What Caesar Did for My Salad: The Curious Stories Behind Our Favorite Foods

What Caesar Did for My Salad: The Curious Stories Behind Our Favorite Foods, by Albert Jack
 
This is a wonderful collection of stories about the world's most loved dishes, their origins, and their creators. The book spotlights how some of the most popular recipes were invented due to mistakes, missing ingredients, or meals that were created on-the-fly. The book is divided into different categories such as Breakfast, Lunchbox, the Dessert Course, the Cheese Course, etc. and each chapter contains anecdotes and historical references related to each recipe. While reading the chapter called "The Name's Benedict, Eggs Benedict", several different people claimed to have invented the dish. I thought one of the names sounded a bit familiar, and lo and behold one of Greenwich's prominent residents from the past; Commodore E.C. Benedict, yachtsman and banker, was being credited with inventing the original recipe. The books is not a cookbook, but rather a group of stories woven together such as "The Surreal History of Breakfast Cereal", "Did a Satanist Really Invent the Sandwich?", and "Worcestershire Sauce: Who were Mr. Lea and Perrins?". Any foodie or trivia lover will enjoy this book.
-Debbie O.