A photographer friend of mine had warned me about the perils of photographing brown foods. In fact, to get images of this dish that were even minimally appetizing, I had to do two photo shoots. I blame it on the pressure of hungry guests and their expectation of having food brought to the table in a timely fashion. During round one, the hostess called rank on the photographer.

Round two was the photographer’s take - before the guests arrived. Although my perspective of this dish is skewed by first-hand experience, I hope to have moved beyond the palette of pallid beiges and dirty browns to capture the essence of its appeal.

What it may lack in photogeneity (is that a word?) is made up for in decadence. This creamy velouté of sweet chestnut and leek - laced with the sensual aroma of truffle butter and punctuated by a melting morsel of foie gras paté - had my guests glancing around as if looking for voyeurs while they ate in John Cage silence, accompanied only by the arrhythmic clink of spoons on porcelain.

Because the dish is so rich, I serve it in small portions as an antipasto, enough whet the appetite and yet leave you wanting more. If the meal is followed by the standard Italian line-up of primo, secondo, contorno, dolce, frutta and caffè (that you spent three days preparing) it would be against your better interests to have your guests fill up at the starting gate. Otherwise, by all means, have a hearty bowl with a mixed salad and a hunk of sourdough bread and you ‘ll be right as rain.

If you cannot find, or do not want to bother making truffle butter, you can substitute with a commercially made product. Even the jars of chopped mushrooms with truffle essence will do.

So, let’s proceed with our serenade in beige and brown.

CHESTNUT AND LEEK SOUP WITH BLACK TRUFFLE BUTTER AND FOIE GRAS PATE’ - serves 6

Ingredients:

350g chestnuts, boiled and shelled (see note on prepping)

250g leeks

100g celery

2tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

[truffle butter]

125g softened salted butter

1 golfball-sized truffle, raw

[finish]

paté de foie gras - enough to make 6 marble-sized balls (big marbles)

INSTRUCTIONS:

To cook the chestnuts, make a deep slice in the top of each one then boil for 20 minutes. Shell them and remove as much as possible of the inner skin. With adjustments you could substitute dried chestnuts.

Chestnut meats after boiling and shelling

Cut up the leek and celery and sauté in a pan with the oil and butter until soft and just barely starting to brown.

Add the prepared chestnuts to the pan and pour in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes.

In the meantime prepare the butter and the foie gras. Using a medium razor grater, grate the black truffle over the softened butter and mash it together.

Work the butter and truffle well.

With cold foie gras paté, make small balls, have them ready on a plate and keep refrigerated. They should be cold when dropped into the soup.

Returning to the soup, with an immersion blender, purée until smooth. Put it back on the stove, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should be relatively thick but too thin to be eaten with a fork.

Just before plating, heat the butter ever-so-slightly so that it is not cooked but soft enough to drizzle from a spoon. Ladle the warm soup and drizzle with truffle butter.

Just before taking the soup to the table, drop a foie gras ball into the center. They disintegrate quickly so serve immediately.