White Truffles in Winter
Page 31
I’ve come to believe that even people who say they don’t care about food have a dish that will spark an emotion. It seems to be human nature. Food is fuel, not just for our bodies but also for our hearts.
Let’s talk about the women in Escoffier’s life. Delphine, Sarah, and Sabine are all thoroughly modern women, but in different ways. What were your goals for these characters? What do they represent?
These women were based on women of the time. The Victorian age repressed and adored women. We were both chattel and goddesses. So often the only response to this hothouse life was to either give in to it and become docile or kick your way out of it. Even Delphine, who represents the most traditional of the trio, had her own ideas about what being a good wife and mother meant. I would never presume to set goals for them.
I find it interesting that Sarah is the most tragic of the lot. She was born a Jew and abandoned her faith, changed her name, reinvented her past, and spread wild romantic lies about her life. She may have been the greatest actress the world has ever known, and certainly the richest, but in the end she was lost. She led an inauthentic life.
It really makes you think about your own life. What happens when you abandon your faith and identity? What happens when you lose your tribe? My Jewish mother was forced by the war to hide her religious faith and did so until I was a teenager. She always seemed to be adrift. I have to think that it was because she always felt profoundly alone. She had a very difficult life.
In this age of fast food and prepackaged meals, do you think our relationship to food has somehow changed or become more superficial?
Fast food poses an interesting moral and ethical issue because the experience is often not just about eating. The industry has done a brilliant job of capturing and re-creating our emotions and selling them on the dollar menu. That’s why fast food is so successful and so insidious. Look at the slogans––“It’s Good Mood Food”––who doesn’t want to be in a good mood?
So is fast food wrong, then? Is it inherently evil? I don’t think so. Most Americans, even the most hard-core foodies, have a soft spot for some chain. In-N-Out Burger, KFC––you name it. I know more chefs who would rather eat the fries at McDonald’s on a regular basis than those fried in duck fat and sprinkled with truffle oil. Why? Because fast food is not about food, it’s about being American.
It’s about democracy, in a way. The key to fast food is that anyone can cook it and anyone can eat it. And because of this accessibility, many of us find that moments of our lives, sometimes important moments, have been played out in these well-lit temples of high-caloric splendor. Maybe our first kiss happened at Pizza Hut. Or we discovered after months of sleepless nights that a crying baby falls asleep after two sips of a vanilla Blizzard.
I remember the first holiday season my husband and I spent together. Right before Thanksgiving, we’d both lost our jobs. The day we filed for unemployment we went to McDonald’s and they were having a 101 Dalmatian Christmas ornament promotion with their Happy Meals. We bought one and it felt like a luxury and so we came back each week and bought a new one. We ended up with all four and they still hang on our tree today as a reminder that things can get bad but they also get better.
To me, fast food provides nourishment that is akin to going home. For most of us, when you go home, the food is often not good, or good for you––or maybe it’s so good for you that you hate it. And seated around your family table, you know you really can’t go home again, but it is great to visit because it reminds you of a simpler time.
So, yes, I will have fries with that.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.If you were to create a dish for someone you love, what would it be? What elements would you include and why?
2.Delphine wonders to herself “what it was like to be Sabine, so beautiful but with polio. Flawed and broken.” How do you think having polio has shaped Sabine’s personality and outlook?
3.How are Delphine and Sarah different? Do they have any traits in common? What do you think attracts Escoffier to each of them?
4.Did your opinion of Sarah change over the course of the novel? Why?
5.How do you think Escoffier’s Catholic faith shaped him? In light of his infidelity, were you surprised to learn how devout he was?
6.Why does Delphine refuse to live with Escoffier when he relocates to London? How would you feel if you were in her position? Would you act differently?
7.What role does the mysterious “Mr. Boots” play in Delphine and Escoffier’s relationship?
8.What motivates Escoffier to play matchmaker with Sabine and Bobo? Why does he think they are suited to each other?
