlicky da'ah vinegar sauce and spicy shatta chilli sauce.
Inspired by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln's chicken fricassee with cream gravy and flaky buttermilk biscuits — the one dish Mary Todd Lincoln could always get him to eat. Based on Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery (1837), the bestselling American cookbook of the nineteenth century.
Episode 27
The sixth episode of the National Dishes Series — Cameroon's Ndole, a bitter leaf stew loaded with ground peanuts, stewing beef, and king prawns, served with boiled and fried plantain two ways.
Episode 26
Hemingway's real hamburger recipe — found in the JFK Presidential Library archives — made two ways: the Papa Burger as Hemingway typed it, and the Wild West Burger with additions scrawled in the margins by his wife Mary.
Episode 25
The fifth episode of the National Dishes Series — Guatemala's pepián de pollo, one of the oldest dishes in the Americas. A rich sauce of toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame, charred tomatoes and dried chillies, served over poached chicken with green beans and potatoes.
History isn't just about dates and battles—it's about the people who lived it. Through their favorite meals, we can understand their cultures, their times, and sometimes their controversies. Each episode explores not just how to cook these historical dishes, but why they mattered to the people who ate them.
Learn More