OP: Spies, Black Ties, & Mango Pies

Community Communications, Canada, 1997. Hardcover. Fine. First printing.

International spies: they’re just like us! Or, at least, they have to eat just like us. Between doing flips through laser beams and rappelling down the sides of buildings in the dead of night (I assume) are meals at their homes away from home at international postings.

This curious community cookbook compiles the stories and recipes of Central Intelligence Agency employees and their families, published in 1997 for the agency’s 50th anniversary. Though sharing many qualities with other community cookbooks, this one omits the names of its contributors and is conspicuously inconspicuous with the details of when or where the stories take place. 

Dinner parties hosting the boss are always stressful, but in one case in Latin America, the meal was delayed by a bomb threat and included an offer of a tank escort. Recipes for roasted peppers and black bean and rice salad follow. 

A less existentially dire anecdote includes an incident in an unnamed Asian capital where a directive, lost in translation, to use the best china led to colorful frisbee dinner plates. They spun around so much on the polished table that it proved challenging to demurely take a bite of dessert. This is accompanied by a recipe for four layer pie.

Another surprising feature of this cookbook is that Julia Child is thanked for her direct involvement and support of their project. A surprise unless, of course, you recall that the beloved Julia worked for the Office of Strategic Services—the CIA’s predecessor agency—during WWII. Each chapter begins with a brief interview with Child about her time in the agency.

Ours is a Fine first printing. Hardcover. Good reading and an unusual offering.