There is something deeply strange about reading the dining habits of history’s most feared and brutal rulers. These were men who commanded armies, silenced entire populations, and wielded life-and-death power over millions. Yet behind closed palace doors, many of them were helplessly, almost comically obsessed with something as ordinary as food.
It turns out that absolute power doesn’t just corrupt absolutely. Sometimes it turns a man into someone who can’t function without a specific cheese, or loses his grip on reality over a bowl of cobra stew. The stories below are as bizarre as they are real. Be surprised by what you discover.
1. Kim Jong-Un: The Swiss Cheese Obsession That Broke His Ankles
Let’s start with one of the most jaw-dropping food stories in modern political history. A North Korean defector who had been Kim’s personal chef revealed that Kim’s mysterious six-week disappearance from public life in 2014 was caused by massive weight gain from his obsession with eating Swiss cheese, as he gorged on it daily in an effort to look more like his father.
North Korea’s Supreme Leader likely discovered his love for Emmental cheese while studying in Switzerland as a boy. Emmental is a semi-hard Swiss cheese that can be mild, nutty, or fruity in flavor. Sources said Kim is so addicted that he had it imported in bulk and binged on it in everything from sandwiches to fondue.
Whatever the case, Kim was thought to have gained so much weight that he had ballooned over 300 pounds, fractured one or both of his ankles, and was suffering from severe stomach problems and gout. Although Emmental isn’t the only cheese Kim Jong-Un enjoys, it is at the top of his list, so much so that in 2014 he sent emissaries to France to learn how it’s made.
2. Kim Jong-Il: Sashimi Cut From Live Fish and a 10,000-Bottle Wine Cellar
The father was no less extraordinary. Called “the biggest foodie in Asia” by Michael Breen, who penned “Kim Jong-Il: North Korea’s Dear Leader,” the tight-fisted dictator was known for his extravagant tastes. His people starved while he indulged in pleasures that would make a Michelin-starred chef blush.
Kim Jong-Il imported foods from across the globe, boasting a legendary collection of 10,000 bottles of wine and spending $650,000 annually on cognac alone. His penchant for sashimi was so intense that he had it prepared from live fish, a testament to his demand for freshness and luxury despite his country’s pervasive famine.
He sent envoys to Beijing for McDonald’s hamburgers and even had pizza ovens imported from Italy complete with pizza experts to teach his private chefs how to make the best pies, as long as they didn’t include anchovies, which Kim complained were “too salty.” Female workers inspected each grain of rice to ensure they met the leader’s standards. The contrast with his starving population is genuinely staggering.
3. Fidel Castro: Ice Cream, Milkshakes, and One Very Special Cow
Few world leaders have ever had a food story quite as iconic as Fidel Castro and his ice cream. According to close friends and confidants of Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary and former president was obsessed with ice cream. His love of the cold treat influenced the rest of his country, with much of Cuba’s economy supported by dairy production.
According to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Personal Portrait of Fidel,” Castro could polish a “good-sized lunch with 18 scoops of ice cream.” The dictator’s fondness for ice cream almost got him assassinated when a CIA operative tried to slip a poison pill into his milkshake in 1963.
Castro preferred the milk from a single cow named Ubre Blanca, or “white udder,” a detail confirmed in the book “How to Feed a Dictator” by journalist Witold Szabłowski. To defy the United States, Fidel Castro built the world’s greatest ice cream parlor, Coppelia. Producing better ice cream than his capitalist enemy was meant to assert the superiority of socialism. The parlor still serves scoops in Havana to this day.
4. Saddam Hussein: Doritos, Raisin Bran, and Hot Dogs in a Hideout
Here’s the thing about Saddam Hussein. He ruled one of the most oil-rich nations on earth, commanded a brutal regime feared across the Middle East, and kept palaces full of excess. Yet the man’s personal food weakness? Doritos and cereal. Honestly, I find that both hilarious and unsettling.
When Hussein was captured by the U.S. military in 2003, the contents of his hideout revealed that the dictator had a penchant for Western-style grub. Before he was captured, Hussein’s dietary intake included hot dogs, candy bars, and soda. After Hussein’s imprisonment, the American prison guards who were assigned to him reported that the despot indulged in Raisin Bran Crunch but wasn’t so keen on Froot Loops.
He was also obsessed with Doritos and would get cranky if they weren’t available. “He’d eat a family-size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes,” Spc. Jesse Dawson was quoted as saying by NBC News. Dawson also said that the former Iraqi president was exceptionally clean and used wipes to clean the table, trays, and utensils before digging into his meals.
5. Adolf Hitler: Vegetarianism, Mashed Potatoes, and Pigeon Stuffed With Pistachio Nuts
Hitler’s relationship with food is one of the most studied and debated in modern history. Margot Wölk, who became his unwilling food-taster in 1942, stated that all the food she tested for Hitler was vegetarian and she recalled no meat or fish. This account was backed up in 2017 when the Russian Federal Security Service granted permission to a team of French scientists to examine bones purportedly belonging to Hitler. An analysis of the tartar deposits found on the teeth and dentures found no traces of meat fiber.
Hitler switched to a bland diet of mashed potatoes and celery broth in an effort to combat his lifelong digestive issues that included chronic flatulence and constipation. Before he gave up meat for gastrointestinal problems, he expressed a particular fondness for Petits Poussins à la Hambourg, a preparation of fledgling pigeon or squab stuffed with tongue, liver, and pistachio nuts.
