Plates Odyssey

There is nary a song title in his canon that gives a nod to food. Instead of trying to get to the "why" of that, I choose to dig deep for notable food references from the past that mention him and share a few of them with you. Also, in trying to cope with the loss of an icon who impacted my life in ways too complex to explain here, I do the only thing that calms me—I go into the kitchen and cook one of his favorite dishes: shepherd's pie, a UK comfort food of the highest order, and a dish that his wife (now widow, damn), supermodel, entrepreneur and actress Iman, prepared for him often.

In the first few decades of his astounding career, Bowie was notorious for more than music. For instance, during his Thin White Duke phase (mid-1970s), it was reported that he temporarily subsisted on a diet of milk, red peppers and cocaine. According to a 1999 interview with Brian Eno and Bowie, published by UK rock music media outlet Uncut, Bowie didn't have much of an appetite while on a creative streak. To quote Eno from the article:

"He gets into a very peculiar state when he's working. He doesn't eat. It used to strike me as very paradoxical that two comparatively well-known people would be staggering home at six in the morning, and he'd break a raw egg into his mouth and that was his food for the day, virtually."

And then there is the curious case of his minimal recipe contributions to the publishing world, many of which may be hoaxes. To wit: A late-1970s recipe for shrimp tempura attributed to Bowie surfaces in Monique Van Vooren's cheekily titled book The Happy Cooker, while a charity cookbook out of Philly published in the 1980s claims he was a fan of penne puttanesca. But the Bowie food reference to end all food references (save for his stunning Pepsi commercial with Tina Turner and a mind-bending, career-spanning French ad for bottled water) comes to us from Tokyo.

To help promote the Sony-backed release of Bowie's 2013 album The Next Day in Japan (it was released on different labels in different territories), the label opened a Bowie-themed restaurant at its Tokyo headquarters. Club Cardinal was a pop-up masterpiece, complete with a Bowie-track listening room and plenty of memorabilia. And shepherd's pie.

Sigh. Let's make some and chow down in the name of Ziggy Stardust.

Shepherd's Pie, Bowie Style (simple version, serves 6-8)

• 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 4 tablespoons room-temperature butter
• ½ cup whole-milk, full-fat, plain Greek yogurt
• 3 cups seasoned, cooked pinto beans
• 4 stalks celery, washed and chopped into half-
• inch pieces
• 4 carrots, peeled, washed and chopped into half-
• inch pieces
• 1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped into
• half-inc
• h pieces
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• ⅛ cup chopped fresh green herbs (thyme, marj-
• oram, sage, parsley, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or grapeseed oil
• ¼ cup ketchup (yes, ketchup)
• 2 tablespoons New Mexico red chile powder
• ⅛ cup light brown sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Butter for baking

Boil the potatoes until fork-tender. Drain. While still hot, mash the taters with butter and yogurt to a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. In a separate pan, sauté carrots, garlic, onion, celery and fresh herbs over medium heat with the oil until the carrots are al dente. Adding a bit of water to the pan after sautéing speeds up the process and prevents burning. Add ketchup, brown sugar and chile powder to the pan and cook on medium-low for another eight minutes, stirring frequently. Mix beans with sautéed vegetables and herbs. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter a 12-inch pie pan. Add bean-veggie mixture and top with mashed potatoes. Brush top with melted butter, if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until hot in the center. Serve hot with a side of David Bowie's greatest hits.

Santa Fe Reporter