It’s no secret–I love food. Now, you’d think that someone who loves food has a finely developed sense of taste as to quality and class, but, in my case, you’d be wrong. My tastes are decidedly “of the people” and not refined in any way. An epicure, on the other hand, has refined taste. This type of person knows what wine goes with what course, what cheeses and fruits pair well, and how to appreciate a good meal. Think of someone who really knows fine art and apply that principle to food and you have a decent definition of an epicure.

The epicure in question here is one Edward Dando. He lived in London in the early part of the 1800s. The man was known for frequenting the finest restaurants in the city and leaving his appreciation for his food with the proprietors and chefs. Dando’s life was cut short, sadly, when he caught Cholera during an outbreak and died at the early age of about 30. However, Dando crammed as much living as he could in those 30 years. But part of that life of great food and incredible sensations of his refined palate included a taste for good clothes as well. In fact, Dando was heard to say that his reception at the good restaurants was much better because he dressed as well as he could. The food was somehow better, he argued, because the restaurants thought he was richer because of his clothing.

But that’s the thing. Edward Dando wasn’t wealthy. And that’s the interesting thing about him. And don’t assume that Dando only ate at the poshest places; no, he allowed his taste buds to lead him to even the most common establishments because they, too, can prepare good food even if the upper crust turns their noses up at the locale. So, Dando often ate his way across the spectrum from low brow to high brow establishments.

And he had a special gustatorial affection for oysters. Oysters were consumed by people in England by the millions. It was the one food that all social classes ate with gusto. And Dando ate them by the dozen…dozens. He washed them down with ginger beer and bread with copious helpings of butter. And despite eating more than two or three men at one sitting, Dando remained a thin man all of his short life.

But his reputation as a gourmand grew so large that songs were written about him. Newspapers followed his exploits. He became somewhat of a folk hero in his time. Famous writers like Thackery and even Charles Dickens penned stories and letters describing his eating exploits. Dickens even compared the man to Alexander the Great; he joked that, one day, Dando will cry because he will have eaten the last oyster in the world, and, like the Macedonian when he came to the end of the known world, he will weep because there will be no more oysters to conquer.

As I said, Dando died at age 30. You may wonder how he paid for such extravagant dinners, how he could afford to eat at the best (and sometimes the worst) restaurants in London. Well, wonder no more. The answer is simply that Edward Dando simply didn’t pay for his food. And it wasn’t that the restaurants allowed him to eat his fill for free. No. In fact, the opposite. It seems that Dando was able to go from one restaurant to another, eat more than would kill a normal man, and then simply refuse to pay the bill.