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Food & drink takeaways - 12 August

David Knight • 13 August 2024

A curated taster menu of every day's food & drink associations

It’s a day that that unearthed a potato genius, heralded a revolutionary turning point in the storage of food and that kicks off a national celebration of afternoon tea.

Some of the ingredients that give 12 August its distinctive flavour. Click on the links for more information.

Food birthdays

1737

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier

French pharmacist and champion of the potato, has several potato dishes named after him as a result of his pioneering research (including Parmentier potatoes,  header photo)

1759

Thomas Andrew Knight

British horticulturalist and botanist, initiated the field of breeding strawberries, cabbages, peas and others

1801

John Cadbury

English proprietor of a small chocolate business in Birmingham that later became part of the Cadbury plc empire

1856

Diamond Jim Brady

American businessman, financier and legendary eater. According to Life is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days by James and Kay Salter (published by Knopf) : "At dinner he would eat several dozen oysters, some crabs, turtle soup, two entire ducks, half a dozen lobsters, a sirloin steak, some terrapin, and for dessert, a platter of pastries and candy. The owner of his favourite New York restaurant, Rector’s, called him “my best 25 customers”"

1958

Takashi Yagihashi

Japanese chef based in the United States, fusing classic French with Japanese and American twists

1962

Machindra Kasture

Indian executive chef to former Presidents of India, Best Chef of India 2016

1966

Ron Siegel

American chef and restaurateur

Food firsts

1930

Clarence Birdseye receives a patent for his method for packaging frozen foods that will revolutionise the food industry

Celebration days

2024

UK: Afternoon Tea Week (Aug 12-18)

2024

UK: National Allotments Week (Aug 12-18)

UK: Glorious Twelfth

The beginning of the shooting season for red grouse


Unofficial

USA: Julienne Fries Day

Your 31 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 20 November 2024
What foods make Halloween, a UK Sausage Week feast day for the patron saint of butchers and the man behind probably the first book written about salads. Just some of food & drink delights for which we give thanks to 31 October. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 30 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 20 November 2024
Colourful character who was ‘the father of mixing cocktails’, the man who decided the world needed a cheese slicer and a sense of tea with Jane Austen.  Just some of food & drink delights that 30 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 29 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 20 November 2024
Sparkling confectionery from Britain’s top chocolatier, an artist sets the table for a bubbly get-together and the Champagne’s on ice in a cool movie gesture. Just some of food & drink delights that 29 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 28 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 20 November 2024
Revolutionary ways of ‘one of the most influential Western chefs in history’, meaty art from a bold British artist and for relaxing times. . . make it Suntory time. . . Just some of food & drink delights that 28 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 27 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 18 November 2024
A troubled poet’s extraordinary go-to recipe, a pop artist’s mouthwatering dessert and a downtrodden movie wife’s shocking calamari revelations. Just some of food & drink delights that 27 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 26 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 17 November 2024
The dish that gives a country its identity, pioneering women chefs who championed a classic cuisine and a week-long banquet that came to a melodramatic conclusion. Just some of food & drink delights that 26 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 25 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 17 November 2024
Favourite dish of an art colossus and the Champagne regrets of a national treasure on the day that the world celebrates it. Just some of food & drink delights that 25 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 24 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 14 November 2024
Twenty minutes for chefs to create a dish with ingredients costing less than £5, 40 years cooking for the leaders of the world and the artist whose work is ‘liking drinking a good glass of red wine’ Just some of food & drink delights that 24 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 23 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 14 November 2024
The epitome of cheesecakes from a pastry chef extraordinaire, lychees and peaches with a sensual touch and the festival ‘for women who wouldn’t have thought beer was for them’. Just some of food & drink delights that 23 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings.

Your 22 October food & drink takeaways

by David Knight • 14 November 2024
An lavishly sweet tribute to an extravagant theatre star, the man who coined the term ‘alcoholism’ and a literary ‘what should come first’ picnic conversation about chicken and eggs. Just some of food & drink delights that 22 October brings to the table. Click on the links for extra helpings. 
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