I watch the news a lot, but sometimes the world’s happenings are hard to bear, so to give myself a little break I periodically switch over to PBS where they have those wonderful programs that make me forget what’s going on.

I’m talking, of course, about cooking shows.

There are perfectly good reasons why I love cooking shows. I worked in the restaurant business in my youth and was married to a chef for a while, so I like to think of myself as a bit of a foody. My sweetie pie also loves to cook—in fact my ex-husband gave him some pointers and once exclaimed that, “Ryan makes the best coq au vin I’ve ever tasted!” I fell in love with cooking shows when Ry introduced me to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, hosted by chef Guy Fieri, the most un-chef-like chef you’ll ever meet. (Give it a try!)

I bring this up because sometimes I learn fascinating things about food from these shows that have me running to the computer to learn more. Like the fact that Europeans, upon meeting a tomato, decided it was poison. Why you ask? Because only wealthy people could afford these fantastical New World fruits—yes, a tomato is a fruit—and strangely those rich folks started dying after eating what came to be called “poison apples.” Poor people blamed the tomato, when in fact it was the pewter plates that were knocking off the rich because of lead poisoning.

Then there’s the artichoke, which most 16^th century European women were banned from eating, because the vegetable was believed to make people feel…um… frisky. All the way back in ancient Greek times that prickly plant—called kaktos by the locals— was thought to be an aphrodisiac. And when Italy’s Catherine de Medici was shipped from her home in Italy, where women relished the artichoke, to France where she married King Henry II at the tender age of 14, she exclaimed, “Oh, mio dio!” when she was told that eating her favorite vegetable was a no-no, even though men were free to consume it. However, Catherine was lucky because Henry didn’t seem to mind her constantly scarfing down artichokes. It’s good to be the queen, apparently.

Puffer fish are an interesting food, as well. People eat them even though THEY CAN KILL YOU! Before I go on, let me say that I’m a scuba diver and puffer fish are very cute, so I would never eat one. Also, I don’t want to die a miserable death from poisoning. In Japan, however, puffer fish are all the rage. A Japanese friend once explained that even though the fish contains a toxin called tetrodotoxin which can cause paralysis and death, people eat it because the chefs who prepare the delicacy must take a national test and practical examination to be allowed to prepare and serve it. She also explained that eating puffer fish is a manly exercise, where a dude’s masculinity quotient is elevated because he’s so very brave for eating a poison fish. Kind of a mine’s-bigger-than-yours contest.

The point, I guess, is there’s a giant world of interesting food out there and we should learn about it, especially since it’s so much more entertaining than the news.

Anne Montgomery’s novels can be found wherever books are sold.

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