Delicious vichyssoise secret best kept quiet

“The fact that this vichyssoise is made with canned potatoes just shocks the pants off me!”

Those were the exact words from Alicia as she told me about her love affair with our desperate version of this classic chilled French soup. It’s true that a slight variation of today’s recipe is printed in our very own Desperation Dinners cookbook, but I had not tasted it in nearly a decade.

Somehow over the years, I became a potato snob. Anything made with CANNED potatoes couldn’t be good. Could it?

“Oh I make that soup all the time, and we love it,” Alicia told me when I wondered aloud why on Earth we used it in the cookbook. “It’s terrific.”

And so of course I had to retest it, "perfectioniststa” that I am. And of course Alicia was right. It’s a terrific – and very easy -- chilled summer soup. But don’t take Alicia’s word for it. Or mine. Make it yourself and be prepared for a very pleasant shock.