French Food and Fiction, Part Two

 Do you know why diets don't work? Neither do I. Diets don't fail, dieters do, so therefore if you don't like failure, for heaven's sake, don't go on a diet.

I credit my mother for my long and tiresome history with dieting, as it was she who would always start with the latest diet book. After she left this world and I had to close up her apartment, there on the night table, right beside her bed was Dr. Phil's book of strategies for weight loss. She would rail against the strictures of these programs, and then get in bed and say, "I have to read about what I get to eat tomorrow." From the eggs, steak and grapefruit of the sixties, to Weight Watchers, to Atkins, to South Beach, to Palm Beach, you name it, she was always game. Not being overweight, ever, and in possession of a healthy body and mind, she was nevertheless always after those elusive ten to fifteen pounds that seem to plague us all. At the same time, she entertained and churned out more meals for guests than I can possibly count. This extended to her family, children and grandchildren and we do not think of her without remembering all those wonderful dinners. As her mother came from a large Irish clan, the tradition of eating food in season and not being too extravagant in any one direction, came into play.

When I worked with Coldwater Creek, the idea of an employee cook book sprang to the mind of the H.R. director who wanted this to happen, but did not want to do it herself. Yours truly here volunteered to head up the project and a labor of love began. I decided that it would be great to celebrate our mother's and grandmother's cherished recipes and put their full names, place of birth and dates alongside those family treasures. Sharing this task with our counterparts  in West Virginia, we gathered a compilation of culinary wisdom entitled, Coldwater Creek Cooks. To this end, I managed to get the best pound cake recipe ever, originating from Kentucky and served with hot butter sauce with a touch of Bourbon. As my son was getting married that year, I thought it would be great to give my future daughter-in-law all the reference material possible from the culture of his maternal line. As my daughter headed off to college and moved from wretched dorm food, to her own apartment, she had her copy as well. How I delighted in those first calls for instruction in basic meals. I am so proud to say that both my children love good  food, eat well and share this bond with me.

Writers who love fine cuisine share a particular place in my heart. When The Pat Conroy Cookbook came out, I raced home with my copy, hot off the press and read it from cover to cover. Tasked with preparing the evening meal for his family when his wife decided to go to law school, he began the challenge in the way most writers do: he went straightaway to his favorite  book store. He picked up a copy of The Escoffier Cookbook and learned the basics of French cooking which always begin with homemade stock.

 My culinary history has a similar origin. As a young adult, living on my own in a stone house in the country, I came down with a nasty bout of pneumonia and moved back home to recover. My mother, working as an interior designer at the time, decided that if I was home all day, I could take on the responsibility of dinner.  In her collection of cookbooks, I found one published by our favorite restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida, called The Petite Marmite. The pictures were so beautiful, and inspiring, that I set out to recreate them. I had to start by making stocks which I have always believed are not only the essence of great dishes, but also of good health. In Conroy's book, he describes his time in Paris and also in Rome, the places where he dined after a hard day of writing The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides. He also peppers his chapters with tales of the region he knows so well: the low country of South Carolina. When Mireille Guiliano created French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, I knew I had found the ultimate book for me. Years ago, in Paris with my mother, we decided to uncover the secret we could see all around us, that being, French women ate the best food in the world and seemed much thinner than their North Americans counterparts. We thought we could just indulge to our heart's content and it would all somehow balance out. Wrong.

You cannot describe the physicality of a character in exact terms. It would read like a medical chart. Your reader will get a better picture by depicting what they eat, how much, how often and how important it is to them.  Do they eat to live, or are they more like me, a person who lives to eat. Are meals, described in terms of grabbing a bite, or set under an arbor in the garden and encompassing most of the afternoon? Is food a necessary chore, or an unbridled passion? Above all, what do they eat for lunch?

From The Pat Conroy Cookbook:

"I write of truffles in the Dordogne Valley in France, cilantro in Bangkok, catfish in Alabama, scuppernong in South Carolina, Chinese food from my years in San Francisco, and white asparagus from the first meal my agent, Julian Bach, took me to in New York City."