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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Colette Rossant's privileged childhood was marked by tragedy and dislocation. Her father, the Egyptian descendant of Sephardic Jews who eventually settled in Cairo, met her French mother in Paris, where he was the European buyer for his father's department store. He died in 1939 when Colette was only 7, and her mother then left her in Cairo with her grandparents. She returned three years later to enroll Colette in a convent school in the hope that her daughter would convert to Catholicism, much to the chagrin of her in-laws. Although Rossant's memoir of these wrenching events is often sad, it's leavened by a wonderfully sensuous evocation of Middle Eastern life in the 1930s and '40s, including recipes for the savory foods that nurtured her childhood: semits (soft pretzels with a sesame seed crust), ful medamas (a fava bean stew), and sambousek (a golden, cheese-filled pastry). The warmth of her grandparents and their Arab servants softened the impact of her thorny relationship with an often capricious mother, whose sharp edges Rossant does not sentimentalize, even in the chapter about her dying days. Returning to Cairo in 1997, the author realizes that, despite the absence of her mother during those crucial girlhood years, she had been blessed by "a city and a family that nurtured me and gave me a strong identity." --Wendy Smith
From Publishers Weekly
Reading this slim volume is like spending an afternoon in the kitchen with a beloved older relative. What could be better than hearing tales of an exotic past while preparing the foods that are at the core of the shared memories? Rossant, a cookbook author and columnist whose article on Egyptian cuisine in Saveur formed the basis of this poignant memoir, certainly had a colorful young life. Born in 1932 to affluent secular Jews, at age five she was taken from her maternal grandparents' Parisian home to live with her father's extended family in Cairo. Her father died soon afterward, but Rossant stayed safely with her grandparents, the Palaccis, throughout the war. Meanwhile, her singularly indifferent mother traveled about, sending her resentful "little pagan" to a Cairo convent boarding school after the war and then back to dreary postliberation Paris for matriculation in a lyc?e. Fittingly for someone who grew up to be a cookbook writer, Rossant's happiest memories from her childhood in Egypt center on food, from the baguette dipped in garlic and oil that she preferred to the French petit pain au chocolat, to the Ful Medamas (fava beans cooked with pickled turnips, onions and hot peppers) and Boiled Blue Crabs with Ginger Scallion Sauce prepared by the Palaccis' Arab cook, to the Tomato Salad (made with tarragon, chives, lemon juice and olive oil) that won her future husband's heart. Rossant indeed offers a tasty treat for both body and soul.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Colette Rossant's privileged childhood was marked by tragedy and dislocation. Her father, the Egyptian descendant of Sephardic Jews who eventually settled in Cairo, met her French mother in Paris, where he was the European buyer for his father's department store. He died in 1939 when Colette was only 7, and her mother then left her in Cairo with her grandparents. She returned three years later to enroll Colette in a convent school in the hope that her daughter would convert to Catholicism, much to the chagrin of her in-laws. Although Rossant's memoir of these wrenching events is often sad, it's leavened by a wonderfully sensuous evocation of Middle Eastern life in the 1930s and '40s, including recipes for the savory foods that nurtured her childhood: semits (soft pretzels with a sesame seed crust), ful medamas (a fava bean stew), and sambousek (a golden, cheese-filled pastry). The warmth of her grandparents and their Arab servants softened the impact of her thorny relationship with an often capricious mother, whose sharp edges Rossant does not sentimentalize, even in the chapter about her dying days. Returning to Cairo in 1997, the author realizes that, despite the absence of her mother during those crucial girlhood years, she had been blessed by "a city and a family that nurtured me and gave me a strong identity." --Wendy Smith
From Publishers Weekly
Reading this slim volume is like spending an afternoon in the kitchen with a beloved older relative. What could be better than hearing tales of an exotic past while preparing the foods that are at the core of the shared memories? Rossant, a cookbook author and columnist whose article on Egyptian cuisine in Saveur formed the basis of this poignant memoir, certainly had a colorful young life. Born in 1932 to affluent secular Jews, at age five she was taken from her maternal grandparents' Parisian home to live with her father's extended family in Cairo. Her father died soon afterward, but Rossant stayed safely with her grandparents, the Palaccis, throughout the war. Meanwhile, her singularly indifferent mother traveled about, sending her resentful "little pagan" to a Cairo convent boarding school after the war and then back to dreary postliberation Paris for matriculation in a lyc?e. Fittingly for someone who grew up to be a cookbook writer, Rossant's happiest memories from her childhood in Egypt center on food, from the baguette dipped in garlic and oil that she preferred to the French petit pain au chocolat, to the Ful Medamas (fava beans cooked with pickled turnips, onions and hot peppers) and Boiled Blue Crabs with Ginger Scallion Sauce prepared by the Palaccis' Arab cook, to the Tomato Salad (made with tarragon, chives, lemon juice and olive oil) that won her future husband's heart. Rossant indeed offers a tasty treat for both body and soul.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Citations
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2
books
cite this book:
- Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris in Back Matter
- Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics (Thamyris 13) (Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex & Race) by Marie-Aude Baronian on page 32
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