Five Minutes With ... Mikey Robins

Five Minutes With … Mikey Robins

The Woollahra-based comedian talks forks, fetishes and eating in the name of research for his new book, Seven Deadly Sins * And One Very Naughty Fruit.

Mikey, what’s your new book about?

Its a smorgasbord, so to speak, of weird and strange and interesting culinary tales from ancient Egypt to the current time.

What inspired you to write the book?

I have always loved food, and for something to do, I started reading culinary history books. And when I was reading them, I kept coming upon all these weird stories and bizarre things about etiquette and food and I thought ‘I could probably write a funny book about that'.

How long did it take you to write it?

I did about four months research before I wrote a word, and the writing the book has been my life for most of this year.

What are some of the weird things you have discovered about food?

Oh, so many things. Like for instance our weird relationship with the fork. In Elizabethan times the fork was banned  and even up until the 1870s the British navy banned the fork because they thought it was prissy. They ate with a knife and their hands. There’s also a term called “sploshing”, where people get turned on by sitting naked on a cake. Apparently the Black Forest gateau is one of their favourites.

What is the very naughty fruit?

The pineapple. Louis XIV tried to ban the pineapple because nobody told him to peel it and so he hurt his gums trying to eat it. Then there’s there are the stories about the pineapple that I can’t say out loud. There’s something called the Dirty Pineapple. I can’t even talk about it. You’ll have to buy the book to find out.

Seven Deadly Sins * And One Very Naughty Fruit

Simon & Schuster, $35