Ah the famous Madeleine de Proust, a French expression enormously used. If you thought it has always been a question of Madeleine, think again. Here is what could have replaced the madeleine.
Those French expression speaking of food is a lot used? Without hesitation The Madeleine de Proust. It is not uncommon to hear in the street or in the mouth of celebrities, that such a habit, such an odor or such a dish was his Madeleine de Proust.
If we tend to use it a little too much, to the point of wondering if the expression still makes sense, have you already asked yourself about its origin ? Because yes, each French expression originates from a book, a moment of history or a person.
A Madeleine to find On the side of Swann
Remember, in the book On the side of Swann, The first volume of the saga Looking for lost time, Marcel Proust describes a scene of life where his mother is preparing little madeleines to him. Served with hot tea, this pastry reminds him immediately the memory of his aunt Léonie.
The continuation after this advertisement
For lovers of literature, here is The extract in question : “And all of a sudden the memory appeared to me. This taste was that of the little piece of Madeleine that on Sunday morning, in Combray (because that day I did not go out before mass time), when I was going to say hello to him in his room, my aunt Léonie offered me after having soaked him in his tea or lime infusion.
The view of the little Madeleine had reminded me of anything before I had tasted it; Perhaps because, having often seen since, without eating, on the shelves of the pastry chefs, their image had left these days of Combray to bind to other more recent; Perhaps because these memories abandoned so long out of memory, nothing survived, everything had disintegrated; The forms – and that also of the small pastry shell, so sensual, under its severe and devotee – had abolished, or, sowed, had lost the expansion force which would have enabled them to join consciousness.
The continuation after this advertisement
But, when from an ancient past nothing remains, after the death of beings, after the destruction of things, only, more frail but more vivid, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and the flavor remain for a long time, like souls, to remember, to wait, to hope, on the ruin of everything else, to carry without flexing, on their almost intangible, the immense building.
Proust’s Biscotte
In an article published in The Parisian In 2015, The writer Jean-Paul Enthovenco -author of Dictionary in love with Marcel Proustreturned to this expression “La Madeleine de Proust”. He tells it then that The Madeleine was not the author’s first choice And could have been quite something else.
“Marcel, prudent, has not yet definitively chosen his little Madeleine” molded in the grooved valve of a scallop shell “. He hesitates, envisages various pastries, after having imagined a slice of” grilled bread “, He meditates around a “Biscotte”and we must wait again to finally see the Proustian cookie par excellence appear ”he explains.
The continuation after this advertisement
And yes, the famous Madeleine could have been a rusk. But would she have had the same success? Impossible to know it.
Read also:
Editor
I have been passionate about cooking since my childhood. Always in my grandmother’s legs when she was preparing her great hazelnut cakes and her apple pie, to observe my …
