Roy Andries de Groot

If there ever was a food snob, he is/was Roy Andries de Groot. You have got to be good to be a snob of his caliber. His name was also Baron de Groot, for a while, before he became a U. S. citizen and a brilliant and renowned food critic and writer in America. He became blind when he was about 50 yrs old( 1965) as a final result of injuries suffered in the London Blitz during WW2.

So how do you cook and write if you are blind? With an assistant, of course. Do this, do that. Get this, get that. I imagine the sense of taste( including smell) would be greatly heightened. I met a woman who was his assistant - writer, cook, go- getter, Girl Friday - near Hillman, Mn of all places,( about 15 mi west of Mille Lacs) at a mutual friend's home, recently. He was so demanding that she quit after spending some months w/ him during the 70's in Paris and the Far East.

He writes of turtle and provides a recipe for soup in his 1966 book, Feasts For All Seasons. A rich and aromatic soup including allspice, basil, bay leaf, fennel, and sage among other ingredients, that is topped off table side with sherry.

I will be adapting his recipe to mine and serving it at Porky Pine during this Lenten season. Call ahead to see if it is available,. 320-277-9505.

Roy Andries de Groot died, tragically, in front of his wife and daughter of a self inflicted gunshot wound, in 1983 when he was 73 yrs old. My heart goes out to his family. Food, like many things I have discovered over the years, brings out the best and the worst in many of us. I hope that his family remembers the best.