9.Were you surprised by how much love exists between Delphine and Escoffier despite the way their marriage was arranged and the many years they spent apart?
10.How do the various characters use food to express or convey emotion? Did reading Escoffier’s story make you reconsider your own relationship with food?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
N. M. Kelby is the critically acclaimed author of In the Company of Angels, Whale Season, and the Florida Book Award winner A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, among others. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
More Praise for
“Witty, delightful, and so detailed you can taste it. . . . Kelby has a foodie’s flair for infusing her narrative with so many flavorful details, readers will feel like they’re enjoying lavish meals right along with the novel’s characters. Mercifully, without all those pesky calories. Kelby also succeeds in building a story heaped with ample portions of plot development and scene-setting.”
—Andrea Hoag, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“Fabulous. . . . Bon appétit.”
—Good Housekeeping
“Kelby has created a sumptuous feast of a book.”
—Jessica Brockmole, Historical Novel Society, Editors’ Choice
“A tale of intrigue, war and love peppered with appearances of royalty, world leaders, literati and painters set in Paris, London and, of course, kitchens.”
—Jessica Allen, Maclean’s
“A fictional narrative that is altogether lush and exotic, passionate and tenderly loving, both grandiose and simple in its form. . . . A compelling tale of love as food and food as love, this is the perfect story with which to absorb and enjoy the passion that is cooking.”
—Brenda Gaudet, Northeast Flavor
“[Kelby] uses her own imagination to fill in the numerous gaps in [Escoffier’s] official biography. . . . It’s probably a good idea to read this book on a full stomach. Kelby’s . . . imaginative approach to this man’s life and loves—not to mention the fantastic meals he created—makes reading White Truffles in Winter as satisfying as a five-course feast.”
—Norah Piehl, Bookreporter.com
“Kelby captures the sensory pleasures of food and the complex role it plays in the lives of her characters—seductive, repulsive, comforting. Careful research enhances but does not overtake the narrative. Readers in search of an evocative and sensual read will be well satisfied.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Kelby’s layers of detailed description allow the reader to experience the richness of Escoffier’s world in terms of both food and love. . . . Through rich description based on careful research, Kelby offers intriguing possibilities regarding the life of the great Escoffier and gives us a novel well worth reading.”
—Catherine Tingelstad,
Library Journal
“Kelby’s prose fits her subject, lusciously rich as the truffles and foie gras that dominate Escoffier’s recipes.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“If you don’t mind salivating while you read, White Truffles in Winter, N. M. Kelby’s opulent novel based on the life of Auguste Escoffier, the ‘king of chefs and chef of kings,’ is
about as sumptuous a work of fiction as you’re likely to find. . . . Like a cook who refuses to follow a recipe slavishly, Kelby improvises with the basic ingredients of Escoffier’s life to create a delectable dish of her own. . . . A satiating read.”
—Heller McAlpin, Barnes & Noble Review
“So vivid you can taste it.”
—Lu Lippold, Twin Cities Daily Planet
“At its center, White Truffles in Winter is about . . . the transformative experience of cooking for someone you love.”
—Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio
“Kelby captures Escoffier as a man torn between two loves. . . . A pleasure to read.”
—Cecie O’Bryon England,
The Written Word, Washington Times
“There is a moment during a perfectly paced, perfectly executed meal when everything transcends. . . . N. M. Kelby’s White Truffles in Winter is the literary equivalent of that moment.”
—Lauren Hall, Fiction Writers Review
Copyright © 2012 by N. M. Kelby
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published as a Norton paperback 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelby, N. M. (Nicole M.)
White truffles in winter : a novel / N. M. Kelby. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-393-07999-9 (hardcover)
1. Escoffier, A. (Auguste), 1846–1935—Fiction. 2. Cooks—Fiction. 3. Monte-Carlo (Monaco)—Fiction. 4. Cooking, French—Fiction. 5. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.E382W48 2012
813’.54—dc22
2011029292
ISBN 978-0-393-34358-8 pbk.
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