Life’s
a Recipe
By
Justin Richards
E.J Levy’s "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is
something that took me off guard at first, believing it to be a story about
maybe his journey in French cooking. Yet it has nothing to do with him and
French cooking at all, it is more of him recalling his mother cooking eloquent
meals from her copy Julia Child’s cookbook Art of Mastering French Cooking as a
boy. Interpreting it even further, it seems as though it he is describing his
life, relationships, and even family as a recipe.
He first starts to talk about how he would remember on
the nights that his dad was home his mom would make these delicious French
cuisines, such as Boeuf bourguignon, Bouillabaisse and Mousseline au chocolat. He says that this was one of his mother’s
favorite things to do, to be able to cook these recipes from her copy of Julia
Child’s cookbook. Later on he soon found out that his mother almost found a
companionship with her cookbook, “Julia Child was the only reliable companion
my mother had in those years, other than the woman who came once a week to
clean the house”. This was because his father was rarely ever home and he
himself stated he was not suitable for the part.
Later in the story he makes a reference to how his
parents’ marriage was something of a mixed marriage, recalling that it sounded
like “mixed greens, mixed vegetables, “mix carefully two cups sifted flour with
. . . .” As if marriage were a form of sentimental cookery”. This mix of a man and a woman would
eventually come together and make something more delectable as a whole. Taking
this into account we can see that a relationship such as a man and a woman have
to mix together nicely, their personalities, their likes, their dislikes, fears
and a numerous of other things need to be taken into careful account when
deciding to mix. If not taken carefully we can up with something that is bitter
or distasteful or in the matter of marriage a divorce. Throughout his life he
seems to relate things with food such as, the way feels toward a woman, his
parent’s relationship, and just life in general. Yet he seems that instead of
his parent’s mixing together they were more melted together as such with a
melting pot, “the melting pot is supposed to inspire amity not love”. Although
they were not completely happy they stayed together because his mother liked
his father and that was enough to keep them together.
It seems as though life and relationships are a giant
cookbook or recipe, each needing its own ingredients and whether they mix or
melt together depends on the relationship. Mixing of two people seems the
better than having to melt with one, while mixing you can take each quality of
the person and create something more amazing. Melting together with someone can
still create something amazing, but whether or not in the end the two decide
melting was a right choice is something for that couple to figure out. Life is
a giant recipe that with the right ingredients can turn out to be something
amazing. Even though every now and then we might make something bitter with a
choice we make, we always have the chance to whip up something new.
I think it's interesting that you interpreted the author to be a man, when I got the sense that all along E.J. Levy (or the narrator, assuming they happen to be the same) was a woman coming to terms with her sexuality and the pressures put on her by the times (the 1970s). I got this sense from the sections (pg. 295) that deal with the writer's struggle with eating disorders (and those who suffer from those are generally female, especially those who are actively treated ) and discussions about being attracted to woman. That was where I felt clued into the sex and sexuality of the author, given the social context of the piece. Why would a man develop an eating disorder about being attracted to women? Why would the therapists exort so much effort in that conventional era to tell a man he was not "desirous of women"?
ReplyDeleteI think the line " I told her I thought this whole thing, my eating and all, was about desire, about being attracted to women. But she set me straight" (p. 296) slyly sets that status through word play. Personally, I really like use of the common phrase “set me straight” and the double entendre it holds when interpreted in this context.
Do you think the author doesn’t make this point clear enough, or if it even matters? I think it’s interesting to discuss if knowing the author’s sex/sexuality is critical for a fair interpretation of a piece.
I like that you mentioned specific dishes such as "Boeuf bourguignon, Bouillabaisse and Mousseline au chocolat" in your analysis because it's a technique that Levy uses to create a mood within her essay. By using specific names instead of saying "fancy French dishes", she effortlessly elicits a mood of elegance and class in reference to the food.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, I think it's important to point out that E.J. Levy is actually a woman, if only because it's significant that she struggles with the consequences of being attracted to women in her essay.
It's definitely important to keep note of an author's gender, especially when they are dealing with sexuality in an essay, but I also find it interesting that E.J. Levy has kept this open enough to interpretation to make the maleness or femaleness of her sexuality seem mute--as if she is not trying to represent the life of a certain gender, but some other kind of larger, more complicated, less categorized (mixed?) existence. This might be an attempt to let the reader better "enter into" the essay, or it might be a fault of the essay itself, or it might be both.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this seems to be hitting on that key point we discussed today: that we need as much of the author on the page to create connections between the author's experiences and identity. Although I don't think this essay is doing most of its work regarding sexuality or gender, it might be interesting to read it as a piece about the "mixing" of genders (male and female), mixing of sexuality--or the kind of "recipe" of experiences and interactions (family and otherwise) that inform our desires and gender roles. This is especially interesting considering that this essay is about the surface vs. what bubbles underneath, the final product vs. the ingredients that create it (or her).
I thought this story was very interesting because it was the author’s way of writing about one topic while really wanting to express her truths of another, more personal topic. The parts about her growing up and her mother relating well to Julia Child and her form of cooking was interesting, but what was even more interesting was the author’s own struggles with eating disorders and her sexuality. I really appreciated and enjoyed the two topics being intertwined and ultimately the realness that the author was not afraid to express with the readers.
ReplyDeleteI found the entire french cooking metaphor highly interesting. I believe you are right regarding the mixing of ingredients and equating that to a mixing of people but I feel that there is much more. The fact that the food is French is in itself interesting. French cuisine can be seen as a kind of exotic and fancy type of meal, special. I thought the importance placed upon the French fact was powerful as it gave a glance into the mindset of the mother. She wanted to strive and obtain something that was uncommon within her realm but was held back, possibly because se didn't have the right recipe?
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting in regard to the narrators sexuality. Again, French food being outside the common cuisine for the setting, a bit foreign and exotic, I found it an apt analogy in regard to the questionable sexuality of the narrator and their over eating. All in all I found this story to be quite well written and I had no idea that this sort of thing was done within the realm of Non-fiction. I am very impressed by this piece and will keep it firmly in mind as an example to follow as I move on in my own work.
I like that you began this post with your thoughts on what the piece was going to be about, and that the story initially took you off guard. I liked that you said that, because I felt the exact same way. Even before the movie came out, I knew a lot about Julia Child and her cookbook, so I also thought that this story would be one about the cookbook and maybe the author's reflection on Julia Child. But, like you, I found that this story was so much more than that, and how cooking showed so many different aspects of the author's life, on a surface level and on a deeply personal level.
ReplyDeleteI also like that you spend most of the latter half of your post talking about the author's observation on cooking, and how that relates to people coming together. I think cooking metaphors have been used to explain a lot of situations, though I had never heard of a metaphor of mixing vs. melting used before, and I appreciated that fresh approach.
The use of metaphors are constant throughout this piece. Cooking can provide so much more for people than just sustenance so it makes sense that cooking would be the central theme of the story. I liked how Justin brought up that relationships are like a cookbook and people should mix/melt. This metaphor is done very well and can relate to a big audience.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the story revolves around French cooking rather than other forms. French cooking is so rich in history and ingredients as well. I remember hearing that French cooking revolves around the chef as opposed to Italian food that revolves around the ingredients. Perhaps the use of French cuisine is saying something about the author?