Yes, yes, I know couture, as a word, is exclusively connected to fashion rather than food, but in researching a term that embodies the sentiments of unique, opulent and high quality as it relates to food, I could not come up with a term. The idea of classic vs. couture (or the equivalent food version word) has been on my mind a lot lately as we continue to reflect upon and improve the learning landscape in our culinary and hospitality programs. Classic dishes and age-old cooking techniques are imperative to learn as foundational knowledge, but so is the understanding of worldwide cuisines and how their flavors can impart new, and maybe even “couture,” inspiration to a dish.   

We recently added Ty Bergman to the charge of part-time (adjunct) instructors that keep the next generation of students growing in an eclectic blend of classic and new age food preparation. He comes to us as a 30-year chef and self-proclaimed kitchen vagabond and is reinvigorating student love of classic fare. Recently he led a great lesson on a dish that doesn’t get any more classic – Bookbinder Soup.  

This soup represents exactly how a classic becomes couture and then returns to classic as the evolution of food marches forward. Bookbinder Soup was popularized by the iconic Drake Hotel in Chicago. The now classic hotel at nearly 102 years of age was once new age when “the doors of The Drake Hotel opened on New Year’s Eve 1920” while quickly rising to “high society’s first choice in opulence.” According to the history page on the hotel’s website, The Drake Hotel was “conceptualized by famed architect Benjamin Howard Marshall and brought to fruition when the Drake brothers financed the project in 1919.”

When The Drake Hotel opened the nation’s “first known themed restaurant” called Cape Cod in 1932, Bookbinder Soup (a classic then) was on the menu with a new age facelift. Red snapper replaced snapping turtle as the soup’s protein. Prior to the soup’s fame at The Drake, Bookbinder Soup is said to have been popularized in Philadelphia by a Jewish gentleman from the Netherlands named Samuel Bookbinder who owned a restaurant at the turn of the 20th century.  

The original Bookbinder soup used snapping turtle but was modernized with the use of red snapper which is exactly the kind of classic then “couture” and now again classic kind of cycle that epitomizes how foundational knowledge, methods of building a soup, classic knife cuts applied to mirepoix ratio, and how the right mix of the five tastes wrap to create a delicious dish.  When a little bit of new age thinking is applied to classic training, voila! Great cooking! Now two questions remain for me. One, who and what protein will be used to bring this soup back into fashion, and two, was snapping turtle considered haute cuisine in the late 1800’s?

Bookbinder Red Snapper Soup

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Yield: 8 servings

Soup base:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 each, chopped: carrots, celery ribs, garlic cloves
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 each, chopped: red and green bell pepper
• 12 crushed white peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons each, chopped: fresh thyme, rosemary, cilantro
• 8 cups vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Salt to taste

Red snapper:

• 2 small onions, finely chopped
• 3 ribs celery, finely chopped
• 1 to 2 fillets (10 ounces total) red snapper
• 1/4 cup sherry

1. For soup base, heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, garlic, onion and bell peppers; cook, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes. Stir in peppercorns, bay leaf, tomato paste, thyme, rosemary and cilantro. Cook 2 minutes. Add 7 cups of the broth: heat to boil.
2. Melt butter in small saucepan; add flour and cornstarch. Cook, stirring constantly, 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in remaining 1 cup broth until roux is smooth. Add roux to soup base; cover, simmer over medium-low heat 20 minutes. Adjust seasoning. Strain through fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth; discard solids. Return broth to pot.
3. For snapper, heat water to boil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and celery; blanch until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon; add to broth. Boil fish in same water until cooked through. Remove fish from water; flake very finely with fork. Stir snapper and sherry into soup base; heat through.

Lincoln Land Community College offers credit programs in Culinary Arts, Hospitality Management, Baking/Pastry, and Value-Added Local Food, and non-credit cooking and food classes through LLCC Community Education. 

Cooking or food questions? Email epicuriosity101@llcc.edu.