There’s a deep, rich humorous lode, albeit one that’s already been mined and minted somewhat, from many of the scenes of Peter Falk playing “Columbo”, where he’s caught eating or snacking or simply apparently starving, musing on how long it’ll be to his next meal and, in the meantime, dipping & blagging or snagging others’ food items. A perpetual hungriness seems to stalk him. I identify with that…
I’d forgotten just how much it was part of his whole schtick. Try this group of clippings …
Or this one…
The Columbo character was described as:
…born and raised in an Italian neighbourhood in New York, which he says was right near China Town. “When I was a kid, I bet I had more egg rolls than I had cannelloni,” he claims in Murder Under Glass
Even if his own standby foods seem to be either chilli…
or simply hard boiled eggs pulled from the pocket of that increasingly skanky rain-cost & then untidily shelled, wherever he is or whoever is in the room with him…
Then there’s also the Lieutenant taking more care with food; here cooking an omelette for Joanna Ferris in Murder by the Book…
or whipping up scaloppini for Paul Gerard (with a delightfully hammy Louis Jourdan as a murderous food critic) in Murder Under Glass (the first shot above is from that episode); or gulping Dr. Keppel’s caviar in Double Exposure…
even assisting Martin Landau’s chef Dexter Paris on a live cookery show in Double Shock…
…his love of food is an ever-present and very human part of the show (even if there’s far too much fucking aspic everywhere).
I’ve just bought “Cooking With Columbo: Suppers With The Shambling Sleuth” via Apple Books, finding out that Falk was a dab hand at large scale cooking from his time at sea:
Men with one eye were not drafted and in the Merchant Marine they were not allowed to work on deck or below deck, but they could work in the kitchen. I sailed out as a third cook. My speciality was pork chops. We left New York, crossed the Atlantic for Marseilles, France, where we picked up two thousand soldiers… My duties on the return trip were to cook each day 400 pork chops for lunch.
and so without further ado and just one more thing, I give you his own recipe for “Pork Chops With Vinegar Peppers”
60ml olive oil
6 tenderloin pork chops
1 onion, finely chopped
60ml white vinegar
1 teaspoon thyme
Vinegar peppers [Peter doesn’t say how many, so to your taste]
120ml liquid from the vinegar peppers jar
Potatoes (optional)
Cornstarch/cornflour to thicken gravy
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C
Heat oil in large frying pan and brown the pork chops with the onion.
Remove chops and place them in a heavy iron ovenware casserole dish. Add vinegar to frying pan, stir in all brown bits and add to the casserole dish. Add some cracked pepper, very little salt, and the thyme. Now add 240ml water and 115ml of liquid from the vinegar peppers.
Bake for 45 minutes, then add vinegar peppers.
Bake further 15 minutes and serve. Thicken gravy with cornstarch/cornflour.
Parboiled potatoes may be added at the beginning.
Serves 3-6 depending on the size of your chops.
