Draw outside the lines

and a recipe for potato soup with a twist or two

I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.

—Agent Dale Cooper to Sheriff Truman in Twin Peaks

Filmmaker David Lynch has been on my mind a lot this week. Maybe he’s been on your mind too. Lynch passed away on January 15, and in a blink, the world is suddenly a less rich, interesting and nuanced place.

For many, Lynch is most famous for Twin Peaks, the television series that ran for two seasons in 1990 and 1991, with a third season in 2017. Described as a “surrealist mystery-horror drama”, Twin Peaks was extraordinary not for its soap opera or horror tropes, but more eerily for the way it challenged conventional narrative structures, intertwining the familiar with the bizarre. In the process, he invited viewers to feel as much as see.

Going deeper

Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper.

—Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, David Lynch

Luckily for us, Lynch spent his career plumbing those depths. Beyond film, he painted, sculpted, made music—mediums with their own unique language, every one another stream feeding the river of his vision, flowing toward the unknown. Sound and imagery were his weapons—industrial hums, eerie scores, and moments of silence so loud they swallowed you whole.

As Kyle MacLachlan said of Lynch in an interview this week: "David knew that anything he said would be putting his thumb on the scale. And he wanted people to experience his work on their own and take away what they wished." He believed in the space between the lines, where the audience becomes the artist too, inviting us into his world, not with explanations, but with the trust that we’d fill in the gaps, making each experience uniquely personal.

The fragility of originality

As I replay favourite scenes in my mind from Lynch’s work—The Elephant Man, the quietly wonderful The Straight Story, and my favourite, Mulholland Drive—I’ve been reflecting on why this particular passing has struck me so hard.

Perhaps the loss feels heavier because we seem to be losing these originals in ever-increasing numbers. Quincy Jones. David Bowie. Joan Didion. Toni Morrison. Anthony Bourdain. Prince. Leonard Cohen.

When they leave, it feels personal, even if you never met them. Their absence is not just the loss of a person but the extinguishing of a light—a reminder of the fragility of originality. Artists like this are rare, their work as precise and fleeting as something folded delicately from the edges of imagination, shaped once and never again. Such singularity can’t be replicated, and its loss leaves us quietly aware of how much smaller the world has become.

Draw outside the lines

Or perhaps it’s that we’ve become a society content with mediocrity, where drawing within the lines is encouraged, making someone like Lynch—a creator who reveled in the boundless and the strange—all the more profound.

In his interview, MacLachlan reflected on what defined Lynch’s worldview, how it might have come to be. As he recounts, “When David was a kid, his mother wouldn’t let him use colouring books because she thought they would kill his creativity. I think of that as the David Lynch origin story. He was given a world without lines and went about making his own.”

Indeed. A world without lines, a reminder of what it means to see beyond the edges, to revel in the boundless, the strange, and the infinite possibilities of imagination.

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Potato soup with fried almonds

Genius Recipes, Kristen Miglore

Genius Recipes from Food52 is a masterclass in clever, transformative cooking. Every recipe surprises with an unexpected technique or a new way of thinking about familiar ingredients. It’s a book that changes how you cook—not with complexity, but with ingenuity—and leaves you wondering why you ever did it any other way.

This potato soup elevates a simple dish with the addition of almonds, prosciutto, saffron and sherry vinegar—ingredients that add complexity, richness—something that tastes very new.

I think David Lynch would approve.

Ingredients

1½ pounds (680g) Yukon Gold potatoes

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup (75g) whole blanched almonds

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled

⅓ cup (about 55g) finely diced prosciutto

4 cups chicken stock

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Large pinch of saffron

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, preferably aged, or more to taste

2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Cut the potatoes into 1½-inch chunks. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the almonds and garlic cloves and cook, stirring, until golden, 4 to 5 minutes, adjusting heat so the almonds and cloves don’t burn. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the almonds and garlic to a bowl to cool slightly.

3. Add the prosciutto to the pan and stir for 1 minute. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce heat to medium-low and bring to a simmer.

4. Meanwhile, place the almond and garlic mixture in a food processor and grind it. If you like almond pieces in your soup, grind the mixture somewhat coarsely; otherwise, grind it finely. Add all but about 2 tablespoons to the soup as it simmers. Set aside the reserved almond mixture.

5. Put a few tablespoons of the soup broth in small bowl and crush the saffron threads into it. Stir until dissolved and return to the pot. Simmer the soup, partially covered, for 35 minutes until potatoes have begun to break apart.

6. When ready to serve, check the soup's texture. If you like it creamier, break up some of the potatoes with a sturdy spoon or potato masher. Add the vinegar to the reserved ground almond mixture and stir into the soup. Add the parsley and cook for a minute. Taste for seasoning, adding a little more vinegar, if needed.