Do you want to dine like a Dutch Queen, imbibe like an Icelandic President, or graze like General Dwight D. Eisenhower? To discover the Alliance's top culinary secrets, dive deeper into the history of 'The Best of Taste': NATO's first cookbook, which was published in 1957. A gem of culinary diplomacy during the Cold War, it offers a glimpse into the national cuisines of NATO members at the time, highlighting the diverse flavours of the transatlantic Alliance.
Don't judge a book by its cover… but 'The Best of Taste' had a very fitting one! In colours of red and blue, it pictured a naval chef standing astride North America and Europe, representing the transatlantic bond and the SACLANT's role in guarding Allied sea lanes. To protect the book from cooking grease and dirt, the hardcover was water-resistant and easily cleanable.
Spilling the beans: uncovering the most popular Allied recipes
As the saying goes, the way to someone's heart is through their stomach. The wives of officers at the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT), one of NATO's former strategic commands, knew it well. Each month, one of them hosted a luncheon where she served traditional dishes from her country, helping to foster diplomatic ties and informal friendships between the then-15 members of the Alliance. When NATO was looking for effective ways to increase public awareness about the Organization, the SACLANT Officers' Wives Club came up with the idea to publish a collection of tasty recipes from each Allied country.
The project started in 1955 and was led by the newly founded SACLANT NATO Cookbook Committee. The Committee gathered the wives of officers from eight NATO countries. Phyllis Wright, the wife of the second SACLANT, Admiral Jerauld Wright, spearheaded the efforts. Through memoranda with bolded labels instructing officers to 'PLEASE TAKE THIS MEMO HOME TO YOUR WIFE', the Committee requested 'superior recipes, which are geared to modern living, unusual and tasty' from their countries of origin.
Selling like hot cakes: the cookbook publication
On 26 November 1957 in Washington, D.C., the SACLANT Officers' Wives Club formally introduced 'The Best of Taste: The finest food of fifteen nations' for the very first time. With 244 pages full of mouth-watering recipes from 15 NATO countries - Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States - and a sale price of USD 4.00, the cookbook offered instructions on making dishes fit for a king and queen - quite literally. While drafting the cookbook, the wives not only contributed their own recipes, but also solicited recipes from others, including King Paul of Greece, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, and Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg. Even the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General (and, by that time, President of the United States) Dwight D. Eisenhower, contributed to the cookbook with his favourite recipe (see below). Eisenhower admitted that he found 'the subject matter an intriguing one - somewhat to the despair of my doctors who cannot understand why I always want to eat just what they don't want me to have'.
Besides being an effective and tasty diplomatic tool, 'The Best of Taste' proved itself to be a sweet deal for young people interested in NATO. All royalties from its sale were donated to the NATO Fellowship and Scholarship Fund, which was instituted in 1955 and offered scholarships for students researching topics related to NATO and the North Atlantic Area.
Mrs Wright presents NATO Secretary General Paul-Henri Spaak with a copy of 'The Best of Taste' and the first royalties cheque for the NATO Fellowship and Scholarship Fund at NATO Headquarters in Paris, France, 1958.
The NATO cookbook in a nutshell
The cookbook has several sections, including appetizers, soups, seafood, meats, fowl and game, salads and vegetable dishes, breads, casserole dishes, and desserts. It offers tips for food to serve during luncheons and outdoor picnics, instructs prospective cooks on sauces, relishes and jams, as well as traditional dishes for specific holidays like Easter. Moreover, the introduction contains essays on wines and other liquors from NATO countries to aid hosts in choosing and serving the right beverage for each dish.
Under the Featured section, titled 'Heads of State', the cookbook lists recipes vouched for by Allied leaders:
-
- Old-fashioned beef stew by Dwight Eisenhower, the President of the United States
-
- Hotchpotch and thin flank (Hutspot*) by Her Majesty Queen Juliana from the Netherlands
-
- Fish rice and Meat balls (Kefte) by His Majesty, King Paul I of Greece
-
- Fish pudding with filling and Ptarmigans by His Excellency Asgeir Asgeirsson, President of the Republic of Iceland
-
- Les oeufs chasseur by His Excellency, the Right Honorable Vincent Massey, P.C., C.H., Governor General of Canada
-
- Crawfish and Fanion bleu by Her Royal Highness, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg
The icing on the cake: illustrations
Besides the variety of recipes, the cookbook also features light-hearted illustrations by Tessa Cody, the wife of a UK Royal Air Force officer at SACLANT Headquarters. The talented Cody created entertaining images for each section, including a winking mounted cow head for Meats, a mouse sneaking some crumbs for Bread, and a witch astride a broomstick and carrying a cauldron for Soups.
To help prospective cooks prepare for any and every event, the cookbook contains suggested menus for various international occasions. From a Canadian formal dinner to a German Christmas Eve, from a Norwegian cold cut table to a Portuguese tea party and a traditional American Thanksgiving, the menus are also paired with complementary drinks. 'The Best of Taste' compiles the most authentic national dishes, like Belgian cheese croquettes, Danish roast duck, Turkish stuffed peppers and British Yorkshire pudding.
The crème de la crème: the best recipes from the NATO cookbook
Variety is the spice in life. Now you too can put together a menu showcasing the diversity of the early Alliance with the recipes below!
-
- Angels on horseback - United Kingdom
-
- Mr. Crispy (Croque Monsieur) - France
-
- Hot clam Abba Dabba - United States
-
- "Very good" steaks (Bifes Bem Bons) - Portugal
-
- Witch house casserole - Canada
-
- Othello layer cake (Othellokage) - Denmark
-
- Lady's secret (Segreto della Dama) - Italy
-
- Lips of the beauty (Dilber Dudagi) - Turkey
In January 1968, more than ten years after the cookbook's launch, the SACLANT Officers' Wives Club decided to formally discontinue its publication as it had, in their opinion, run its course(s). Nevertheless, many of the recipes that they meticulously collected for 'The Best of Taste' have stood the test of time and remain beloved national dishes.
