Famous foods named after famous people

Celebrity fare: Famous foods named after famous people

            The origins of some of our most popular foods are entwined with celebrities of the past.

            When we sit down for a tea and biscuit, or a slice of cake, we might be consuming a little bit of celebrity history because some of our most common and popular foods are indelibly entwined with famous people of the past.

            Earl Grey tea and Garibaldi biscuits, made of currants sandwiched between wheat wafers, and the classic Victoria sponge cake, are among our most favoured foods and drinks named after historical figures. Rich, famous and talented historical celebrities have also lent their names to seafood dishes, puddings and champagne.

            The humble Garibaldi is thought to be named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general who fought for 30 years to free and unite Italy with his red-shirted troops. The biscuits are named after rations his men ate during his campaigns.

            Earl Grey tea takes its name from Charles Grey, the second Earl of Grey, and British prime minister from 1830 until 1834. It has a distinctive bergamot (citrus) flavour to it, which at the time of discovery, was seen as new and exciting. Twinings tea claims to be the home of Earl Grey tea and says: "The story goes that Earl Grey, the Georgian prime minister, was given cases of this tea by a Chinese Mandarin."He liked it so much he brought it home and asked Twinings to recreate it for him."

            It is widely thought that “margherita” pizza was named after Italy's Queen Margherita, who chose the tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza on a trip to Naples in 1889. Mr Nowak, the assistant director of Food Studies at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy, has studied a “thankyou” note in a pizzeria supposedly from the palace and says that is not the case.

            Carpaccio, a dish of raw meat thinly sliced, was dedicated to the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio in around 1950, the redness of the raw meat close in hue to a red he painted with.

1. Although the Garibaldi is a simple biscuit, it is linked to a decisive period of Italian history.

2. The first Earl of Grey was a prime minister in the nineteenth century.

3. Twinings discovered the exciting citrus taste of Earl Grey tea in China.

4. It has been proved that Queen Margherita gave its name to margherita pizza. 

5. The red colour of carpacio reminds a Venetian painter’s colours. 




KEY 

1. TRUE 
2. FALSE
3. FALSE 
4. FALSE
5. TRUE