Tastes of Power

Contents

Four chapters. Thirty-six tables.

The book is organized geographically: American presidents, European leaders, the leaders of the East and Asia, the Global South. Every recipe gives the number of servings, the ingredients, numbered steps, and a Cook’s note — how the dish is made in a modern kitchen without losing its character.

No.	Chapter	Entries	Whose tables
01	American Presidents From the Plantations to the White House	9 entries	Thomas Jefferson · macaroni and cheese, with vanilla ice cream as the dessert in the same entry · George Washington · hoecakes · Abraham Lincoln · oyster stew · Franklin D. Roosevelt · a hot dog for the King · John F. Kennedy · New England fish chowder · Dwight D. Eisenhower · home-style vegetable soup · Jimmy Carter · eggplant soufflé · Bill Clinton · chicken enchiladas · Barack Obama · the family chili. With them come two framed passages with no recipe, about the recorded dislikes of Harry S. Truman for onions and George H. W. Bush for broccoli.
02	European Leaders From Wartime Bunkers to Royal Palaces	9 entries	Winston Churchill · steak and kidney pie · Margaret Thatcher · Victoria sponge cake · Queen Elizabeth II · chocolate biscuit cake · Charles de Gaulle · coq au vin · Jacques Chirac · aligot · Emmanuel Macron · omelet with fresh herbs · Angela Merkel · potato soup · Silvio Berlusconi · spaghetti alla carbonara · Pope Francis · gnocchi with butter and sage
03	Leaders of the East and Asia Spices, Tradition, and Spirituality	10 entries	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk · menemen · Vladimir Putin · ukha · Joseph Stalin · khinkali · Mahatma Gandhi · khichdi · Indira Gandhi · rajma · Lee Kuan Yew · Hainanese chicken rice · Golda Meir · chicken soup with matzo balls · Yasser Arafat · musakhan · Zhou Enlai · Peking duck · Kim Jong-un · Pyongyang cold noodles
04	The Global South Rhythm, Resistance, and Passion	8 entries	Nelson Mandela · umngqusho, samp and beans · Fidel Castro · ropa vieja · Hugo Chávez · pabellón criollo · Eva Perón · beef empanadas · Kwame Nkrumah · fufu and groundnut soup · Thomas Sankara · tô, millet porridge with okra sauce · Gamal Abdel Nasser · molokhia · Hassan II · tagine with prunes

4 chapters · 36 entries · 37 recipes · 85 pagesFrom Monticello to Pyongyang

Look inside

A recipe with the history beside it.

Every entry opens with one italic sentence and a short account of how the dish is connected to the leader and to the time he lived in. Then come the number of servings, the ingredients in the left column, the numbered steps in the right, and at the end the Cook’s note. Click a page to see it larger.

The book’s contents page, listing all 37 dishes grouped by chapter with their page numbers — **Contents**Every dish, grouped by chapter, each with its page number.

The dark opening page of Chapter 1, “American Presidents,” with its introduction and the list of dishes in the chapter — **Chapter opener**A dark page: the cooking of that part of the world, and the dishes that follow.

Dish 2, George Washington’s Hoecakes, with the ingredients and the method set in two columns — **A recipe in two columns**George Washington’s hoecakes: servings, ingredients, steps.

The framed aside “When one sentence sets ten tons of broccoli in motion,” about George H. W. Bush, above the start of Dish 8, Bill Clinton — **A passage with no recipe**Ten tons of broccoli: what happens when a president says what he will not eat.

The first page of the Sources list, with the notes on opening lines, access and attributed statements, followed by the sources for Chapter 1 — **Sources**All 87 sources, grouped by chapter and in the order the dishes appear.

What rests on what

The book also says what it does not know.

The dishes were chosen from the written record where a record exists, and from the culinary tradition of the country and the era where there is none. That is not buried in small print: it stands in the text itself, with every dish, and it is gathered at the back of the book.

18

On the record

The link between leader and dish rests on something recorded: a written document, a first-hand account, a public statement by the leader himself, or a press report of the event itself — from Jefferson’s ice cream recipe in his own hand to the banquet with Pyongyang cold noodles in April 2018.

16

A dish of the era, not a favorite

No link between the leader and the dish was found in any serious source, and the text says so. The dish is authentic to its country and its era, and the description of the dish, its origins and its technique rests on the sources listed.

2

From a menu card

Two dishes from the first chapter are recorded on the menu cards of official occasions, but no source says that the leader himself ate the dish. That is written in the text too, together with the caveat about the recipe itself.

