Today I wrote an article for the German romance magazine, Loveletter, about why a chef is a perfect hero. It was to promote Delicious, which is being released in Germany in June.
One of my main points in the article is that food has the power to evoke strong memories, and as an example I mentioned how every Sunday my grandmother Cohen used to cook my brother and me brunch. I never used to like runny eggs so she used to fry eggs for me by breaking the yolks and cooking the whole thing until it was well done and crispy. I called it a “Grammy egg”.
To this day, whenever I eat an egg cooked this way, I think of my Grammy and those Sunday brunches. Lawrence Welk on the TV, comic books in the closet, wrapped strawberry sweets with a liquid centre on the coffee table, doodle pads near the phone covered with crosshatch Grammy scribbles, Grampy sitting by the window watching the people walk by on their way to the Methodist church, and hard-cooked eggs and–if we were lucky–home fries.
Recently, when I was very pregnant, very hungry, and very cranky, my mother made me upside-down toast (which is essentially buttered bread fried in a skillet). Her grandmother used to make that for her when she was a child and she considered it the ultimate comfort food. My mother used to make it for us with soup on cold winter afternoons and made it our comfort food, too. As soon as I smelled upside-down toast, all my crankiness was gone, and all I could do was hug her and say, “Oh, Mommy.”
What food is evocative of memory for you?
Julie, that’s how I like my eggs, too.
And how funny – I did an interview for LoveLetter a week ago!
Comfort food at my mom’s runs the gamut…meatloaf being one, she puts this tomato-y brown sugar topping on and makes baked potatoes….and another one is fresh bread. She always made rolls and bread on Saturdays and I’d sneak dough from the bowl, then when it was baked I always had a roll with peanut butter and it would go all melty.
Julie, if your chef hero is based on David Tennant then he must be, indeed, perfect.
My most evocative food memory is the smell of chicken roasting. My nannan used to cook it when we went to see her: tiny, steamed-up, greasy kitchen, these ancient chairs and a formica-topped table. Funny, I don’t ever remember eating it there, but I remember the smell. My brother used to call her Chicken Nannan, which was a little cruel since I don’t believe she actually had feathers or went ‘sqawk!’
Oh. Maybe he meant the food.
I remember when I was a child, whenever I felt low I always used to have a bowl of grated cheese followed by a slice of bread dipped in a bowl of vinegar. I sort of miss that now, but I can’t eat either of those foods due to my intolerances to cow’s milk and yeast. Also, whenever I came down with an infection, I always used to crave orange lollies. Don’t know why.
Oooh, Donna, the smell of baking bread…what a wonderful memory.
Kate, yup, the David-Tennant hero is a pastry chef. LOL at Chicken Nannan!
Julie, a bowl of cheese and bread dipped in vinegar? How did you come up with that combination?
I crave orange lollies too when I’m poorly. And/or pregnant.
Goodness knows where I came up with the combination of grated cheese then bread dipped in vinegar. Maybe I fancied something savoury at the time. I don’t have anything savoury like that to fancy anymore with my food intolerances. When I was ill with a virus in February, all I fancied for breakfast was a couple of oatcakes with sunflower seed butter on (might sound horrible but to me it was delicious) and I still eat them.