Chef Barthe’s Cream of Mussel Soup soon became such a favorite of William B. Leeds, Sr. that it was kept permanently on the menu at Maxim’s. Sadly Billy, as his friends called him, died in 1908 of a stroke at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. He left behind his wife and a son, also named William. William B. Leeds, Jr., was at that time the richest child in the world. Later, at the age of 18, he would also marry a Greek princess and gain worldwide fame as a hunter and yachtsman. Like his father, he would call both Europe and America home – especially Paris and Maxim’s during the early days of the roaring 1920s.
Craig Claiborne, who brought this amazing cream of mussels soup to The Times in the 1960s and refined it over the years with his longtime kitchen collaborator Pierre Franey, once called it “the most elegant and delicious soup ever created.” It is also one of the easiest to make. Use wine to steam open some mussels beneath a blanket of aromatics and use the resulting stock as a base for cream. Add the mussels and perhaps a grind of pepper. “One of the sublime creations on Earth,” Claiborne wrote.
