Does our tale begin with a brilliant chef, culinary daredevil, or football coach turned commentator?

Turns out the history of how the turducken became popularized and the dish itself, a duck stuffed in a chicken stuffed inside a turkey all deboned, with cornbread and sausage spread among it, have a wonderful element of bizzare.

Here’s a bit of a timeline for you:

Chef Paul Prudhomme patented the word and recipe in 1986 while working on a restaurant buffet line carving meats

In the following 8 years, the bizarre dish gathered a following in Louisiana. However, there were few who knew of it elsewhere.

Enter Glenn Mistich who opened a Gourmet Butcher Block and sold about 250 turduckens a year.

Through a series of random events in 1997Glenn eventually brought John Madden, food lover and famous sports commentator who passed away yesterday, a turducken. Which he then ate on live television and popularized at a Thanksgiving football game.

Over the course of one’s life there’s a lot you can do, some of it intentional, and some of it as bizarre and unplanned as a turducken.

Photo by Maxim Berg on Unsplash.