Top 10s Top 10 historical lovers and their food

Date Published:

12/02/2009

What are you planning to feed your other half on Valentine's Day this year?

Will it include copious amounts of foods said to contain aphrodisiacal qualities, such as chocolate, strawberries, chillies and oysters? Or just a korma and a bottle of plonk? Julie Bindel looks back in time to those who knew how to woo.

Samson wooed Delilah with almonds, believed to provoke passionate thoughts in women. The ancient Aztecs named the avocado tree 'Ahuacuati' which translates to 'testicle tree' and it is full of sex hormone-producing vitamin B.

Garlic apparently awakens the sexual appetite, and honey was used by men during medieval times to drive their romantic choice into a frenzy of desire. Newlyweds would drink mead at their wedding breakfast, giving rise to the term 'honeymoon'.

When Attila the Hun married his twelfth wife Ildico in 453 AD whole herds of sheep along with thousands of gallons of alcohol were brought in to satisfy their appetites. The feasting continued for days, and Attila was found dead the morning after taking his 16 year old bride to bed.

When Romeo and Juliet met at a grand ball in 15th century Verona, Italy, the food was lavish and elaborate. The young lovers began the feast with tender pork livers, blancmange, tortes and pies, salt-cured pork loin and sausage, roast veal, kid, squab, chicken, rabbit, and whole roasted large game and fowl dressed in their skin or feathers.

The main course included fried dough covered with honey and rose water, served with silver-wrapped lemons in syrup, Catalan-style chicken, suckling pig, capon and duck with black and sour cherries macerated in wine.

Times were hard for Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler during the American Civil War, during which gingerbread and apples were amongst the most coveted food. Ginger is known to stimulate the heart and make the pulse race, but not a great deal can be said for apples on the romantic front, bar their seductive Eden-esque past.

Napoleon wooed Josephine in 1795 at Lerand Vefours restaurant in Paris where they dined on oysters, mutton and sole.

The world's most famous lover, Casanova, loved food as well as women. "Sex is like eating and eating is like sex," he wrote. It is thought that Casanova created the idea of oysters being an aphrodisiac, and loved sharing his favourite dish with his many lovers - macaroni sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

Well-off Victorians would scoff oysters and drink Champagne, especially on special occasions such as a romantic meal for two. Dinner might consist of baked fish followed by roasted poultry, pork or beef, accompanied by a variety of vegetables, fresh baked bread, and often pasta, which was presented by the maid in a dramatic style to the great delight of the guests.

As for Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco, their six-tier wedding cake was cut with the Prince's sword, oozing cream and fruit. Guests feasted on a huge buffet showcasing fresh lobster and huge sides of beef.

At Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana in 1981, guests drank Cuvee Dom Perignon 1961 vintage, selected because it was the year of the bride's birth. It is known as one of the most coveted and rare champagnes.

So what culinary delights await us this Valentine's Day? One New York restaurant is going all out by cooking the same menu that appeared in Babette's Feast, a film about food and love. An elaborate meal of tortoise soup, caviar with blinis, quails in pastry cases, cheeses and a rum baba with raisins and figs will be served at the Cafe des Artistes to mouth-watering lovers.

Inspired? Get your Valentine's Day cooking with these menus:
Romantic menu for two
Hot and horny menu

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