Fear and Feasting: Serving History's Worst

Five private chefs share their extraordinary and dangerous experiences serving some of history's most feared dictators in the documentary 'How to Feed a Dictator,' premiering at the Tribeca film festival. The film, based on Witold Szabłowski's 2020 book, delves into the fraught balance between morality and survival for those in a dictator's inner circle.

Chefs like Keo Samoun, who served Pol Pot, and Ermanno Furlanis, who made pizzas for Kim Jong-il, recount the constant surveillance and terror. Ugandan despot Idi Amin's chef, Charles Otonde Odera, detailed a life of luxury juxtaposed with horrific violence, including being ordered to cook a human heart, until a personal tragedy led him to question his choices.

The film intentionally pairs images of food preparation with state-sanctioned violence, underscoring the unsettling proximity of decadence and atrocity. Chefs often found themselves too insulated to consider acting heroically, prioritizing their 'great gig' and immediate comfort over broader moral considerations.

Loyalty to figures like Augusto Pinochet, as seen with his chef Coco Pacheco, and Saddam Hussein, whose ex-chef spoke pseudonymously, remains a stark theme. These chefs often viewed their service through a lens of personal connection, minimizing or justifying the dictators' horrific actions.