Feasts for pharaohs:
The kings of ancient Egypt took their last meal with them to the tomb – the idea was they would eat it when reincarnated as gods in the afterlife. The 3,000-year old tomb of Tutankhamen escaped discovery by grave robbers until 1922, replete with the preserved remains of his repast: stuffed geese, roast legs of lamb, half sides of beef, and jars of wine with King Tut’s name on them. Analysis of Tut’s mummified gut found he’d eaten pickled roast beef, two types of bread, and red wine for his last meal as a mortal.
Skip the desert:
The last pharoah, Cleopatra, was taken captive by the Roman triumvir Octavian after his armies defeated the rebel Marc Anthony, Cleopatra’s lover, in 30 BCE. Cleopatra had earlier seduced Octavian’s adopted dad, Julius Caesar, and her children with Caesar and Anthony threatened Octavian’s rule. Rather than go to Rome as a prisoner, she held a feast for her ladies and an old woman brought a basket of figs to the door. The basket was passed through by the Roman sentries, but it hid the venomous snake – an asp – that Cleopatra used to take her life.
The king of buns:
18th Century Swedish King Adolf Frederick is known to Swedish children as “the king who ate himself to death.” In 1771, to celebrate his first 20 years on the throne, he ordered an extravagant feast at which he consumed repeated servings of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, kippers and champagne – followed by no less than 14 servings of his favourite desert: a sweet cream bun, semla, served with hot milk. He died of digestive problems a few hours later.
A little ice in your drink?
At the height of the Age of Luxury Liners, the passengers on the last voyage of the Titanic at least enjoyed a bang-up meal before their ordeal. The first-class menus for the night of the ship’s 1912 impact with an iceberg details a ten-course meal, including: oysters, poached salmon, filet mignons, saute chicken, roast lamb and mint sauce, roast duckling, beef sirloin and chateau potatoes, and pate de foie gras, with Waldorf pudding, peaches in chartreuse jelly, and eclairs for desert. Second-class passengers didn’t do quite so well. Their fare included: tapioca, baked haddock, curried chicken with rice, roast spring lamb, roast turkey with cranberry sauce, plum pudding and wine jelly.
Well, it’s one for the honey:
The King of Rock and Roll was a martyr to very high-calorie food, and his culinary legacy includes the Elvis Sandwich: toasted slices of bread spread with peanut butter, banana, bacon and honey, fried in a pan. For breakfast Elvis would eat a pound of bacon, a six-egg omelette, potatoes, cheese burgers and biscuits, and for a snack he munched on a hollowed-out loaf filled with jam and bacon. Given all this, his last meal before his death on August 15, 1977, was surprisingly light: four scoops of ice cream and six chocolate chip cookies.