Just read the obituary of briefly-prime-minister-of-Thailand Samak Sundaravej in the Economist.

His most famous recipe, “Pork Legs in Coca-Cola,” began with the straightforward instruction: “Place five pig legs in a large pot. Pour over four bottles of Coca-Cola.”

Coca-Cola notwithstanding, this guy was a serious cook. He had his own TV show, called “Tasting and Ranting.” (I call dibs on that as a title for a food show here in the US.) He had a signature paste (coriander, white pepper, garlic and fish sauce). He went market shopping himself.

Oh, yeah, and he was also kind of dick and may have encouraged the burning-alive of some student protesters in 1976.

This is exactly what I was saying in that earlier Momofuku post about professional kitchens being the perfect place for rigid perfectionists.

Much the way the NFL is a healthy outlet for guys who otherwise might be in prison on homicide charges, professional kitchens are where would-be iron-fist dictators can carry out a purge without actually killing any unarmed civilians. And, as a bonus, they’ll cook amazing food and the public will adore them.

Politics is altogether more complicated. Khun Samak, I’m not excusing anything, but congrats on continuing your cooking show while in office, and for getting the boot from politics because of it. If you hadn’t, things might’ve been a whole lot worse for Thailand.