F soup and love,’ goes an old Spanish proverb, ‘the first is best.’ Although a bowl of steaming broth may not have quite the allure of Cupid’s arrow, soup will rarely let you down. In fact, one can quite understand why Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of pottage. Because there’s a variety for every whim, mood and desire, from the parsimoniously spartan to the downright Baroque. It can be blessedly, fundamentally simple, little more than vegetables simmered in water. Or garishly, lavishly ornate, like Paul Bocuse’s Soup Elysée, for which are drenched in golden consommé, all beneath a puff pastry lid.
