Food is more than just nutrients. Food conjures up memories and reveals who we are—and are not. What we eat is a medium for personal recollection and collective identity. Marcel Proust, the great French author, is famous for connecting food and memory with madeleines, “those squat plump little cakes.” We certainly have him to thank for those little packages of “petite French cakes” at every Starbucks checkout.
Let’s turn to the renowned passage where the fleeting cookie recalls the narrator’s childhood in the village of Combray, France (Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past (1934: 34). Dipping the scalloped butter cake-cookie in tea, Proust is stirred with vivid memories:
“She (Marcel’s mother) sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called “petites madeleines,” which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell … I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure invaded my senses …
And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray … when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Leonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane …. and the whole of Combray and its surroundings, taking shape and solidity, sprang into being, town and garden alike, from my cup of tea.”
The encounter with the madeleine was magical for Proust and sparked his writing of seven volumes of fictionalized recollections. While we are not asking you to write that much (!), try writing a short vignette based on your personal madeleine. Some stories may conjure up sweet, sour, or bittersweet memories.
To start, reflect on a food that is filled with emotional, autobiographical, and symbolic meaning to you—like Proust’s tiny cake. It may be a holiday meal to an after school packaged snack. Try to taste it before writing. Describe it and the images and memories it conjures up. Is it homemade or commercial? Is it positive, negative, or in between (bittersweet)? Is it a demographic marker of gender, race, religion, generation or class? Does eating it make you feel part of a group? Or excluded?
Food memories are often nostalgic and related to growing up. A taste of crunchy waffles or grandmother’s apple pie may conjure up thoughts of Dad’s weekend brunch or special Sunday dinners shared after church or in the fall. A recollection of tamales, café con leche, or Philadelphia cheesecake invokes ethnic or regional markers, and the memories may serve to preserve identities effected by migration and mobility. Particular foods spark powerful personal recollections and associations, revealing a key concept of food studies: we are what we ate.
Even more, words help to recollect and convey these memories.
For additional reading of the creative use of food memories, try Molly Wizenberg’s (2009) A Homemade Life, Ruth Reichl’s (1998) Tender at the Bone, Sharon Boorstin’s (2002) Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship, and Mark Winegardner’s (ed.) (1998) We Are What We Ate: Twenty-Four Memories of Food.
Here is a recipe adapted from Patricia Wells’ Madeleine recipe from The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris if you wish to make a batch of madeleines. And may you have your own madeleine memories!
Madeleines- Petite French Cakes
http://www.kandkmatwick.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/madeleine-cakes.jpeg
| Cook: | Yield: Makes 36 madeleines | Total: |
Light buttery cakes with a hint of lemon.
You'll Need...
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Directions
- Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl; then, using a whisk or an electric mixer, beat until lemon colored. Add the zest. Fold in the flour, then 3/4 cup melted butter.
- Refrigerate the batter, covered, for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F
- Butter the madeleine tins; then spoon in the batter, filling each well about three-fourths full. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until the madeleines are golden brown.
- Remove the madeleines from their tins as soon as they're baked, and cool them on a wire rack. Note: Wash the tins immediately with a stiff brush and hot water but no detergent so that the pans retain their seasoning.
Additional Notes
The madeleines are best eaten as soon as they've cooled. They may, however, be stored for several days in an airtight container.
(image from eatwell101)
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