Sue Perkins
The Supersizer

It must be acknowledged that Sue Perkins is someone many Americans do not know. On the other hand Sue is quite the celebrity in England where she appears frequently on the telly, including as a regular guest on the masterful and informative Qi, the panel/quiz show currently hosted by Sandi Toksvig.

Well, perhaps we're not being fair. Certainly some Americans have seen Sue in The Great British Baking Show on PBS. In Britain the show is called The Great British Bake Off and was hosted ("presented" in the British patois) by Sue and her long-time comedy collaborator, Melanie Giedroyc ("Mel" to her friends).

But a Respectful CooperToons Opinion is that Sue's best shows were the Supersizers Series: The Supersizers Go and The Supersizers Eat. In these twelve one-hour episodes (not counting the pilot), Sue and restaurant critic Giles Coren spent a week living off the cuisine (and playing the roles) of well-to-do citizens for a particular time in history. They had medical check-ups before and after each week to see how their bodies tolerated the different diets.

So during one week Sue and Giles would go to Ancient Rome where they feasted on duck tongues and raw eggs as well as the famous garum, the Roman fish sauce made from rotted (actually fermented) fish guts. Romans added garum to almost everything and Giles said one dessert tasted like apple purée where a goldfish had died.

Another week they zipped back to the 1980's where they lived the life of a high powered yuppie couple living off espresso and nouvelle cuisine which - as they said - put everything on the bill and nothing on the plate (Giles was able to put an entire course onto a single fork which he said gave him a decent mouthful). Then they'd go back to World War II where they subsisted on the highly rationed diet of the war years - which actually improved their heath.

After the War came the Fifties. Sue and Giles sailed through the post-war austerity where rationing continued into the era of the teenager and rock and roll when the people never had it so good. In the Seventies, they ate hamburgers at England's first Hard Rock Cafe and were then flabbergasted at the amount of hard liquor they were expected to drink at a 1970's style party.

But things were not always as they seemed. For all the talk of how modern food processing destroys the nutrients in our food, the older diets were not necessarily more healthful than ours today. Ancient Roman cuisine - expected to improve Sue and Giles' health - actually increased their body fat. We should remember, though, how different the Ancient Roman diet was from the modern tasty, yet healthful Mediterranean diet. Brain and rose petal patina, roast testicles, and udder paté are not items you find at your typical ristorante. The duck tongues, by the way, were a substitute for the Romans' preferred larks' tongues.

In the Elizabethan Age, the high protein content of the meals together with the usual beverages of beer and ale is something that you think would make Sue and Giles tub up. Instead they both saw a major weight loss. Sue shed almost nine pounds and Giles dropped nearly seven. Remember, this is for only one week on the diet.

Although such meals might seem to commend themselves for people wanting to shed pounds rapidly, such weight loss was too precipitous to be healthy, and the consulting physician recommended Sue and Giles avoid the food of Shakespeare's day. Sue remarked she didn't feel well during the experiment.

Particularly unhealthy was the cuisine of the Edwardian Era. There was not only far, far too much meat, but the meals were thoroughly stuffed with fat and cholesterol while green vegetables and fruit were virtually non-existent. The favorite drink was wine, particularly champagne which Edwardians consumed even for brunch.

Rolled ox tongue was a favorite for lunch, and offal - the animals' guts - was standard fare. Lunch was usually eaten around 1:00 p. m., and dinner was served late - around eight in the evening. So every afternoon at four, the proper Edwardians had tea together with ample cakes, scones, and sandwiches to tide them over.

But it's the sheer volume consumed by the rich Edwardians that raises our eyebrows. Giles was putting away 5000 calories a day. That's about 3200 more than recommended by today's nutritionists. Not surprisingly, Giles had a two digit weight gain in his first two days.

Some of the dishes were decidedly strange. When out on the town, Edwardians enjoyed pressed duck, a dish that was so complicated to prepare that you found it only in the best restaurants. The chef removed the legs and breasts and took the rest - minus the heart and livers - and mashed it up in a special press. This made, as Giles pointed out, a duck "smoothie". The hearts and livers were then puréed and added to the blood mixed with stock and champagne. This sauce you added to sliced duck breast and leg. This was considered a top-class dish.

But it was in the first years of the 20th century that some dietary habits began to change for the better. Although upper class Edwardians never gave up their infatuation with meat, vegetarian restaurants began to pop up around London. Considered a fringe affectation by the mainstream, vegetarianism demonstrated that farm produce was perfectly capable of sustaining life. Eventually people began to lose their prejudice against vegetables, and the basic food groups became part of a balanced diet.

Probably the biggest surprise was when Sue and Giles played the part of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. They ate massive amounts of meat, mounds of sugar infused pastries, tons of white bread, and all washed down with gallons of wine. You'd think that living off such a diet so favored by one of the most hedonistic of the French dynasties would have played havoc with their systems. What actually happened was ...

Well, we don't want to give the whole story away but if you can see these shows, by all means do so.