There’s nothing like an adventure for stirring up an appetite. All that fresh air, exercise and adrenaline can leave one feeling ravenous. Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels are a case in point, with the four adventure-prone children (plus dog) always finding the time to have a picnic – with ‘lashings of ginger beer’ – even in the middle of high drama and tense action.
The romantic suspense novels of the author Mary Stewart (1916-2014) provide a parallel experience for adult readers. These books tend to follow a similar storyline: an independent young woman who is travelling in a foreign location stumbles upon some criminal activity. The heroine will show great strength of will and intelligence in being able to hold her own in the situation, and will often go some way towards resolving it. However, ultimately a man – a dark, brooding stranger – will come to the rescue. The heroine (and the reader) will initially think he is on the ‘wrong’ side, but in the end his true heroic nature will be revealed, allowing romantic resolution (as well as a satisfying denoument to the crime) at the end of the novel.
Lest this all sound a bit too much like a Mills and Boon novel, fear not. Stewart writes well and the novels are steeped in historical and literary references (Stewart graduated with a first-class degree in English Literature from Durham University in 1938, a time when women were very much in the minority as university students).
In terms of their literary ancestry Stewart’s novels can also be regarded as descendants of the gothic novel that was so popular in the late 18th century. Gothic novels are invariably set abroad (Catholic Italy, France and Spain were popular settings), frequently feature large ancient buildings (monasteries, castles etc) in which young women are held captive (in Stewart’s Airs Above the Ground there is a tense play-off near the end between the heroine and the arch-villain that takes place in an ancient castle) and as in Stewart’s novels there is often a dark, brooding male who turns out to be on the side of good at the end.
But unlike gothic novels, food plays a prominent role in Stewart’s books. The heroines have hearty appetites, and with the novels being set abroad, Stewart is able to display her knowledge of different European cuisines. With Stewart’s first novels being published in the 1950s, it’s interesting to speculate whether she was influenced by the work of Elizabeth David who did so much to bring Mediterranean cooking to the attention of the British (David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food was published in 1950).
Stewart’s first novel, Madam, will you talk? published in 1955 is a case in point. The novel is set in the South of France, in Provence, where Charity Selborne, a young widow, is on holiday with her friend Louise (who fortuitously spends much of the novel sketching, thereby leaving Charity to stumble upon adventures on her own). Charity is quickly caught up with a young boy who is holidaying with his stepmother, and whose father is rumoured to be a murderer – and insane to boot.
But it is the food we’re interested in, and that makes an appearance from the first chapter, with Stewart nonchalantly dropping French culinary terms into the narration. At dinner on the first night there is a choice between ‘cote d’agneau’ (lamb chop) or ‘escalope de veau’ (veal cutlet), accompanied by ‘petites pommes de terre sautes’ (small sauteed potatoes) and followed by ‘tarte maison’ (homemade pie).
As the novel progresses the descriptions get more elaborate. At one meal there is: ‘iced melon … brandade truffee, a delicious concoction of fish cooked with truffles … some small bird like a quail simmered in wine and served on a bed of green grapes… Then crepes Suzette and finally coffee and armagnac’. And at another: ‘red mullet, done somehow with lemon, and a succulent golden-brown fowl bursting with truffles and flanked by tiny peas, then a froth of ice and whipped cream dashed with kirsch…’ The choice of language – and the amount of detail – suggests not only the delight the heroine takes in consuming this food, but strongly implies Stewart herself has tasted such dishes and would love to be able to recreate them herself.
Whilst the dinners are elaborate and varied, there is also room in the novel for that old French stalwart – the croissant – which Charity frequently eats accompanied by coffee: ‘Over the coffee and croissants I looked round me’; ‘and then the waiter came with the coffee and croissants’; ‘I chuckled through a bite of croissant’.
With croissants being the classic French pastry (though their origin appears to be Austrian), I decided to make them for this blog. I was fortunate enough to actually learn how to make them in Paris, at the wonderful cookery school La Cuisine de Paris. However, the recipe is very long – and this post is already long enough – so I will stop here, save the recipe for my next post and tantalise you with a photo of the final product!
