On Culinary Writing: Revisiting M.F.K. Fisher
by Betina Mariante Cardoso
Click here for Portuguese, translated and adapted from the Portuguese by Jonell Galloway
Reading M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) far surpasses the literary pleasure of her pure, lucid writing: it brings me deep, personal enrichment. What is my favorite book by M.F.K. Fisher? It’s so difficult to choose, but reading The Gastronomical Me had a phenomenal transformative power on me.
Despite the fact that Mary Frances explores her own stories and subjective perspectives on them, we come to realize that each of us, for whom the culinary act is precious, could occupy the identity of this ‘Gastronomical Me’; actually, each of us, Humans, could occupy this identity, because themes as ‘eating’ and ‘hunger’- subjects she meets head on- reflect our deepest Human Being: these actions or conditions correspond to the deepest of what humans feel and share.
Fisher lets us put ourselves into her place in the stories, told from her point of view, so that we can step in and experience what she has lived. We take on a role in the story. We move through it in the first person, we discover tastes through her words. This ability lends great power to her writing, in particular through the use of the first-person singular. Being able to read ourselves through her sensations, perceptions and life events is to accept that she conducts us in a travel to our own narratives. Hence, an autobiographical promenade. And I ask you: isn´t cooking also an autobiography, a storytelling about ourselves?
So there are various points of enlightment in this book, which awakens the reader to reflection. I got surprised just from the beginning, in the very opening of the work: “To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.”―George Santayana
As I flipped through this book, I noted several chapters with the same name, written on different dates, and interwoven with different texts. “The Measure of My Powers“ is repeated several times, bringing to light and interweaving different passages of Santayana; repeating sometimes to the point of using a specific title, however giving it a different twist, such as in the tone of “The Gastronomical Me.” As I go through the pages, I feel the incredible depth, as if the author were telling her culinary stories, but also her discoveries and reflections. And as if, in each chapter entitled “The Measure of My Powers,” she referred back to the initial period, recounting her quest for so-called “happiness.” “To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers,” says the passage, and Mary Frances attempts to retrieve a certain order in terms of the chapter titles, as her answer to the point ‘to be happy…’ This search seems to be the axis of her subjective writing.
Though the strength here appears more in tune with “to be happy,” we read between the lines an even deeper quest: a quest for her identity, for her own forces and potential, for facets of herself that she translates through her relation to the universe of eating and cooking. I my opinion, it is in this very aspect that the “I,” the first person singular, becomes plural: “we”; it is in this aspect that the book title ‘The Gastronomical Me’ is directed to a ‘plural’ of individuals who identify themselves with the sensations, experiences and feelings written by the author. Individuals from all parts of the world. It is in this aspect that she lends her own name, “me,” to the reader, also lending her five senses so that we too can experience, through words, all the tastes, aromas, textures, sounds, flavors, and colors of her scenes. And it is possible to go beyond this understanding: writing about the dimension of her powers, or while expressing emotions and memories in these texts, Mary Frances not only lends us her hunger, she shares it with us, her readers. Hunger that we, Humans, feel.
Hunger?
That’s the keyword of the renowned introduction to this book, in which she explains why one should write about food, and not about the fight for power or security or about love or war. “The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry”, she answers. In addition, when she writes with great mastery about hunger, in truth she is “writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it, and the hunger for it”. “I tell about myself (…), and it happens without my willing it that I´m telling too about the people with me then, and their other deeper needs for love and happiness.”
Being food an essential part of our lives, as well as emotions and perceptions arising from our senses, each individual is somehow present in this author´s writing: her experiences coincide with our own memories. We have our humanity in common, and, as she says, our hunger. For moments, we feel ‘characters’of her writing; at other times, we feel The Gastronomical Me that writes the stories. The hunger is the same.