The italic sentence that opens each recipe is not a quotation from a leader but a stylized opening line written for this book. Where a statement really is attributed to someone, that is said — and two well-known unconfirmed statements, de Gaulle’s question about the kinds of cheese and Eva Perón’s “volveré y seré millones,” are marked in the text as apocryphal. The online sources were retrieved on October 25 and 26, 2026, except where another date is given with the source.

Price

One book, one price.

The whole book, all thirty-six tables and thirty-seven recipes, bought once — yours to keep.

E-book · 2026 edition

The Secret Tables of World Leaders Through History, 85 pages, PDF.

~~€39~~€27.30−30% for early buyers · one-off payment

Get the book

What you get

The e-book Tastes of Power: The Secret Tables of World Leaders Through History, 2026 edition, PDF, 85 pages
37 recipes at 36 tables, in four chapters: American presidents, European leaders, the East and Asia, the Global South
With every recipe: the number of servings, the ingredients, numbered steps and a Cook’s note
Historical context with every dish: how it is connected to the leader and to his time
Two framed passages with no recipe, about the recorded dislikes of two American presidents
87 sources at the back of the book, grouped by chapter, with no address repeated
A note on the limits of the sources: by name, which links between leader and dish are not documented
Metric measurements throughout, with US customary equivalents in parentheses

Checkout is through Gumroad: once you pay, the download link arrives in your inbox right away. Gumroad opens soon — until then, this page is a preview of the book.

Who it is for

For people who cook. And want to know where the dish comes from.

This book is for you if

you cook at home and want dishes that carry a story, not just a shopping list
you like history and want it from the side that is rarely written down — at the table
you want recipes from four continents in one place, from macaroni and cheese to tagine with prunes
you want a cookbook that tells you what each claim rests on, and where it rests on nothing

This book is not for you if

you want dishes for a restaurant line, standard recipes and costing — that is Restaurant Code
you want meals in half an hour: tagine, fufu and Peking duck take time
you want a vegetarian cookbook — meat is on most of these tables

What this book does not do

it does not claim that every dish was that leader’s favorite — for sixteen dishes no link was found, and the text says so
it does not invent quotations: the italic sentence before a recipe is an opening line, not a statement by the leader
it does not pass off transcriptions from state archives as recipes where the archival enclosure was not read — that is caveated in the book
it does not promise that a recipe is identical to what the leader actually ate
it is not a work of history and not a biography: the historical context is short, and it sits beside the dish
it has no photographs of finished dishes — the book is set text, recipes and sources

About the author

Srđan Mihailović

More than thirty years in hospitality: in top hotel kitchens and restaurants and on cruise ships. He has worked and lived on four continents, so he knows the kitchens in this book from the other side of the stove as well.

He is the founder of Gostíno.ai and the builder of the gostino.app website, where the hospitality trade meets modern digital tools.

Hunger is the only true democracy, and a good meal the greatest victory.

Questions

Before you sit down at the table

What format is the book?

An 85-page PDF, 2026 edition. It reads on a phone, tablet or computer; the contents at the front lead to every entry.

What language is it in?

American English. There is also a Serbian edition, Ukusi moći: tajne trpeze svetskih lidera kroz istoriju, with the same dishes.

Is every dish documented as that leader’s favorite?

No, and the book says so openly. Of the thirty-six entries, in eighteen the link between leader and dish rests on something recorded. For sixteen dishes no link was found in any serious source — the dish then stands as a dish of his era and his part of the world, and the text says so. Two dishes from the first chapter are recorded on the menu cards of official occasions, but no source says the leader himself ate the dish.

Are the italic sentences quotations from the leaders?

No. They are stylized opening lines written for this book, carrying the spirit of the dish and of its time. Not one of them is attributed to anyone. Where a statement really does exist as attributed, that is said, along with how reliable the attribution is.

How are the measurements given?

In metric units — grams and milliliters — with US customary equivalents in parentheses, and a few traditional expressions kept where they are necessary for the character of a dish. Every recipe also gives the number of servings.

Does the book have sources?

Yes, 87 of them at the back, grouped by chapter and in the order the dishes appear; no address is repeated. The online sources were retrieved on October 25 and 26, 2026, except where another date is given with the source. A note on the limits of the sources follows the list.

Do I need special equipment?

No. The dishes are reconstructed for an ordinary kitchen; where a technique asks for something unusual, the Cook’s note says what to do instead.

How do I get the book after I buy it?

Checkout is through Gumroad: once you pay, the download link arrives in your inbox right away. Gumroad opens soon — until then, this page is a preview of the book.

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