La Soupe

THE FIRST SOUP we ever tasted in South-West France was a chicken bouillon with vermicelli. This is one of the few soups you see on restaurant menus and we call it ‘Maz soup’ because it was made so well by our local aubergiste, Louis Mazières. He managed to produce such a densely flavoured stock – not like the usual watery stuff of which this sort of soup is made elsewhere.

An old farmer just across the valley from us, who sent his grandchildren over to our field to graze his few cows, explained that real soup had been the staple diet of all peasant families for hundreds of years. Taken at breakfast time, at midday and again in the evening, it not only served as standard fare but as the starting point from which other more luxurious dishes were conceived. Peasants do not speak of lunchtime or suppertime but of l’heure de la soupe. One does not talk of cooking: vous faîtes la soupe. When it is time to go home to eat, vous allez a la soupe. La soupe is a meal in itself.