Leaders make a meal of their taste

Sarah Cattle lists some of the dishes world leaders have loved — and hated — to have on their plates

MARGARET THATCHER

The UK’s first female prime minister made headlines in 2010 when her crash-diet plan, discovered tucked into her 1979 personal diary, was published. Thatcher’s infamous diet consisted of boiled eggs, black coffee, tomatoes, salad, grapefruit and meat.

It was intended to induce rapid weight loss before her 1979 election win. Maggie did not employ a chef and reportedly cooked for herself, husband Denis and even cabinet members.

EVO MORALES

Bolivia’s president caused controversy in 2010 when he implied that chicken made men gay. At the World People’s Summit in Cochabamba, Morales claimed that chicken, when pumped full of female hormones, made men “stray from being men”.

His favourite food is reportedly healthy quinoa soup — never Western fast food, which he says causes cancer and other diseases.

RICHARD NIXON

The former US president’s love of ketchup was well known. His favourite snack was cottage cheese and pineapple smothered in ketchup, and he would enjoy the combination for breakfast sometimes. This bizarre combination was reportedly Nixon’s last meal at the White House.

KIM JONG-IL

The late leader of North Korea is said to have flown chefs across the world to bring back delicacies such as caviar, pork and papayas. His personal sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, has spoken of Jong-il’s insistence that each grain of rice was inspected to check whether any had cracked.

Fujimoto also claimed that Jong-il wanted to try hippo, snakes and spiders — all washed down with cognac and fine French wine.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill is famous for the importance he gave to table talk and his eating habits helped to make up his unmistakeable persona.

He loved Stilton cheese, oysters, game and a roast dinner, and he chose ice cream over fruit as his dessert of choice.

The former prime minister also loved French cuisine and made sure to always eat a good meal, even in the trenches.

BARACK OBAMA

It would appear that Obama’s lunch staple is a sandwich, shown by his recent controversial stroll to buy one with Joe Biden during the US government shutdown.

The president hates beetroot and declared that his favourite food was broccoli — a far cry from former president George Bush, who said of it in 1990: “I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid.”

ANGELA MERKEL

The German chancellor grew up in East Germany, where food was short and people often had to queue for it. She says the habit of hoarding food is still ingrained in her persona.

Merkel loves to cook for herself and her favourite foods stem from her roots — she loves letcho, a Hungarian vegetable stew, shashlik, a spicy kebab, as well as potato soup, trout and plum cake.

VLADIMIR PUTIN

The Russian prime minister has stayed pretty quiet about his culinary dishes of choice, but reportedly loves pistachio ice cream, despite Russia’s freezing temperatures.

Anya von Bremzen, a Food and Wine contributor, has said: “People of that Soviet generation love ice cream. We all ate it in winter, even though our parents forbade it because of the cold.”

Putin reportedly has all his dishes tested for poison.— © The Daily Telegraph, London