The holidays are a time when most people celebrate the happy times in their life. Not surprisingly food plays a large part in the family psyche of most people from all walks of life. Recently a co-worker recounted how having gone to several family parties held by different family members there was a common theme that emerged, Grandma's rum cake. Each party was serving this hallowed dish and each time my co-worker went to sample some and each time was disappointed. It's funny, not really knowing this person's family, but hearing how important this one dish was to their gathering. It's unfortunate that even with all these people having the same recipe that none could exactly duplicate the original product but the truly emotional part to me is the idea that these people are all trying to create this sort of culinary homage to a woman who in her own way probably, hopefully, left mountains of happy memories that they would be able to feast upon throughout their life and maybe even share with their children and loved ones.
I too had a similar experience this holiday season upon visiting my great aunt Agnes. This woman is in her mid-80's and has been on oxygen for years, but that doesn't stop her from actively cooking. So around the holidays she makes any number of delicious baked goods. As I sat at her dining room table, which was covered from end to end with sweets, I listened to her and my mother speak in their mixture of French and English. She turned to me and said that I had to try the fudge. As I sat there holding my five month old daughter and eating just a great piece of fudge, she then turns to my mother and said that it was Memere's(French Canadian for grandmother) recipe. So this was the recipe from my mother's mother. She had passed away five years before and besides this great aunt and one other, all of her brothers and sisters had also passed away. The bittersweet that hit me as the sugary fudge dissolved on my tongue was that this was exactly as my Memere had made it and that one day this too would pass. I would give a lot to be able to make this fudge the same way. Being a professional chef you'd think it would be easy but often I let too much of my personality into my food. Still I will ask to learn this recipe and maybe years from now I too will go to a family gathering with my own version of Grandma's rum cake and maybe someone else will have a moment of happiness rekindled.
I too had a similar experience this holiday season upon visiting my great aunt Agnes. This woman is in her mid-80's and has been on oxygen for years, but that doesn't stop her from actively cooking. So around the holidays she makes any number of delicious baked goods. As I sat at her dining room table, which was covered from end to end with sweets, I listened to her and my mother speak in their mixture of French and English. She turned to me and said that I had to try the fudge. As I sat there holding my five month old daughter and eating just a great piece of fudge, she then turns to my mother and said that it was Memere's(French Canadian for grandmother) recipe. So this was the recipe from my mother's mother. She had passed away five years before and besides this great aunt and one other, all of her brothers and sisters had also passed away. The bittersweet that hit me as the sugary fudge dissolved on my tongue was that this was exactly as my Memere had made it and that one day this too would pass. I would give a lot to be able to make this fudge the same way. Being a professional chef you'd think it would be easy but often I let too much of my personality into my food. Still I will ask to learn this recipe and maybe years from now I too will go to a family gathering with my own version of Grandma's rum cake and maybe someone else will have a moment of happiness rekindled.
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