Miller has been a fascination of mine for some years now, ever since I came across that famous photograph of her in Hitler’s bathtub during the liberation of Germany at the end of WWII. You know the one?

It’s a gripping image, with a backstory to match, which I covered in this article I wrote a few years back. I’ve begged, borrowed or bought every book on her I’ve been able to get my hands on. Initially, there wasn’t much to go by, as this woman has been consistently overlooked by art history. By now, at long last, there is a more befitting number of titles out there (sadly, I only own a small selection of them).

Here is what I wish my private Lee Miller library looked like, in late 2023:

Lee Miller: A Life with Food Friends & Recipes is a treasure trove of a book, an immersive journey into the final, delectable and redeeming chapter of Miller’s life, when she found peace through her love of food and friends. Edited by her granddaughter, Amy Bouhassane, the book has a level of intimacy and commitment that you can’t help being drawn in by. Needless to say, the visual appeal of the entire thing is equisite.

Studying cookery and hosting elaborate weekend feasts at Farleys House, the farm she and her partner Roland Penrose bought after the war, became an outlet for Miller’s indefatigable creative energies. Like Salvador Dali and his wife Gala, who threw lavish Surrealist “Gala Dinners” in their time, Lee Miller and Anthony Penrose hosted playfully inventive feasts for their friends, which happened to include the likes of Picasso, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning and Jean Cocteau, to name just a few. The couple’s social network was vast and their doors were famously open to guests – whether expected or not.

Lee Miller’s desk with typewriter and annotated recipes. ***© 2019 Lee Miller Archives***

Is it too far fetched to assume that Miller’s success as a cook, and her ability to put on sumptuous feasts despite food rationing, might have played a role in Penrose’s success as one of the leading figureheads of contemporary art in Britain? Penrose went on to found London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, published influential books on art history and received many accolades for his contribution to the arts.

As Roland Penrose’s star ascended, the deep scars left by traumatic events in Miller’s childhood and her time as a war correspondent caught up with her. Her drinking, always profligate, escalated once she returned to Britain. Miller’s editors encouraged her to keep working as a photojournalist but writing became an ever increasing agony for her and she struggled to meet deadlines. Eventually, she stopped everything: photography, writing, speaking of bad memories.

The 1950s were marked by intense personal crises for Miller: love, creativity, motherhood, the death of her mother, her own struggles with ageing and its effects on her famed beauty. Therapy and rehab were still taboo at the time and so Miller was left to fend for herself. It took her the best part of a decade to save herself - and she might not have been able to, had it not been for her late success as a surrealist chef.

***Lee Miller at work in the kitchen at Farleys House in the 1950s. © Lee Miller Archives***

Anthony Penrose, Miller’s son, grew up not knowing anything about his mother’s past troubles or triumphs. It was only later that he was able to piece together his mother’s life story and develop an understanding for her lack of motherliness during his upbringing. In his introduction to A Life with Food…, Penrose writes of “an underlying flaw beneath the seemingly idyllic life of Farleys with its cherished visitors and beautiful surroundings. Today Lee would be considered a ‘functioning alcoholic’.” Penrose goes on to describe her erratic, sometimes vicious behaviour when she had had too much to drink, and how his father and their housekeeper would need to take over hosting duties.

Miller was able to channel much of herself through cooking: her compulsive tendencies, her travel experiences, her highly schooled sense of aesthetics, a love of technology and the pleasure she took in a bit of mischief. Sensuous, surreal influences abound in the naming and presentation of dishes such as Cauliflower Breasts, Asparagus Mimosa and Muddles Green Green Chicken.

The dining room at Farleys House. ***© 2019 Lee Miller Archives***

Boundless curiosity drove her in this new pursuit, as it had in every other previous one. Miller went to Paris to train at Le Cordon Bleu and relished participating in cooking competitions, several of which she won. She colluded with her local grocery shop, as well as relatives and friends in far flung places, to obtain exotic ingredients. She planned every menu meticulously and invested in the latest kitchen gadgets. A special annex had to be added to Farleys House to hold her collection of cookbooks, which eventually spanned over 2,000 titles. One day, I shall visit Farleys and leisurely obsess over it.

Lee Miller’s kitchen shelf. ***© 2019 Lee Miller Archives***

On the back cover of A Life with Friends, there is a lovely turn of phrase, describing Miller as “a woman of many lives and mistress of her own re-invention”. It perfectly captures the evolution of Miller’s posthumous fame. How tedious it must have been to those who knew her that Miller used to be seen as nothing more than a mistress, a wife, an assistant of the famous men in her orbit. How satisfying it must have been to witness the puzzle of her legacy coming together in recent years. Ami Bouhassane’s tribute to her grandmother’s accomplishments as a gourmet chef is the essential missing piece many have been waiting for. Seriously satisfying on every level.

You can order Lee Miller: A life with Food Friends & Recipes directly from Farleys House & Gallery. If you do it now, it’ll arrive in plenty of time for Christmas.

Further reading:
The New Yorker review
Financial Times review
Kinfolk review