Episode 101 - ABC Cafe Thanksgiving Madeleines

Wanna shock the people you visit this Thanksgiving. Bring a batch of Olivia's madeleines and before anyone wakes up on Friday morning put them on the breakfast table with the following note.

"This Thanksgiving I give thanks not for the madeleine itself but for Marcel Proust. Why Proust? Take a bite of a madeleine and enjoy it. After you swallow, read the following passage. Then take another bite of the madeleine. See if it was an even more pleasureable experience than came from your first bite. If it was then you'll know why you should give thanks for Proust. If not then just gobble up the rest of the madeleine and enjoy!

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 had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather thiass essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea. —Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

Comments

[Marc Osten]

Joumana - I am lucky indeed to have a daughter that shares in the pleasures of la cuisine!

As far as Proust, the words in English are remarkable but in French it is almost just too much to endure. When you take your pans out again please make sure to bake an extra batch for me. I'll straight over to pick them up.

[TasteofBeirut]

I remember this paragraph from Proust being read to us in high school (French) ; now I am indeed tempted to read it in French and enjoy every choice word he used. My!
How lucky to have a daughter who enjoys cooking and baking! This was a charming presentation and will make me grab some madeleine pans and give it a go!

[Michael Stein]

Fantastic, thanks, Olivia!