Who is Keith Michell? He's a British actor. A lot of actors and celebrities turned to macrobiotics in the seventies and eighties. I was late -- I didn't try macrobiotics until the turn of our new century.
Blame it on PBS -- because I was so taken in by Dr. Christiane Northrup's Woman to Woman lectures, and she mentioned that she often recommended macrobiotics to patients as a form of holistic healing.
And if you have ever seen Keith Michell in a role, chances are it was on PBS in his amazing portrayal of Henry VIII and His Six Wives. Here he is as Henry:
But I learned a lot about cooking, because as vegans know, you have to make everything from scratch. And you have to learn what to substitute for anything dairy, for eggs, for thickening agents, for sweetening without sugar, and on and on. I learned how to go "off book" with recipe modifications and that courage has been valuable in later kitchen adventures.
I acquired this cookbook at the tail end of my macrobiotic phase. It's one of my favorite books, for the original artwork alone (beautiful pictures of vegetables throughout the book). I thought they were watercolors but I learned this week, when I finally spent some quality time with the book, that Michell used markers, because they were easy to take on the road during an acting gig. Below is a scan of one of his illustrations to give you an idea of what this man can do with markers. And-- you guessed it -- I have never cooked even one recipe from this book -- until now! Results coming up in the next blog post.
These are lovely illustrations indeed! While we are on the subject of actors and without wanting to steal the limelight from Mr. Michell, I would like to add an update regarding the cook book by Mary and Vincent Price," Come into the Kitchen Cook Book..." which I mentioned on the previous post.
ReplyDeleteThis book also from the late 60's is a treasure trove of recipes from Early America, Young Republic, Ante Bellum, Victorian through modern America. It is filled with quirky illustrations and some color photos of inns across the United States. I found Mr. Price's book to be priceless...not pun intended. But what I found most intriguing of all is that Vincent Price is American and not British as I originally thought.
He was educated at Yale and was an art historian and later a professor at USC. And his wife Mary was a costume designer and an authority on Americana. I would not be surprised if Mr. Price and Mr. Michell knew one another.
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ReplyDeleteHopefully, it will copy this time...
ReplyDeleteMary and Vincent Price's Come into the Kitchen Cook Book (18434), HC Cookbook
I'm not seeing a way to put pictures in the comments, bummer! But on Amazon I am seeing at least four different covers for this book, all of them seem to be the same book published in 1969.
DeleteThe Vincent Price book, I mean. :)
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