Hitler was so paranoid that he had 15 young women taste every one of his meals for poison before he dined. Food, for him, was both a compulsion and a source of deep anxiety. He had a team of 15 food tasters, and if none of them dropped dead after 45 minutes, then the food would be considered safe to eat.
6. Benito Mussolini: A Garlic Salad So Potent His Wife Fled the Bedroom
Mussolini ruled Italy with an iron fist, banned political opposition, and dreamed of a new Roman Empire. He also ate raw garlic like it was going out of fashion. Mussolini called garlic “the elixir of life.” His preferred salad was allegedly comprised only of roughly chopped garlic, olive oil, and lemon.
Mussolini did not indulge in his country’s revered cuisine. He rarely ate pasta or meat and called French food “useless.” His favorite food was a salad made of raw garlic and olive oil, which he thought was good for his heart. His wife thought it made him smell unbearable.
He drank up to three quarts of milk a day to quell his stomach aches. Ironically, he tried to hide his milk habit from Hitler, fearing that the Fuhrer would perceive this as “unfascist.” Mussolini tried to replace Italy’s passion for pasta with a new sense of national identity centered around rice cultivation. As World War II loomed, Mussolini’s goal was to increase Italy’s agricultural self-sufficiency by reducing the country’s reliance on imported flour, one of the key ingredients in pasta.
7. Joseph Stalin: Six-Hour Banquets, Georgian Feasts, and Drinking Games With Terrified Guests
Stalin was not a casual eater. He was a theatrical, manipulative, deeply strategic one. Joseph Stalin was known for his lavish Georgian banquets, which featured traditional dishes like khachapuri and kharcho soup. Stalin’s meals were not just about sustenance but were also a tool for political manipulation. He used these gatherings to test the loyalty of his comrades, often through power-play drinking games designed to disarm and reveal true intentions.
Stalin was fond of traditional Georgian cuisine, which features walnuts, garlic, plums, pomegranates, and wines. The communist leader loved to share his passion for Georgian cuisine with others, hosting six-hour-long dinners and drinking games. Not many guests could keep up with the binge drinking that accompanied these elaborate feasts.
One of Stalin’s personal chefs was Vladimir Putin’s grandfather, Spiridon Putin. That detail alone is remarkable. A connection between history’s two most consequential Russian strongmen, forged in a kitchen. Chicken with walnuts and spices was reportedly Uncle Joe’s favorite dish.
8. Idi Amin: 40 Oranges a Day, KFC in Exile, and Claims Nobody Should Repeat
Idi Amin was arguably one of the most extreme personalities ever to hold political power. His food habits, in many ways, matched that chaos perfectly. Amin ate over 40 oranges every day because he believed that they granted him sexual prowess. That alone earns him a permanent spot on this list.
His son claimed that Idi Amin loved to eat pizza and meat, but most of all was a fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken. His taste for fast food led to obesity, which put a strain on his arthritic knees. Amin’s diet, filled with imported luxuries like pizza and KFC during his exile, reflected his taste for the finer things in life, a stark contrast to the economic conditions of Uganda under his rule.
Idi Amin was rumored to have a diet as wild as his rule. His claim of consuming human flesh, although likely exaggerated, was meant to instill fear and demonstrate his ruthlessness. The book “How to Feed a Dictator” by Witold Szabłowski notes that whatever the rumors, Amin’s chef never actually cooked human flesh for him.
9. Mao Zedong: Red-Braised Pork Belly and an Alarming Amount of Personal Pride
Mao Zedong’s food habits tell you a surprising amount about the man. While he oversaw policies that led to a famine killing tens of millions, he himself never skipped a satisfying meal. His favorite food was hong shao rou, or red braised pork belly, a rural dish consisting of cubes of braised pork belly glazed with caramelized sugar. Interestingly, it was a peasant dish, not a royal one.
Mao was unashamed about his bodily functions and food consumption. The famous tyrant Mao Zedong, a die-hard carnivore, didn’t keep his flatulence his biggest secret. He openly wrote in a letter to his comrades, “I eat a lot and I excrete a lot.” Let’s be real, that is not something most world leaders put in official correspondence.
Mao led the Communist takeover of China following World War II. His modernization programs caused a massive famine that claimed the lives of between 20 and 40 million Chinese citizens. The cruel irony of him feasting on glazed pork while presiding over that level of starvation is almost impossible to fully absorb.
10. Nicolae Ceaușescu: Food Paranoia Taken to a Theatrical Extreme
Romania’s Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu had what might be described as the most extreme food anxiety of any leader in modern history. Ceaușescu did not eat food that was not properly tested and threw food out of the plate on the floor at official events, kicking it with his feet. Imagine being a state dinner guest and watching that unfold.
The head of Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu disrespected foreign leaders by bringing his own food when visiting foreign countries. He shocked Tito, the head of neighboring Yugoslavia, by denying his food offerings and preferring to drink vegetable juice he brought with himself.
Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu liked vegetarian lasagna with a sauce of egg whipped with sour cream, aspic carp, as well as simple salads of tomatoes, onions, and cheese with steak. Ceaușescu took along with him a security officer who also served as a chemist, carrying a mobile food-testing kit to check the food before serving him. His paranoia around food was, in some ways, a mirror of his paranoia about everything and everyone around him.
