When Rich Men Cook
August 23, 2016
This is among the stranger tomes in my collection, but given the current political climate, it just caught my eye.
It was published in 1968, and the author had a notion that captains of industry made excellent cooks. He collected their recipes and arranged them into rather fascinating meals.
I found the Mexican recipes especially interesting. In the introduction he notes that the rich were flying off to Mexico instead of Monte Carlo, and returning with recipes like these….
It’s a fascinating tome, with the strangest mix of recipes I’ve ever encountered. What other book, I wonder, would offer three different recipes for shad roe? (Not one of them, incidentally, involves bacon or a simple saute.) NExt spring, when the shad are running again, I’ll post all three of them.
In the meantime, here’s a little bit of nostalgia. This was, I think, my mother’s favorite party dessert.
Categorised in: Vintage Books and Magazines
5 Comments
Victor Bergeron using Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup???
I remember making this as a young bride…
Man, what a long reach that Campbell’s marketing department had. You’d think rich guys would at least have had a cook who could whip them up some bechamel. I like they way they kept to their theme with the phrase “crown each dish wish a tiara of sour cream”.
That grape/cream recipe is so odd I might have to try it. But really, no stranger than pressing grapes into a focaccia or fougasse, now that I think about it. Do you suppose “whipped sour cream” just means some sour cream you’ve loosened up with a whisk?
Maggie, my mother just used regular sour cream, and I remember the flavor with great fondness. But then, I like almost anything with sour cream…..
“wish” = “with”