And then the beauty of the last paragraph of the foreword is the sharing of her emotions with those of the reader: “There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
Be it seeing her grandmother making jam, be it sharing a meal with her sister and her father, be it looking at a menu attentively and choosing her desire for the first time: in every story Mary Frances tells, there is something of ourselves. Because, if emotions are so diverse in our subjectivity, there is a point in common, as human beings, that that makes us “co-authors” of these texts: we eat, we feel tastes (or fail to); we are hungry, we prepare food, we feel pleasure ( ‘on’ or ‘off’) .. Any time or geographic location, food and emotions wake us up or put us to sleep, satisfy us or empty us, nourish us or destroy us. Come what may, food and emotions respond to our primordial need: hunger, the one Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher puts into words with such a depth.
It is about each one of us she is talking, when she writes a text titled “The Measure of my powers”. You may not want to cook, nor want to write on food or on the culinary act; nevertheless, reading this book is a firm and pleasant pace to mindful eating. And for sure it is also a firm pace to our way into the consciousness of our hunger for love, for affection, for safety, for happiness.
My reading? Our search is, over the long run, for the “measure of our powers,” and for the satiation of our hunger, the more we get to know ourselves. Reading or cooking, we discover passages related to our own subjective way of being, we experiment with our own five senses and feelings. We are all there, reflected in the seasoning as well as in the words. What do we need then? Only our hunger for self-awareness…
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MY TRANSLATION IN DRAFT FORM
Reading M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) far surpasses the literary pleasure of her pure, lucid writing: it brings me deep, personal enrichment. What is my favorite book by M.F.K. Fisher? It’s so difficult to choose, but if I go back through the many lines, The Gastronomical Me was a phenomenal transformative power.
Yes, the title may seem lightweight, but there is great power and symbolism in its purposefulness. Despite the fact that Mary Frances explores her own stories and subjective perspectives on them, we come to realize that each of us could, through our own precious culinary experiences, take on the identity of The Gastronomical Me. Any of us could step right in to the identity of eating and hunger, subjects she also meets head on, because these actions or conditions correspond to the deepest of what humans feel and share.
Fisher lets us put ourselves into her place in the stories, told from her point of view, so that we can step in and experience what she has lived. We take on a role in the story. We move through it in the first person, we discover tastes for ourselves. This ability lends great power to her writing, in particular through the use of the first-person singular. We must let ourselves go and read with our senses, perceptions, changeability, and acceptance as the author leads us through her own narrative. It’s an autobiographical stroll of sorts. And you ask yourself: cookbook, hardly, and autobiography, yes, but also a story about yourself?
Sweet and sour tomato dip, recipe by Betina Mariante Cardoso
So, let’s look at the various focal points in this work, without forewarning, without getting overly excited, and without reading and taking time to reflect upon it. This surprising discussion, to which we’ve already opened the door, is:
“To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.”―George Santayana
As I flipped through this book, I noted several chapters with the same name, written on different dates, and interwoven with different texts. “The Measure of My Powers“ is repeated several times, bringing to light and interweaving different passages of Santayana; repeating sometimes to the point of using a specific title, however giving it a different twist, such as in the tone of “The Gastronomical Me.” As I go through the pages, I feel the incredible depth, as if the author were telling her culinary stories, but also her discoveries and reflections. And as if, in each chapter entitled “The Measure of My Powers,” she referred back to the initial period, recounting her quest for so-called “happiness.” “To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers,” in the passage where Mary Frances attempts to retrieve a certain order in terms of the chapter titles, trying hard to continue pursuing the common thread of her very subjective writing.
Though the keynote here appears more in tune with to not “be happy,” if we read between the lines, the quest goes even deeper: a quest for her identity, for her own forces and potential, for facets of herself that she translates through her relation to the universe of eating and cooking. In this aspect, the “I,” the first person singular, becomes plural: “we.” The Gastronomical Me in fact addresses a plurality of subjects: sensations, existence, feelings that Fisher writes about. Subjects that are universal. And so she chooses to lend her own name, “me,” to the reader, also lending her own meaning so that we too can experience, through words, all the tastes, aromas, textures, sounds, flavors, and colors of her meals. And if possible, to go beyond this simple understanding, and to approach the the outer boundaries of meaning with all your strength and express your emotions and memories not in line with the words you read, since the author hardly gives it true form, writing more to share her knowledge with her readers, and hungry that we, as human beings, feel.
