Trivia

His cookery show 'Clemens Wilmenrod bittet zu Tisch' was broadcast from February 20, 1953 to May 16, 1964 on the WDR West German Television network.

Pioneer of the TV cooking shows. Although the genre was not a worldwide novelty, he was the first of his kind in Germany. His popularity even went so far that whenever he introduced a recipe, the main ingredients were sold out for days.

Clemens Wilmenrod was pioneering the TV cooking show. The actor became a huge success in 1950s West Germany - even if he didn't actually know how to cook.

Wilmenrod is credited to be inventor of the Toast Hawaii (a slice of toast with a pineapple ring, baked with cheese and topped with a single cherry), the "Arabian Horsemen Meat" and the "stuffed strawberry". He is also credited with making the Rumtopf popular in Southern and Western Germany, and with introducing turkey as a typical Christmas dinner.

In one memorable incident, after being accused by a viewer of not having invented the "stuffed strawberry" himself, Wilmenrod put a long kitchen knife against his chest and swore to kill himself if a single viewer can prove to have eaten a stuffed strawberry before.

He committed suicide in 1967 in a hospital in Munich after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.

He was known for giving his recipes exotic and sometimes strange names, such as "Arabian Horsemen Meat", "Breton Herring Salad" and "Toast Hawaii". Not rarely did he make up stories about where he got his recipes from, to convey a sense of wanderlust to the audience.

After gaining popularity as a television cook, several brands for food and kitchen appliances contracted him to display their items on his show. This sparked a debate about if a TV personality is allowed to advertise brands to earn extra money. Wilmenrod also received a backlash from channel WDR, because his trademark portrait, a caricature drawn by caricaturist Mirko Szewczuk, was printed on cans of a fish brand. Today, product placement is a common practice in TV shows.

Claimed that he came up with the idea of a cooking show after watching a documentary in which a scientist extracted venom from a snake. He found the way how the snake was presented in front of the camera so astonishing that, right after the show ended, he went to a bar with his wife and told her "Imagine that beast was an omelet".