Josip Broz Tito had a reputation of a great hedonist. He used to relax with a whiskey Chivas Royal that was 20 years old and smoked cigarettes from Havana, but when it comes to food, he was not particularly picky.
According to his last butler, Joze Oseli, in the book “Tito’s last days”, they would always serve different meat, side dishes and salads to Yugoslav president, and he would choose what he will eat at a certain moment. He refused to eat only one food.
“We brought snails, and he said: “Oh no, I do not eat snails,” revealed this famous Slovenian chef.
Josip Broz Tito especially loved Zagorje cuisine. He liked beef the most, and he was starting his day with a short espresso without sugar.
When he received ginseng tea as a gift from North Korea, he started with a ritual of drinking it before going to bed.
Taking ginseng tea in Asia is well-known practice for over 5,000 years, and there are numerous benefits from it: it improves overall health and mental activity, and it represents a prevention against many diseases.
After the death of Josip Broz Tito, Oseli was the chef in the hotel “Lev” in Ljubljana and on the selection for Miss World. He worked as a consultant on numerous international projects as a member of the French Culinary Academy, and he also participated in humanitarian actions by cooking for the poor in all continents.
Thanks to the work for the president of former Yugoslavia, Oseli cooked for many celebrity persons from the world of politics and film. The famous movie star Elizabeth Taylor loved steak the most, and her husband Richard Burton enjoyed grilled meat.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