Hungry?
That’s the keyword of the renowned introduction to this book, in which she explains why one should write about food, and not about the fight for power or security or about love or war. “When we exist without thought or thanksgiving we are not men, but beasts.” In addition, when she writes with great mastery about hunger, in truth she is writing about love and the hunger for it, about warmth and the love of it, and the hunger for them.“So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.” Betina: your sentence is this? The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.
- Brazilian coconut candy, traditional and full of flavor
Being and eating are essential parts of life for all human beings, but the emotions and perceptions arising out of feelings are unique to each person, and each and everyone is present in the author’s writing. Our experiences coincide with our own fond memories. We have our humanity in common, as she says, and we are hungry. For a brief moment, in the character-driven feelings of her writing; at other times, in the feelings in The Gastronomical Me that writes the stories. Healthy hunger is the same.
Sendo o alimento parte essencial da vida de todos nós, bem como as emoções e percepções através dos sentidos, cada indivíduo está presente no texto desta autora; suas experiências coincidem com as nossas próprias lembranças. Temos em comum a humanidade e, como ela refere, a ‘fome’. Por instantes, nos sentimos personagens de sua autoria; noutras vezes, nos sentimos o ‘Eu Gastronômico’ que escreve as histórias. As fomes são as mesmas.
And now, the beauty of the last paragraph is the dividing point of her emotions with those of the reader: “There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me; why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
- Partilha do meu pão de salame e
funcho, no primeiro dia de 2013…
Seja ao ver sua avó fazendo geléias, seja ao partilhar uma refeição com sua irmã e seu pai, seja ao olhar com atenção um cardápio e escolher seu desejo, pela primeira vez: em cada história contada, há algo de nós. Porque, se as emoções são tão diversas em nossa subjetividade, há um ponto em comum em nós, humanos, e que nos torna co-autores destes textos: comemos, sentimos o sabor (ou a falta dele), temos fome, preparamos o alimento, sentimos prazer(aceso ou apagado)…Em qualquer tempo e geografia, comida e emoção nos despertam ou adormecem, nos satisfazem ou nos incompletam, nos nutrem ou nos destroem; seja como for, comida e emoção respondem à nossa necessidade primordial, a fome. Esta, de que Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher fala com tanta profundidade.
Be it to see your grandmother making jam, be it sharing a meal with your sister our your father, be it looking at a menu attentively and choosing for the first time. In every story we tell, there is something of ourselves. Because our emotions are so diverse and subjective, yet we have a point in common, as human beings, and that makes us “co-authors” of these texts: we eat, feel or taste (or fail to); we are hungry, we cook or eat; we feel pleasure, we extinguish our hunger or get it excited)… Any time or geographic location, food and emotions wake us up or put us to sleep, satisfy us or leave us wanting, nourish us or destroy us. Come what may, eating and feeling respond to our primordial need: hunger, which Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher puts into words with such a depth.
“A dimensão de minhas forças.” You may not desire to cook, nor desire to write about cooking or culinary matters; nevertheless, but reading this work at a steady pace leads to a more conscious form of eating. And this path of consciousness also makes us aware of our hunger for love, for affection, for safety, for happiness.
É de cada um de nós que a autora conta, quando escreve um texto que intitula: ‘A dimensão de minhas forças’. Você pode não desejar cozinhar, nem desejar escrever sobre a comida ou sobre o ato culinário; entretanto, a leitura desta obra é um passo firme, e prazeroso, na trajetória do comer consciente. E, com certeza, também na trajetória da conscientização de nossa fome pelo amor, pelo afeto, pela segurança, pela felicidade.
- Bolo para celebrar o amor!
“To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.” Santayana
[Para ser feliz, você deve ter conhecido a dimensão de suas forças, experimentado as frutas de sua paixão e aprendido qual é seu lugar no mundo]- Santayana
The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry”
“A resposta mais fácil é dizer que, como a maioria dos Humanos, eu sinto fome“.
