20 MAY 2000, Page 29

Asparagus tips

From Mr Robert Booth Sir: Simon Courtauld (Arts, 6 May) admits that he doesn't have a passion for aspara- gus. He doesn't have a passion for accuracy either. Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen was first published in 1899, not 1905, and has seven, not 15, asparagus recipes. One of these is for something that Mr Courtauld claims the book doesn't mention at all: asparagus soup.

Robert Booth

Bicary, 81600 Broze, France