For years, this column has been a great place delve into some forgotten or temporarily mislaid stories around food. I’ve learned a great deal, and at the very least, I’ve grown into a potentially valuable member of a pub quiz team. My acquired knowledge of tidbits, such as who invented the sandwich (John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich), could be the deciding factor in a tie-breaker victory. Here are a few more indispensable morsels of food trivia.
1 Through reading outstanding food publications such as Food Phreaking (foodphreaking.com), produced by the Dublin-based food-centric artists at The Centre for Genomic Gastronomy (genomicgastronomy.com), I have learned about the pros and cons of In Vitro Meat, otherwise known as "cultured" or lab-grown meat.
2 I got a handle on the real story of why corned beef and cabbage are a thing on St Patrick's Day in the US. It's thought that the kosher cured brisket sold by Jewish butchers of New York City became very popular with Irish immigrants in the late 1800s, particularly because beef had been an expensive luxury at home. Eventually corned beef replaced bacon (which was expensive in the States) as a St Patrick's Day centrepiece for Irish-American families.
3 Coffee can make people lose their marbles. A 2011 study at La Trobe University's School of Psychological Sciences in Melbourne, Australia, found that five coffees a day or more was enough to increase the participant's tendency to hallucinate. In the study, led by Prof Simon Crowe, participants of varying stress and caffeine conditions were asked to listen to white noise and report each time they heard Bing Crosby's rendition of White Christmas during the white noise. People high on caffeine were more likely to hear the song. But, guess what? The classic Christmas tune was never played during the experiment. Researchers concluded that the combination of caffeine and stress affects the likelihood of an individual experiencing psychosis-like symptoms.
4 Corn flakes were invented by a doctor who thought they could cure his patients of all ills and evils. In 1894, Dr John Harvey Kellogg was the superintendent of The Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. He was also an Adventist, which meant he followed a stark, vegetarian diet and enforced the same on his patients. He invented corn flakes by mistake.
5 Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda first scientifically identified the fifth taste known as umami in 1908, when he discovered that glutamate was behind the yumminess of kombu seaweed. He perceived that the taste of a kombu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and he named this taste "umami" which translates as "good flavour", "good taste", or "scrumptiousness". I'll say.
6 The Tart Tatin gets its name from the sisters who invented it. Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin were the proprietors and cooks at Hotel Tartin in Lamotte-Beauvron, France, in the late 1800s. It's thought that the Tart Tatin came about when Stéphanie tried to save a burnt apple pie by turning it upside-down, and ended up created something even more delicious, thanks to the wonders of butter, sugar and caramelisation.
7 Candy floss was invented by a dentist. Actually, by a couple of dentists. The designs for the machine for creating cotton candy was patented in the US in 1899 by dentist (yes, dentist) William Morrison and confectioner John C Wharton, originally introduced to the world in 1904 as Fairy Floss. Another machine was invented and patented in 1921 by another American dentist (I mean, come on!) named Joseph Lascaux in New Orleans, and his patent used the term cotton candy.
8 People have broken bones throwing themselves down an incredulously steep hill in chase of a wheel of local cheese in surely one of the most bonkers race in the world, in the absolute insanity that is the annual Cheese Rolling on Cooper's Hill competition in The Cotswolds.
9 The Pearse brothers appear to have enjoyed a good breakfast on the Easter Monday in 1916. On the blog Come Here To Me!, historian Sam McGrath relays an account of a meal cooked for Pádraig Pearse and his brother Willie on Easter Monday morning 1916, found in the witness statements of the Bureau of Military History. Mairead O'Kelly, a member of Cumann na mBan and sister to future Irish President Séan T O'Ceallaigh, wrote about how her mother gave her the orders to cook breakfast for the Pearse brothers. "She said she had prepared a tureen of bacon and eggs . . . and a tureen of mutton chops. She said they must be very hungry and God knows when they will get a meal again."
10 On January 8th 1992, the then US president George Bush Snr threw up on the Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazaw, at a state banquet in Japan. It is reportedly the only documented time a US president has ever vomited on a foreign dignitary.
11 In the US, Thurl Ravenscroft was the voice actor behind Tony The Tiger's iconic catchphrase "They're grrrrrreat" for 50 years. Incidentally, Ravenscroft also sang You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch, the theme song to the classic Christmass television special Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
12 The Halloween tradition of Jack O'Lanterns is thought to have originated in Ireland, in the form of the much more terrifying turnip. Just google image "turnip jack-o-lanterns" and prepare yourself for a chilling fright. Seriously.
13 Dairy products are in the deepest part of supermarkets because, according to environmental psychologist and author Paco Underhill, almost everyone who walks into a supermarket has some sort of dairy on their shopping list. So, if the dairy is in the deepest part of the store, you have to walk past a lot of tantalising goods to get to it.
14 Did you know that the Irish coffee company 3FE's branding was designed by Irish design team Conor & David (now known as WorkGroup) to work upside-down as well as right-side-up, so that when the coffee cups were upside-down on top of the coffee machine, the logo would still work? Actually, I knew this before I started writing this column but it still blows my mind for being so clever.
15 Buffalo wings are named after Buffalo, New York, and not after the animal because, um, well, buffalos don't have wings. It's thought that Teressa Bellissimo, proprietor of The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, invented the dish by mistake when she received an order of chicken wings rather than her usual order of chicken necks. She whipped up a sauce and cooked up the wings. They were an instant hit, or so the story goes.
