Len Deighton’s Observer cookstrips, Michael Caine and the 1960s

Novelist Len Deighton’s ‘cookstrips’ taught a generation of 1960s men to make minestrone, boeuf bourguignon and chicken paprika. To celebrate their return in OFM, he recalls what happened next

“Dump Caine’s spectacles and make the girl cook the meal. He is coming across as a homosexual.” Thus ran the furious cable from Hollywood after movie executives saw rushes of The Ipcress File, the film of Len Deighton’s blockbuster downbeat spy novel, which was being made in England.

But this was 1964. London was in full swing. Like Harry Palmer – Michael Caine’s sullen, cuisine-and-“girl”-addicted character – the British were feeling insubordinate, bolshie and confident. So, the heavy, black-rimmed glasses remained on Caine’s deadpan, alabaster face, thereby making a 60s icon; his “girl” left the kitchen work to the man; and Harry made a Spanish omelette.