Dinner with Churchill: Policy-Making at the Dinner Table

Dinner with Churchill, is a delightful look at one of the world's most powerful figures. Volumes have been written about Winston Churchill: his official biography with all the relatives, his education, his life adventures in the military, as a journalist and as a politician; his philosophy; his politics, etc. In this book, Cita Stelzer chooses to present Churchill in one of his most eloquent and oft experienced roles - at the dinner table. In fact, the sub-title, Policy Making at the Dinner Table explains her focus perfectly.

Spotlighting Churchill's diplomatic conferences and meals during the World War II period, she takes us to the sight of many meetings of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin as they planned and executed their countries' show more responses to Germany's ongoing military attacks. Many of these gatherings included the top military and diplomatic minds of the day. She quotes heavily from notes made by personal secretaries and aides, by translators, and then gives us even more insight from butlers, cooks and housekeepers.

We are shown the elegant printed menus from events such as the secret meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt on the USS Augusta off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941; we catch glimpses of personal railroad cars, small intimate dining rooms, large dining tables both circular and rectangular. We visit the White House where Churchill stayed for several weeks after Pearl Harbor, spending Christmas with the Roosevelts (somewhat to Eleanor''s chagrin I suspect), meeting Stalin in Moscow in August 1942, traveling and dining in Adana, Tehren, Potsdam, Yalta, and Bermuda. In each visit, Selzer shows us the preparations, the meal, and the personalities attending.

After these chapters, she then focuses on the food itself (and Churchill's predilection for beef), the wines (particularly Churchill's love of champagne,) the signature cigars, and the whole subject of rationing. She also gives the reader a clear understanding of Churchill's background so that we come to see how Winston viewed good food and camaraderie as a part of the diplomatic life. At the same time, we see a Prime Minister who is emphatic about making sure that he is gathering and using ration coupons to obtain needed items, making substitutions if the course he wants is not available, and making sure that the ordinary people of Great Britain share equally in the food that is available. Of course, he accepts gifts from friends and admirers (even the King sent him some birds shot on his estate). In the end, however, Churchill never allows his preferences for good food and wine to interfere with the main emphasis of his dinner parties: that of good conversation, bonhomie, and choosing the correct mix of people to meet and become better acquainted. The food and wine acted simply as the fuel to stoke the engine of his hospitality.

This is a short, enjoyable book that gives the reader a touch of history, an insight into a fascinating giant of public life, and some interesting menus not normally seen by Americans in this day and age. It's certainly worth the read. The photographs of the dining scenes, the menus, and the historic figures add much to the enjoyment of the read. show less

Really, this deserves 3.5 stars. Dinner with Churchill is a fairly delightful look at the banquets and dinners and eating and drinking habits of the King's First Minister, before, after, and mostly during the Second World War.

If there's anything holding the book back, perhaps, it's the rather sweeping claims about Churchill's dining representing so much of his character. I know the normal school of thought when it comes to history requires a thesis, but this one may have been a bit...stretched (skillfull use of ration coupons for group dinners = concern for the common Briton, that sort of thing). On the other hand, the use of - and ability to find - a surprising array of primary sources on Churchill's meal tabs and cigar orders is show more quite impressive.

Perhaps the best parts of the book are the final three chapters, which examine at some length Churchill's food, alcohol, and cigar preferences. They were certainly inspirational in their own way, and just plain fun. So while the book isn't a masterpiece, it's a relatively quick read, and therefore well worth your time. show less

Fun to read anecdotes of how Churchill used food and meals as diplomatic and educational opportunities.
Now meals to him meant 3 to 4 hours together, without Facebook, in conversation (or perhaps himself expounding..).
There was actually too much info on the menus, etc for me as a barely capable minimalist cook - but some foodies will love it. Though I must say that one serious handicap of the Kindle is its inability to display any detail (like text…) with images. I do hope Amazon can find a solution for this.

To have an entire chapter on “Cigars” was a first for me. But for Churchill, it deserved it.

The inside information on some of the world leaders that Churchill dined with was of course usually interesting.

The lengths to which show more world leaders (in particular Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) went to impress each other with their food and resources was actually beyond my imagining. Flying ham to Potsdam overnight from London, for example!
And to deliver a large sumptuous meal in a foreign war zone took incredible logistics resources and people. The price of high level diplomacy, eh?
The was a long chapter at the end of the book, where the author delivered brief biographical sketches of many of the folks Churchill had dined with. It was often quite interesting.
The book is supplemented with a long bibliography and a deep index. show less

I think most readers have had exposure to World War II history. Most of us have at least cursory knowledge of the big players - FDR, Churchill, Stalin. I was attracted to Dinner with Churchill because of its subject matter - Churchill's use of the dinner table to forward his policies. We're talking food here - and cocktails, and conversation!

Churchill is an iconic figure. His size, his cigars, his whiskey, his indomitable spirit. He has always been a symbol of Britain's steadfast resistance to the powers of fascism throughout the devastating affects of the War. Churchill was, simply, a leader - a canny man with a broad grasp of history and an almost preternatural ability to predict possible futures based on a range of choices in any show more given situation. He was a man of great consequence who used his personal charisma to keep his country free of Hitler's aggression. He loved food and company and used his charisma in a very effective way - through dinner parties, luncheons, breakfasts, picnics - all opportunities for him to develop personal relationships with important figures on his staff, but also throughout the world. His stamina was epic and the stories of these encounters with Churchill and food provide fascinating insight into his policy making strategies.

Dinner with Churchill is a journey through the major events of WWII from the perspective of the binding nature of shared meals. If you love food, are interested in food history, in Churchill, in WWII or all or none of the above - this is a great and entertaining read. It'll also make you really hungry - plover's eggs, anyone? show less

Given the strong reviews for this book, I found it rather superficial. There were very few anecdotes or good stories - mostly just material you'd already know if you've read any other books on Churchill. The author should be commended for trying a new angle, and for debunking the impression that Churchill was recklessly drunk much of the time, but it could have had a lot more of his personality in it.

This is a right royal feed! Two hugely important subjects in one – Sir Winston Churchill and feeding! Cita Stelzer is a freelance editor and journalist, but worked in politics for John Lindsay, mayor of New York and Governor Hugh Carey, before becoming a reader at Churchill College, Cambridge; and a director of the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum, and her book follows Churchill’s “table-top” diplomacy efforts, their successes and failures.

Eminently readable with some great photographs – particularly of our favorite (and it would seem of his too!) room at Chartwell, the charming green and white dining room – the book chronologically follows the great man’s war years efforts to reach-out to friends and foes with his show more great humour, talk and amazing appetites, for food, wines, cigars and life.

(Don’t forget his mustard though!) show less

The title of this book describes it well, and yet promises more than it can deliver. The author sets out to describe the various meals Winston S. Churchill participated in, and the characters who attended them, particularly during the war years. His mannerisms and goals are gone into. The food is described in a very cursory way. There are complete chapters on his drinking and smoking. It is not an unflattering book, one can tell that the author is a fan, but it comes across as second hand knowledge, perhaps promising more than it can deliver.

This is not a book which benefits from its ebook format. I couldn't read the menus included, some of the notes seemed randomly placed. To my surprise, it ended when my Kindle said I was only 56% show more done. I would have hated that in most books, but this one I didn't mind. It seemed to me that the author was stretching for material by the end, and especially when I read that the author never actually sat at table with Churchill. It was interesting, in a fangirl way, but not enchanting. Others might like it, I did not much. I think I was hoping for more or better food descriptions. I should have picked up one of the books I have written by Churchill himself. I really enjoy his writing, I was feeling lazy and I got what I deserved. show less