June 1, 2024
4,000 historic French state dinner menus up for auction
PARIS: From cooking for dictators to rushing to satisfy Barack Obama’s love of cheese — a collection of French state dinner menus offered a unique insight into 150 years of diplomatic and culinary history Wednesday. The more than 4,000 menus were on display in Paris before they went up for auction on Friday, with the oldest dating from an imperial dinner given by Napoleon III in 1868 that bears a few wine stains from that time. They offer a who’s who of royalty, politicians and dictators, from John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela to Saddam Hussein and Vladimir Putin —


