An Appetite For Passion

Sometime people write cookbooks because they love the food and sometimes because they get paid.

Today at Lucindaville, we wrote about Ivana Lowell's memoir. Lowell is the daughter of Caroline Blackwood. An Appetite For Passion was written because Lowell got paid... here is the story.

Ivana Lowell worked for Harvey Weinstein (oh yes and she was dating his brother, Bob). Miramax, the Weinsteins company had acquired the movie, Like Water for Chocolate and they were about to do a special-edition DVD release. Harvey wanted a cookbook tie-in and he enlisted Ivana Lowell.

"I had loved the movie, and the idea of a cookbook seemed like a terrific one until I looked at a copy of [Laura] Esquivel's book... The book was divided into twelve sections, one for each month of the year, and each section began with a recipe.
I went back to Harvey with the bad news. "It already is a cookbook, " I told him. He flew into a rage. "I don't care if it's already a fucking cookbook! Write another one. Call it a sequel! I want a Miramax book to tie in with the movie."

Like her mother before her, Lowell collected recipes from friends and other sources to compile the book. Her sense of humor was always at the forefront as she presented dishes like Root Vegetable Ménage à Trois, Spice Massaged Tuna in Bed with Greens and her mother's recipe for lamb meatballs, Lady Caroline's Lamb with Three Byronic Sauces. Here is a recipe from The Four Seasons:

Lush Peach soup

6 ripe peaches, peeled and pitted
1 small orange, halved and seeds removed
1/2 lemon, seeds removed
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick (You may substitute 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
4 whole cloves
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons peach brandy
7 ounces ginger ale

Place the peaches, orange, and lemon in a large saucepan and add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, wine, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 1 hour, or until the ingredients are very tender.

In a small bowl whisk the cornstarch into the brandy. Stir the brandy mixture into the peach mixture and return to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Remove and discard the orange and lemon rinds, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cloves. Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Push the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Divide 1 cup of the soup into 4 small ramekins and freeze. Chill the rest of the soup and add ginger ale just before serving. Serve in chilled bowls and float the frozen soup on top.

Check out Caroline Blackwood's cookbook, Darling, You Should'nt Have Gone To So Much Trouble.

Darling, You Shouldn’t Have Gone To So Much Trouble

People write books for many reasons. Darling, You Shouldn’t Have Gone To So Much Trouble by Caroline Blackwood and Anna Haycraft came into being after a tragedy. Blackwood lost her seventeen-year-old daughter to a drug overdose. Actually, the girl ran a bath and was preparing the heroin, but she was drunk, passed out, and fell into the tub and drowned.

Anna Haycraft understood Blackwood’s pain, having lost two children herself. Being a writer, (Haycraft is better known by her pen name, Alice Thomas Ellis) Haycraft devised a project to get Blackwood working. They would call upon their numerous literary and famous friends and ask them for recipes that anyone might cook.

Of the modern 1980’s woman they write:

“If she entertains she want to be free to drink and talk to her friends without worrying whether the dinner she is about to produce will be a catastrophe.”

Given Blackwood's alcoholism, she clearly wanted to be "free to drink" and really didn't care too much about the food. Their motley and arty crew of friends included the likes of Sonia Orwell, Quentin Crisp, Lucian Freud, Nicky Haslam, and Marianne Faithful to name a few. It is rakish list for a cookbook and the recipes are delightful.

Lucian Freud’s Tomato Soup au Naturel

Fresh tomatoes
Country Butter
Clotted cream
Bay leaf

My recipe is not right for this book. I once took only the very purest ingredients. I first fried the tomatoes very slowly. Then I simmered them very slowly, stirring all the time. The whole thing took hours. When I tasted it I realized I had re-invented Heinz Tomato soup.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s English Afternoon Tea

Take a loaf of very good unsliced bread; butter with sweet butter; cut a thin slice with a very sharp knife; repeat.

Needless to say, some people failed to understand the witty elements of the book nor did they find the cookbook to be that informative. Clearly, the recipes were to be taken with – a bit of salt. The esteemed novelist Anita Brookner who did not agree with lighthearted nature of the book, was chosen to write a review. She stated rather emphatically:

“This is corrupt food…People should not eat bad food to save time, particularly bad food which is rather expensive”

The review caused Blackwood to send a scathing letter to Brookner. The controversy pushed the book into several printings. Clearly if one is looking for a balanced and nutritious menu the first people to come to mind are not Marianne Faithful nor Quentin Crisp. Clearly, Anita Brookner went to, far too much trouble.

While we might not advocate cooking all the recipes, they are a delight to read. For more on Caroline Blackwood, check out the post at Lucindaville.