When a Despot Is at the Dinner Table, How Do You Keep Him Happy?
A journalist finds six chefs who worked for former dictators and explores their formative—and even loving—relationships.
Illustration: Jaci Kessler Lubliner; Photos: Getty Images
In a run-down brick shack, Otonde Odera prepares a small feast. As he seasons a fillet of fish, he consciously oversalts it—just the way his former boss liked it. That would be Idi Amin, dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, who allegedly consumed the blood and liver of his enemies. Odera was his chef.
Now in his 80s, Odera lives in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, in a kind of genteel poverty—occasionally reminiscing about his days in neighboring Uganda. Amin was good to him: He almost tripled Odera’s salary to compete with the best hotels in Kampala, gave him a Mercedes and gifts of cash—and recommended three of his four wives. Almost all of that is gone now, vanished even before Amin was overthrown.