GREAT BRITAIN: Soupstakes

Studiously English in other respects, King George nonetheless keeps a French chef, famed Henri Cedard. Never to English but occasionally to French correspondents, M. Cedard remarks upon Edward of Wales’s curious lack of discrimination in matters of food and Queen Mary’s downright stinginess.* Smart and suave, the royal chef knows perfectly how to give satisfaction. Last week there was a silent chorus of Gallic shrugs among London’s best chefs when it appeared that the international Silver Jubilee Soup Recipe Competition (TIME, March 18), of which M. Cedard was a judge, had been won by a British Army cook sergeant, honest George Brown of Aldershot.

Such an award speaks for itself. Last week the patriotic British “Soupstakes” promoters further indulged their sense of humor by twitting U. S. housewives who entered the competition but failed to place. Tongue in cheek, the Soupstakers held up to British ridicule Mrs. M. H. Houghlan of Broadus, Mont., disqualified because the chief ingredients of her vegetable soup are beef knuckles and heel of beef. Also calculated to put Britons into stitches was the revelation that an egg dumpling soup was entered in the vegetable classic by Mrs. S. H. Long, No. 403 Sunnyside Ave., Waterloo, Iowa.

The first prize recipe, wherever honest Sergeant Brown got it, was purely French or it would scarcely have won at the hands of Chef Cedard. The distinction: an English soup starts with water into which things are thrown; a French soup starts with ingredients so prepared as to develop and conserve their flavor, water being added to the minimum extent necessary.

The winning recipe for “Vegetable Tomato Soup” (enough to serve eight) crowned by Buckingham Palace’s Chef:

“Cut into very thin slices 1 onion, 1 small carrot, 1 stick of celery. Melt 1 oz. butter in a stewpan and fry with vegetables for a few minutes without browning. Add 2½ lb. tomatoes, cut into slices, and cook for a few more minutes. Add 2 pints of water, small clove of garlic and bunch of herbs.

“Then bring to the boil, season to taste and simmer gently until all vegetables are cooked. Remove garlic and herbs, and rub through fine hair-sieve. Return to clean stewpan, correct for seasoning. Bring slowly to the boil, while thickening with a little cornflour mixed with cold water, then add a pinch of castor sugar and serve with crouton of fried bread. A little seed tapioca may be added as a garnish, but must be added and cooked before the soup is thickened.”

* To Vu of Paris, M. Cedard supplied a royal garden party tea menu with characteristic corrections in Her Majesty’s own hand. She struck off jam, thus making a double saving, since the omission greatly reduced her guests’ appetite for bread & butter. Another saving Her Majesty shrewdly made possible by decreeing that ices should be served only if the afternoon proved extremely hot. Finally, though the Royal Family’s own edibles are provided from the kitchens of Chef Cedard, their tea guests are fed by Lyons, cheapest London chain-store caterers.