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Food & drink takeaways - 21 August

David Knight • 21 August 2024

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

A rapper who swapped milkshakes for Cordon Bleu, a notorious artist’s view of café society and a bolognese with a characteristic twist from ‘a cornerstone of modern British cooking’

Just some of the delights that 21 August brings to the food and drink table. Click on the links for more information.

Food birthdays

1938

Kenny Rogers

American country and western singer, cookbook author, Cooking with Kenny Rogers

1948

Pierre Koffmann

French-born professional chef, former head chef of Koffman’s, Berkeley Hotel, Knightsbridge, one of only a few chefs in the UK to have gained three Michelin stars for his establishment. 

"The number of Britain’s top chefs who have trained under Pierre Koffmann is truly incredible – Tom Aikens, Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White, Marcus Wareing, Bruno Loubet, Tom Kitchin, Jason Atherton, to name but a few. His protégés have now amassed more than 20 Michelin stars between them. . . Pierre set new standards, using simple, classic ingredients to create extraordinary dishes. . .”

Squid Bolognese. . . one of Pierre Koffman's extraordinary dishes

1979

Kelis

American rapper whose milkshakes brought all the boys to the yard with her 2003 mega-hit single and who followed it up by studying to become a chef at Le Cordon Bleu

Food in art

1874

Aubrey Beardsley

A revered, some would say scandalous, English artist who was a major figure in the Aesthetic movement with Oscar Wilde and James McNeill-Whistler

"Aubrey Beardsley shocked and delighted late-Victorian London with his sinuous black and white drawings. He explored the erotic and the elegant, the humorous and grotesque, winning admirers around the world with his distinctive style"

Garcons de Cafe by Aubrey Beardsley

Leftovers

1740

A long-standing British Naval ration of a gallon of beer a day per man is changed to half a pint of rum

"Vice Admiral Edward Vernon — respectfully nicknamed “Old Grog” after a grogram cloak that he preferred to wear. . . issued Captain’s Order No. 349 on August 21st of 1740 which stated that all rum provisions must be mixed with water. And those members of the crew “which……are good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make it more palatable to them.

"This modification to their ration was nicknamed “Grog” after the admiral. Served twice a day with the call of “Up spirits!” the ship’s purser would deliver the ration until the practice was ended on July 31, 1970."

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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