What Do James Bond, Vincent Price and Barney Fife Have in Common?

October 26, 2006 · By Brian Lichorowic · From pages 16, 17 of the print edition

They're all "eccentric" when it comes to gastronomy. Little known? Probably yes, but I can verify it here.

Consider these trivia "ammo" for your next dinner party you're required taking a dish to. Why not take something with a little narrative behind it.

Here's a salad dressing, a dessert and cookies that are from the hearts and minds of some of our more eccentric personalities in our culture.

James Bond's Salad Dressing

On a recent cross-country trip I was in an Airport shopping for a book and spotted a re-issue of Ian Flemmings' James Bond Series for "On Her Majesties Secret Service".

James Bonds has be burned into four generations of psyches as a suave, sophisticated man who like his martini's "shaken, not stirred" and his women, gambling, gadgets and cars in masse. I ended up rereading eight of Flemmings' works (and a few of Gardners') and found out the ensuing.

The true Bond character that Ian Fleming wrote about in over 11 books & short stories and John Gardner continued on in another nine, is very eccentric about his food. Much more so than the movies leads us to believe. I've confirmed the following;

Bond liked only a certain type of caviar (Royal Beluga) he preferred his eggs boiled for 3 and half minutes and his coffee very black, James Bond liked his Filet of Sole broiled with ONLY lemon, loved pastrami, and preferred his green vegetables undercooked.

But Bond also demanded and made his own salad dressing. Which to my amazement is quite appetizing, tart and very good when use on baking chicken or pork, but used primarily by Bond on his salad. It's one of the few Bond recipes for anything given out by the author so it must have merit.

1⁄2 tsp Pepper, freshly ground
1⁄2 tsp Salt, freshly ground
1⁄2 tsp Sugar (turbinado makes a great substitute)
21⁄2 tsp Mustard, dried, ground
3 tbs Oil, Olive
1 tbs White wine vinegar
A few drops Water

Lets get the directions directly from the pages of 007.

"The food arrived, and M waited in silence and James Bond carefully ground half a teaspoonful of pepper into the small bowl on the tray of accoutrements. This was followed by a similar amount of salt and sugar, to which Bond added two and a half teaspoonfuls of powdered mustard, crushing the mixture well with a fork before stirring in three full tablespoons of oil, followed by one of white wine vinegar, which he dribbled in carefully, adding a few drops of water before the final stir and pouting the mixture over his salad.

"Make someone a damned good husband, Bond." The clear grey eyes of M showed no apology for mentioning marriage—a topic people knew 007 steered well clear of.."

Imagine that? License to kill AND can cook!

Vincent Prices Blood Pudding Pie

Not one distinct movie comes to mind when think of Vincent Price. "The Raven" maybe or as Matthew Hopkins in "Witchfinder General", possibly. Maybe his wonderfully morbid scary reading in the song "Thriller" will be forever enduring, but Vincent Price was an epicurean, a very, very serious epicurean. I count five cookbooks he's authored with his wife. The Prices had a custom mobile home that they used on movie sets. For the day, it was state of the art culinary. They would invite chefs from the area to cook and break bread with them. They worked and basically enjoyed revelry with chefs, celebrities, and friends.

"A Treasury of Great Recipes" is his best work. As a cookbook, its complexity is astounding. The Prices' comments on certain recipes entice imagination for improvisation and are insightful. My guess is they were eating as they were preparing and jotting notes down on a pad of paper. They even authored a cookbook for the 'Electric Blender"!

In 1973, I was 12 years old beginning a 3-year run as a line cook's helper (my Dad and big brother were the Chefs) in my family's restaurant. . A long time before this October 31st, my Dad had the idea to prepare a full menu during Halloween from this cookbook. He rode the scary angle and give us strict instructions, " I want a fixed price, 4 course menu." He'd tell us "Call each entree whatever you want, just make sure everything that comes from this kitchen today comes from this book. ". We always sold out. We continued to refer to this book for the next 20 years behind the line, particularly on October 30th & 31st.

This is Price's own recipe so it was the only one attributed to him by name. Don't be fooled by its simplicity. Use a good white bread or any one from Harvest Bread Company that meets your fancy. A good raw sugar works as well if not better. I use 2 tablespoons of pure vanilla and twice as many raisins as it calls for. As a kid in the restaurant, we'd add red food coloring in the bread (that we baked) and served it up with a fresh raspberry coulis and called it "Vincent Price's Blood Pudding Pie". It was the hit of the evening.

I had a strange childhood.

1 cup Brown Sugar, dark
4 tbs Butter
3 slices Bread, buttered, diced
1⁄2 cup Raisins, Golden
1⁄2 cup Raisins, dark
3 Eggs
1⁄2 tsp Salt
1 tbs Vanilla
1⁄4 tsp Cinnamon, ground
A few drops Food coloring (red)

Measure into top of a double boiler or very low heat in a saucepan add the dark brown sugar. Butter the bread then dice and sprinkle into the brown sugar in saucepan add the raisins.

In a separate bowl, beat in the eggs, milk, salt and vanilla. Pour over bread. DO NOT STIR! Place double boiler over simmering water and cook for I hour. The brown sugar will form a sauce. Server warm or cold. Turn out onto serving plate.