Charles Darwin was driven by gastronomic, as well as scientific, curiosity and once ate an oil. While reading Divinity at Cambridge University, he became a member of the Glutton club which met once a week and actively sought to eat animals not normally found on menus. Darwin’s son commenting on his father’s letters, noted that the Glutton club enjoyed, among other things, hawk and bittern.

Over the years, Darwin sharpened up considerably in the academic arena and lost his faith in God, but he never lost his taste for the allure of an interesting menu. In the Galapagos, Darwin wolfed down a few helpings of giant tortoise. Not realising the importance of giant tortoises to his later evolutionary theory, forty-eight specimens were loaded aboard the Beagle. Darwin and his shipmates proceeded to eat them, throwing the shells overboard as they finished.