While sailing with Darwin on his famous Discovery of Evolution trip, kitchen worker, Bill Tomlinson, actually evolved. It was gradual at first; he evolved from assistant cook to cook when the original cook came down with malaria.

Darwin was too busy having fun with the fauna of the Galapagos Islands to notice the miracle on his own ship.

Tomlinson continued to evolve, losing his long prehensile tail, which he served poached in light wine sauce, and eventually, developing an opposable thumb, which allowed him to finally grasp a spatula. And Darwin did notice. His diary for that night read, “Dinner tonight unusually good--for the first time, cooked on both sides!”

By the time Darwin’s ship returned to England, Tomlinson had evolved into a glowing ball of pure intelligence--just perfect, it turned out, for braising pork on a spit, just the way Darwin liked.

Although Tomlinson has long since moved on to another plane, the London restaurant he founded, The Ape and Man, still exists. The fish legs are especially good, and if you’re feeling brave, order the spicy hot missing links.

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