Too good to check department: Putin’s food taster
I can’t entirely endorse this Telegraph story, as it repeats the paper’s previous misleading claim about Nicolas Sarkozy’s supposed fromage fatwa, but this bit is really too good not to blog: The "club des chefs des chefs", a group of 27 top chefs from the kitchens of the world’s presidents, prime ministers and monarchs, is ...
I can't entirely endorse this Telegraph story, as it repeats the paper's previous misleading claim about Nicolas Sarkozy's supposed fromage fatwa, but this bit is really too good not to blog:
I can’t entirely endorse this Telegraph story, as it repeats the paper’s previous misleading claim about Nicolas Sarkozy’s supposed fromage fatwa, but this bit is really too good not to blog:
The "club des chefs des chefs", a group of 27 top chefs from the kitchens of the world’s presidents, prime ministers and monarchs, is gathering in Paris this week to swap recipes and tit bits on dinner-party diplomacy. The cooks insist haute cuisine plays a crucial role in warming ties and sealing international deals.
The club, whose title plays on the double meaning of the French word "chef" for cook and leader, was founded 35 years ago by Gilles Bragard. On Tuesday, he revealed that President Putin of Russia maintains the medieval monarchs’ tradition of having everything he eats tried by someone else for fear of poisoning.
"Tasters still exist but only in the Kremlin, where a doctor checks every dish with the chef," Mr Bragard said ahead of a reception for the chefs hosted by new French President François Hollande.
A doctor checking every dish is not really the same thing as a taster, is it?. And wouldn’t a food taster be more necessary when Putin’s not eating in the Kremlin? But sure, why the hell not?
Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
More from Foreign Policy

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak
Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage
The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

The Masterminds
Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.