How the Hot Dog Found Its Bun Read Online Free PDF Page A

forces engaged on June 14, 1800, things initially looked bad for Napoleon and his men. One of his trusted lieutenants, General Louis Desaix, reportedly told his leader, “This battle is completely lost, but it is only two o’clock; there is time to win another.” Though Desaix didn’t survive the day, he was right, as the French rallied to prevail at what was dubbed the Battle of Marengo.
      
    Following the clash, Napoleon was well famished. This wasn’t surprising as the Corsican had a habit of never eating before a battle. The future monarch’s Swiss chef, Dunand, was well aware that his boss was going to want something particularly pleasing after the hard-fought victory. Unfortunately, the typical standbys were going to be impossible to make because the food wagons had been lost during the battle.
    Dunand hurriedly sent out soldiers from the quartermaster’s staff to forage for supplies. All they could get, according to author Patricia Bunning Stevens, were “three small eggs, four tomatoes, six crayfish, a small hen, a little garlic, and some oil.” The chef took the hodgepodge and went to work. He presented Napoleon with sliced chicken browned in oil and flavored with garlic, along with tomatoes, fried eggs, and crayfish on a tin plate. (It’s also said by some that a soldier’s ration of bread was toasted and added. Others claim it’s unlikely that tomatoes were a part of the original dish.) As amazing as the military triumph was, equally surprising was Napoleon’s love for the unplanned fare. The first consul supposedly told Dunand, “You must feed me like this after every battle.”
    Versions of this story have been told in such respected publications as The Oxford Companion to Food and Larousse Gastronomique. Still, not everyone is a believer. Stevens concedes that the tale is “plausible” but argues “[t]he dish is sheer legend.” She points to the fact that Napoleon’s private secretary noted in his memoirs that food for that fated meal was supplied by a local convent and that the French received an “abundance of good provisions and wine.” (It’s worth noting that even if the convent offered lots of food, it could have included the strange combination that forced Dunand to create his funky combo.)
    Stevens posits that the story of the dish was a marketing ploy by an unnamed restaurateur who thought a good anecdote would draw more buyers. Whatever the case, the dish itself was one of Napoleon’s favorites and may very well have been one he savored his whole life. Even when exiled on St. Helena in his final years, Napoleon was said to have talked often about his great victory at Marengo. He was even buried in the grey overcoat he wore on the day of the battle. As for chicken Marengo, it’s outlived the iconic French leader—with some changes. The pan-fried chicken is now often cooked in a white wine sauce, crayfish are rarely served as part of the dish, and mushrooms are a popular addition.
     
     
    Chicken Tikka Masala: Fussy customer
    Forget such evocatively named English dishes as bangers and mash or bubble and squeak . The United Kingdom’s national food is Indian. “Having a curry” (as it’s called there) is so popular that Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper once put the annual spending on Indian food in the United Kingdom at more than four billion dollars.
    With that context, it’s no wonder that the British take great pride in their contribution to the cuisine. So much so that a member of Parliament once went so far as to ask the European Union to designate one famed Indian dish, Chicken Tikka Masala, as a Scottish creation. It didn’t matter that the dish’s creator merely stumbled upon it.
      
    Ali Ahmed Asham was a chef at Glasgow’s Shish Mahal restaurant in the 1970s. He’d been dealing with a stomach ulcer, according to the Daily Record, when one night a customer came in for Chicken Tikka. Asham cooked up the meal, but the patron was not satisfied. He complained