‘How To Feed A Dictator’ by Witold Szablowski is an interesting book that the curious and food loving Dude came across while wondering about what leaders eat. I bought it on Amazon on 1.20.25 and 9 days later it arrived. An easy and interesting read that still took me a month to finish while reading now and then in some spare time.
It must have been an odd existence to cook for some of these folks Witold wrote about as sometimes these rebels were on the run or hiding in the jungle. In Saddam’s case he ran from palace to waiting palace, all of which ran at full operation as if he were in house, even if he was not. Many chefs who cooked for a dictator didn’t live to tell about the experience. The chefs in this book lived.
The cover of the book tells all the dictators that these chefs cooked for in the past. This is a light read. The stories are short and this book can be picked up and put down easily without losing track of what’s happening.
Thank you Witold. Keep up the unique and interesting reporting and writing.
In 1989 Project Angel Food was founded by a woman named Marianne Williamson. She was joined by David Kessler, Ed Rada, Howard Rosenman, Freddie Webber and dozens of volunteers who bonded to create a program that prepared and delivered food to folks living their lives with HIV/AIDS.
Their Mission Statement: ‘Project Angel Food nourishes the health and spirit of vulnerable people facing critical and life-threatening illness, by preparing and delivering medically tailored meals with love, care and dignity.’ Their service is an outreach of the Los Angeles Center for Living which helps people with life-threatening illnesses. The Center for Living provides numerous programs such as The Clean Team, Project Night Life and hospice care. They would also prepare lunch for drop-in clients, but as fewer and fewer were able to leave their homes, lunch was delivered to them.
It was then that Project Angel Food was born and 36 years later the program is still cooking and delivering.
After running a red light in a scam supported by disgraced, racist idiot and former LA City Council member Kevin de Leon at the 1st street bridge, I was ordered to do community service. Being interested in food I chose to help out at Project Angel Food. Their operation is set up in the old Otto Nemenz camera rental store on Vine St. in Hollywood which I was familiar with. Upon entering I noticed the place is organized and very clean. In the kitchen the first thing you notice is a huge banner announcing the million meals prepared in 2020 spread across the wall. Their brochure claims they produce 2700 daily meals or 1.5 million meals a year. Once you see how this place operates you’ll see how they’re able achieve these big numbers. Project Angel Food can produce large amounts of food and they have technology helping the pro-active staff to package the numerous nutritious meals. There is a huge amount of kitchen activity and the team keeps this place extremely clean.
Project Angel Food operates by an extremely efficient kitchen staff led by Chef Juan who sees all and keeps all the meals rolling out on time.
The people here worked really well together and everyone seemed genuinely happy. This operation is doing so well in their Hollywood location that they are expanding.
Sagaform brings traditional Nordic design to your kitchen
So the folks who added the drawer / container to the traditional grater have really done the Dude of Food a huge favor. Say goodbye to the grater sliding off the plate and the paper towel under the grater to catch the gratings. Now we can cut, use and store with little effort. No mess and by simply plopping the top back on the container you are preserving maximum freshness.
Betterware makes this cool grater with a drawer shown here in black. They also have been seen in white, pink and green.
The Dude of Food gets nothing for this recommendation and is not sponsored or connected in any way. It’s just a cool kitchen product that I like.
