Soups

Varying from the most elegant dishes to the most hearty, soups serve to explain the gamut of textures and flavours that make cooking so gratifying. Add some chopped truffle and poached bone marrow to a fine consommé and you arouse an experience of the finest gastronomy. Serve the same consommé without garnish in a mug to a child as beef tea and observe the delight.

Classic soups are evocative of the area of their origin, which is perhaps why I have never felt sympathetic to the Belgians. The cook who first made Waterzooie got the name right but should have travelled over the border to learn how to give it some flavour!