Potato & Leek Soup - Not
Friday, November 18, 2016
It is impossible for me to prepare my French onion soup without associating it with four men. The first one was Raúl Guerrero Montemayor my mentor in Mexico City in the late 60s and until he died recently. The other three are author Len Deighton and actors Christopher Plummer and Michael Caine. In the 60s and until Deighton stopped writing his wonderful spy thrillers and WWII history books.
One of my
fave films of all time is Sidney Furie’s 1965 The Ipcress File starring Len Deighton. In Deighton’s very good
novel by the same name (far more sophisticated in my estimation than Ian Fleming’s).
In the novel the principal protagonist is not named. For the film Michael Caine
was given the name of Harry Palmer.
And why
is Christopher Plummer in my above list? He turned down the role for the
Ipcress File. The entry of Michael Caine is thus history (and a very good
one!).
Back to
Raúl Guerrero Montemayor who gave me Deighton’s lovely illustrated (by the
author) Cookstrip Cook Book in 1968
as a wedding gift when I married my Canadian Rosemary Elizabeth Healey.
Cookery
books
Deighton
also wrote a series of cookery books, and wrote and drew a weekly strip
cartoon-style illustrated cooking guide in London's The Observer newspaper –
Len Deighton's Cookstrip. At least one of the strips is pinned up in Deighton's
spy hero's kitchen in the 1965 film of his novel The IPCRESS File.
In 2014
The Observer announced that Deighton would create 12 new cookstrips to be
printed every month in the Observer Food Magazine, starting in January 2015.
To
exploit the success of Deighton's first four "Unnamed Hero" novels,
he wrote Len Deighton's London Dossier (1967), a guide book to Swinging Sixties
London with a "secret agent" theme – contributions from other writers
are described as "surveillance reports".
Wikipedia
My favourite recipe from the book is his French onion soup. I have been making it to Deighton’s exact specifications for years.
Today
Thursday (this blog will be up with tomorrow’s date) I finally modified
Deighton’s French onion soup. Instead of onions I used leeks. I must report
that the soup was sensational (to use the word so often used by my departed
friend Sean Rossiter.)