“I tell about myself (…), and it happens without my willing itthat I am telling too about the people with me then, and their other deeper needs for love and happiness”
”Conto sobre mim mesma (…), e acontece, sem que eu queira, que estou contando também sobre aqueles que estão comigo, e sobre sua necessidade mais profunda pelo amor e pela felicidade.”
“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me; why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
Há uma comunhão para além dos nossos corpos, quando o pão é partido e o vinho é bebido. E esta é minha resposta, quando as pessoas me perguntam: ‘por que você escreve sobre fome, e não sobre guerras ou amor?‘”
My reading? My quest, and, over the long run, for the “dimension of our forces,” and for the satiation of our hunger, especially we learn how to know each other and ourselves. Reading or cooking, we discover passages related to our own subjective way of being, we experiment with our own feelings and sentiments. We are all there, reflected in the seasoning as well as in the words. We put an end to our hunger; we replace it with awareness.
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Sobre Betina Mariante Cardoso
Sou Betina Mariante Cardoso, brasileira, trinta e poucos anos. Nasci e moro em Porto Alegre, no Sul do Brasil, cidade que amo de coração e onde vivencio o apego, o calor da família e a constância, virtudes necessárias na minha vida. Paradoxo, tenho encantos por viajar, romper a linearidade rotineira, esquecer o mapa no hotel e perder-me pelas ruas dos lugares que visito. Por quê? Para ter a chance de conhecer aquela confeitaria antiga na rua lateral, coisa que só o acaso permite. Tenho uma ligação forte com o conforto do cotidiano mas, quando me torno viajante, parto em busca das descobertas, do desconhecido. É quando me entrego à Serendipity que as viagens propiciam. E é com este mesmo estado anímico que venho para a cozinha: trazendo comigo a aventura, a curiosidade, o ímpeto pelo novo. Gosto de criar minhas receitas, mas sou também fã dos cadernos culinários, escritos à mão e com manchas de vida em suas páginas. Outro paradoxo. 
Agradam-me os livros, as revistas, os blogs de forno-e-fogão. E tenho verdadeiro encanto pelas ‘Histórias do como-se-faz’, as narrativas orais que transmitem o conhecimento empírico, prático e caseiro, de geração a geração. Escutar uma história de cozinha é, para mim, uma riqueza única, porque faz parte de uma conversa, de uma partilha entre as pessoas. Sou médica psiquiatra e psicoterapeuta, profissão que exerço com amor e dedicação, e que dispara meu olhar para o subjetivo de nossas entrelinhas. Minha segunda atividade profissional é como proprietária de uma pequena editora, a Casa Editorial Luminara, ligação entre trabalho e espaço de liberdade.
No tempo livre, meu hobby principal é a culinária, desde a infância. Hoje, com a descoberta da ‘food writing‘, realizar a escrita culinária é, para mim, uma prática tão lúdica quanto cozinhar. Realizo algo que chamo de ‘cozinha perceptiva’. Nesta, escrita e a fotografia são ferramentas, pois ampliam a percepção e a descrição dos detalhes do ato culinário, ampliando também a exploração sensorial e a atenção ao presente, com benefícios para o autoconhecimento. Escrever, curiosar, ler, fazer colagens, blogar, viajar e fotografar são também experiências prazerosas para mim, com altas doses de felicidade.
Espero você nos próximos textos!
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We’re three too — my daughter Emma, husband Tommy and I. I’ve been lured in by that number again and again in life and in food. My sisters Joanna, Ellie and I. My Dad’s writing, Mom’s cooking and me at the point of the triangle, borrowing from both. Young Emma’s PBJ sandwich cut point to point into triangle halves, so pleasing on the plate. Or in my catering days, a cluster of canapés waiting patiently on my cater-waiter’s tray, ready to be served. Those three points of bread work in tandem with three primary ingredients. Like bread and flinty ham topped with mustard sprouts, the bread showing at the edges to express itself just a bit. Or a swirl of gravlax with crème fraîche, a dill sprig propped on top.
