Len Deighton's Action Cook Book

Len Deighton's Action Cook Book

Len Deighton's Action Cook Book is a 1965 collection of cookery strips (known as a cookstrip, an invention of Len Deighton's from his days as a student at the Royal College of Art) originally published in The Observer newspaper, with additional information and notes. Aimed at "an audience of men unskilled at knowing their way around the kitchen",[1] the book has been described as a cult classic from the period and helped pave the transition from cooking being only for women, into being a sophisticated expectation of a modern man.[2][3]

The book was reissued in 2009 by Harper Perennial (an imprint of HarperCollins) with original content and artwork, the 2nd edition of the cover artwork, and an additional updated introduction.[4]

Sequel

A follow-up book, Où Est Le Garlic?, was published later in 1965, and was Deighton's final cookbook. According to Deighton, the publishers had originally intended to "impregnante" this second volume with the smell of garlic, to attract attention in bookshops, but the plan was discarded after pre-emptive complaints from warehouse workers.[5][6]

At least one of the cookstrips from The Observer is pinned up in Deighton's spy hero's kitchen in the 1965 film of his 1962 novel The IPCRESS File.[7]

The cookbook was mentioned in an episode of The Supersizers...,[8] focusing on the extremely high quantities of alcohol required for a 1970s cocktail party. It recommends half a 70 cl bottle (35 cl) of spirit (e.g. rum, vodka, etc.) per person every two hours of a party, increasing to three-quarters (52.5 cl) of a bottle per person after 2 hours "since drinking will increase if they haven't gone home by then" (p126). This equates to 87.5 cl of spirits per person for a four-hour party.

See also

References

  1. ^ Dossier, T.D., 2015. Action Cook. The Deighton Possier. Available at: http://www.deightondossier.net/Books/Cookery/actioncook.html Archived 2015-07-23 at the Wayback Machine [Accessed July 23, 2015].
  2. ^ "A taste of the action: Len Deighton's cult Sixties' cookbook is back". The Independent. 17 June 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  3. ^ "Eye Magazine | Feature | Fry like a spy". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  4. ^ Deighton, L., 2009. Action Cook Book Harper Per., London, UK: Harper Perennial.
  5. ^ Loffhagen, Emma (17 March 2026). "Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  6. ^ Stummer, Robin (14 December 2014). "Len Deighton's Observer cookstrips, Michael Caine and the 1960s". The Observer. Retrieved 17 March 2026.
  7. ^ The Ipcress File (1965) - Trivia - IMDb, retrieved 23 June 2023
  8. ^ Coveney, T., 2008. The Supersizers Go...Seventies.
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